NASCAR preview: Lenox Industrial Tools 301
Because the Chase for the Championship begins at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in late September, most drivers consider that the race for the Chase truly begins this week at NMHS in Loudon with the Lenox Industrial Tools 301.
Sunday’s race is the first of 10 races before the Chase field is set for the season-ending 10-race title run.
“The first race of the Chase is [at New Hampshire], and that’s a confidence boost when you return as the track’s previous race winner,” said Jeff Gordon, who is 84 points behind points leader Tony Stewart.
Gordon has fared incredibly well at this track with three wins, 12 top-fives and 15 top-10 finishes, and he is the WagerWeb.com favorite this week. Gordon has just one win this year (at Texas) but has eight top-fives — tied with Stewart for tops among all drivers — and 11 top-10s.
Stewart has two wins at New Hampshire and if he can pull another off on Sunday will be the first owner/driver to have multiple wins in a season since 1997, when Ricky Rudd had two wins.
Kasey Kahne currently is the odd man out of the Chase, standing 13th, three points out of the final Chase berth. He is coming off a win at Sonoma last week. However, he has never won at NHMS and doesn’t have a career average finish better than 13th at any of the 10 remaining regular-season tracks.
Kurt Busch won last year’s race at the Magic Mile and has three wins there – including both races in 2004 when he won the points title. He could use some good fortune as he has just one top-five in his last eight races. But he remains a solid fourth in the points standings – the only Dodge in the top 12.
In six starts at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Denny Hamlin’s worst finish is 15, which is his only finish outside the top 10. He won here in 2007.
Jeff Burton tops the all-time win list at New Hampshire with four Cup victories, though none have come since Sept. 2000.
There have been 18 different winners over 28 Sprint Cup Series events at NHMS since 1993. Busch, Gordon, Burton, Stewart, Jimmie Johnson and Ryan Newman are multiple winners at the track. Johnson, the three-time Sprint Cup champion, is the only other driver besides Busch to sweep both events in a season at New Hampshire, completing the feat in 2003.
Four 2008 Chase drivers are outside the top 12: Jeff Burton (15th), Clint Bowyer (16th), Dale Earnhardt Jr. (20th) and Kevin Harvick (25th).
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