LOUDON, N.H. — The second round of the Cup playoffs begins today at New Hampshire Motor Speedway and there’s much intrigue with today’s race.
Coverage begins at 1:30 p.m. ET on USA Network.
Here’s a look at what to watch for in today’s race:
Will this be Joey Logano’s day?
Logano was significantly faster than Ross Chastain and defending race winner Christopher Bell at a July tire test at New Hampshire. That speed carried over to qualifying Saturday with Logano winning the pole.
The shorter flat tracks have been Team Penske’s speciality. so to see Logano on the pole, teammate Ryan Blaney second and Josh Berry, in an an alliance car, third is not surprising. Can Logano or Team Penske carry that success over to today’s race?
Joey Logano will be joined on the front row by Team Penske teammate Ryan Blaney.
“When I look at Loudon on the schedule, I feel like it’s one of those racetracks that’s in our wheelhouse – flat 1-mile type tracks seems like it’s a Team Penske kind of thing,” Logano said. “Hopefully, we can translate this pole into a win because that’s what really matters.”
A win would move Logano into the next round and avoid repeating last year’s second-round scenario. He was briefly eliminated from last year’s playoffs until Alex Bowman’s car failed inspection and was disqualified after the Roval cut-off race, allowing Logano to move on to the third round.
Can the Hendrick cars challenge for the win?
Hendrick Motorsports has not won at New Hampshire since July 2012 with Kasey Kahne.
Only one of Hendrick’s three playoff drivers qualified in the top 10 Saturday. William Byron, coming off a mediocre first round, qualified fifth. Kyle Larson will start 16th and Chase Elliott will start 27th.
Chase Elliott tells SiriusXM NASCAR Radio that after surviving the first round, “there’s nothing to lose for us at this point.”
Elliott has not qualified better than 16th in the playoffs.
“Just grind it out, man,” Elliott said of his gameplan today. “Try to keep the right rear tire on it and make the most of whatever it is. We’ll fight to the death.”
Larson, who is tied with Byron for second in the playoff standings, said he likes what his team has been doing in recent weeks, despite Saturday’s qualifying result.
“I feel like we are really close and capable of getting back to form,” Larson said. “There’s times throughout weekends and races where it might not show up on TV or show up on the results, (but) I feel like we’re good.”
Is New Hampshire still Joe Gibbs Racing’s playground?
Joe Gibbs Racing has been the dominant team in the playoffs, sweeping the three races in the first round.
With the second round beginning at New Hampshire — where JGR has had at least one car finish in the top 2 in the last 13 races — it was building to be another race where Joe Gibbs Racing would rule.
The “Magic Mile” returns to the playoffs in NASCAR’s premier series.
But only one JGR car qualified in the top 10. Points leader Denny Hamlin will start ninth. JGR’s other playoff drivers are 18th (Chase Briscoe) and 19th (Christopher Bell).
The No. 19 car that Briscoe is in this year has been spectacular in recent years at New Hampshire with crew chief James Small and Martin Truex Jr. In their three races together with the Next Gen car, they combined to win once and finish in the top 10 all three times at this track. Truex led nearly half of the laps in those three races combined.
The challenge for Small will be to help Briscoe get to the front today.
“It’s going to be incredibly difficult to make your way from 18th up to the front just passing,” Small told NBC Sports. “If we can get our car good enough on the long run, maybe it’s possible, especially if (the track) widens out a lot. I think it’s going to come down to strategy, green-flag cycles and things like that.
“Definitely one of the most difficult tracks to pass at. Granted, we’ve lost track position here before and been able to work our way back through. We had exceptionally good cars on those days, so we kind of know what we need to do to make the car good in traffic.”
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