The NASCAR Xfinity Series will be heading to New Hampshire Motor Speedway for the Crayon 200 on Saturday, July 16 at 2:30 p.m. ET on USA Network, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR radio for the 18th race of the 26-race regular season.
New Hampshire Motor Speedway will be hosting its 35th NASCAR Xfinity Series race this weekend. The previous 34 races have produced 19 pole winners and 26 race winners. Nine races have been won from the pole or first starting position, most recently by NASCAR Cup Series star Kyle Busch in 2017.
Fans have seen Cup Series regular Christopher Bell take the Xfinity win at New Hampshire the last three consecutive races (2018, 2019 and 2021), but to no one’s surprise, it’s veterans Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick that hold the most records at the New England track. Busch currently sits as the winningest driver with six victories, has led the most laps (740), set the race record in 2009 at 111.925 mph and the qualifying record in 2013 at 131.916 mph, while Harvick has had the most lead lap finishes (11) and most top 10s (11). Both drivers are tied for most top fives at nine.
Among the drivers entered this weekend, none have previously won at the 1.058-mile track, guaranteeing the fans will see a first-time New Hampshire Motor Speedway Xfinity Series winner.
The Xfinity Series will kick off its weekend with practice at 5:05 p.m. ET followed by qualifying at 5:35 p.m. ET on USA Network and streamed on the NBC Sports app.
RCR’s rookie Austin Hill gets second win of 2022, sets focus on Playoffs
One driver feeling red hot coming out of Atlanta last weekend was Richard Childress Racing’s Austin Hill, who grabbed his second win of his NASCAR Xfinity Series rookie season (Daytona, Atlanta) and now has set his sights on the Playoffs as just the sixth driver this season with multiple wins. Hill also leads the Sunoco Rookie of the Year standings and currently is the only rookie with a win this season and a postseason berth.
Hill stepped up his skills this season behind the wheel of the No. 21 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet. In 17 series starts, he has put up two wins, eight top fives and 10 top 10s. Hill has also accumulated 11 Playoff points.
Looking ahead to New Hampshire, Hill will be making his series track debut at the 1.058-mile track. But he does have two starts at New Hampshire in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series with a best finish of 22nd.
JR Motorsports stable looks strong for the Magic Mile
Although there is not a NASCAR Xfinity Series driver entered in this weekend’s Crayon 250 that has won at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, JR Motorsports might have a good shot of sending one of their drivers to Victory Lane on Saturday.
Justin Allgaier seems to be making his way up the ladder one year at a time in New Hampshire. Although it was Bell that took home the victory last season, Allgaier wasn’t too far behind and pulled off a runner-up finish. In 2019 (there was no 2020 race due to the pandemic), Bell once again took the win and Allgaier finished in third after Cole Custer. In his 10 starts at the one-mile track, he’s posted two top fives and seven top 10s and he’s proven his skills with other one-mile tracks this season, posting a 10th-place finish at Phoenix.
Teammate Josh Berry has only one start at New Hampshire (top-10 finish in 2021), but he’s no rookie when it comes to one-mile tracks. He took home the checkered flag earlier this season at the Monster Mile in Dover and finished in the third position at Phoenix. Berry has been on his A-game this season, posting two wins, five top fives and seven top 10s in the last eight races so it’s just a matter a time before fans see him in Victory Lane once again.
Noah Gragson also isn’t too shabby on one-mile tracks. He has two starts at New Hampshire Motor Speedway posting one top-10 finish. Earlier this season, he was victorious at Phoenix’s one-mile track and finished in the top-five at Dover, a track where he’s posted two top fives and five top 10s in his seven starts.
Playoff crunch time in New England
With only nine races left in the 2022 NASCAR Xfinity Series regular season, time is of the essence for competitors vying for a spot in the 12-driver Playoff field as yet another repeat winner found himself in Victory Lane last weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
All but one of our 2022 Xfinity winners have secured multiple wins this season – Ty Gibbs (four), AJ Allmendinger (two), Justin Allgaier (two), Noah Gragson (two), Josh Berry (two), Austin Hill (two) and Brandon Jones (one).
Of the remaining drivers currently above the Playoff cutline, a few have come close to a win this season to clinch their spot.
JR Motorsports’ Sam Mayer, currently in the eighth position in the standings, has posted eight top fives and nine top 10s in his 17 starts this season. His best finish this season has been third three times (Richmond, Texas and Charlotte) and he has posted a fifth-place finish at Dover’s one-mile track.
Right behind Mayer in the ninth position sits Riley Herbst who has been pretty consistent, posting top-10 finishes in all but five races this season. He’s had one start in New Hampshire and finished in 10th last season.
Sliding into the 10th place position in the series driver standings is last season’s champ, Daniel Hemric, who has had an up-and-down season thus far, but ran well at New Hampshire Motor Speedway last season putting up a third-place finish. Earlier this year, he had a top-10 finish on a similar sized one-mile track at Phoenix.
In the final two slots inside the postseason cutline are RSS Racing’s Ryan Sieg in 11th (+81 points) and Kaulig Racing’s Landon Cassill (+80 points) who are separated by a mere point.
Our Motorsports’ driver Anthony Alfredo is currently ranked 13th in the Playoff outlook following Atlanta, 80 points back from Cassill in the final postseason transfer spot.
Of the drivers below the Playoff cutline heading into this weekend at New Hampshire, Myatt Snider (7.0) has the best average finish at the 1.058-mile track, followed by Brett Moffitt (9.0), Jeb Burton (11.0), Brandon Brown (16.5) and Jeremy Clements (18.0). Alfredo and Sheldon Creed will be making the series track debuts this weekend.
