NSCS: Bad Boy Off Road 300 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway Preview

The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series strolls into the New Hampshire Motor Speedway for the Bad Boy Off Road 300. The race will mark the second stop of the season for the Sprint Cup Series at the 1.058-mile oval. It will also mark the second race of the playoffs. Matt Kenseth enters the weekend as the defending race winner.

The entry list features 40 drivers. Some of these include Josh Wise, Jeffrey Earnhardt, Reed Sorenson, Alex Bowman and Michael McDowell. No drivers will go home after qualifying as 40 are on the weekend entry list.

Martin Truex Jr. enters the second race of the Chase with momentum following his win last weekend in the playoff opener at Chicagoland Speedway. Truex, even though they did not pass post-race inspection last weekend, will still advance automatically into the next round of 12 drivers.

“We’re going to New Hampshire with the same attitude and confidence that we had in the first 27 races,” said Truex in a release. “There’s a Truex family fondness for the track with my dad (Martin Truex Sr.), brother (Ryan) and myself winning races there, but never in the Sprint Cup Series. Our Furniture Row/Denver Mattress Toyota had a great run at New Hampshire in July. We led the second most laps (123) and were running second when the shifter broke.”

Truex enters New Hampshire with three victories, six top five and 13 top 10 finishes through the first 27 races. The New Jersey native will make his 397th career Sprint Cup Series start.

Joey Logano will enter the weekend with momentum after leaving Chicagoland Speedway in the runner-up position. Logano, a former race winner at Loudon, led only one lap last weekend in his No. 22 Shell/Penzoil Ford.

“I just approach it the same way I would any other race. If you didn’t have a good race last week, then the pressure is added – no doubt,” said Logano during a press conference. “But we finished second last week and scored some good points.  We talk about this round as being base hits and don’t have to do anything crazy. We did that exactly last week, so we’ll just come up here and do the same exact thing. If something happens, something happens and we’ll approach Dover in a different way, but, right now, let’s go out here and if we can win the race, let’s win the race.  If not, let’s try to top-5 it and that will give us a good sense of security heading into Dover. It’s one race at a time, one step at a time. For us personally, the 22 team had a good weekend last week. The pressure is probably the same as what it was in Chicago.  We just have to do what we know how to do.”

Logano holds two victories, six top five and eight top 10 finishes at New Hampshire through 16 starts. He holds one victory, 11 top five and 19 top 10 finishes through 27 Sprint Cup Series events this year.

Jimmie Johnson led the most laps of any Chase driver last weekend until being popped with a speeding penalty. Johnson showed the way by leading 118 of 270 laps of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 400.

“No words can describe the disappointment I have for what happened in Chicago with the pit road speeding penalty. All you can do is let it soak in and come back next week and be at 100 percent again and get ready to take this Lowe’s car to Victory Lane. We had a lot of speed at New Hampshire last time out and we know what we need to do when we get there.”

Johnson holds two victories, seven top five and 10 top 10 finishes through the 27 races this year. The 40-year old driver holds three wins at the 1.058-mile New Hampshire Motor Speedway through 29 starts. He started on the pole there earlier this year and went on to finish 12th.

The Bad Boy Off Road 300 will air live on NBCSN at 2:00 p.m. ET. on Sunday. Radio coverage of the event will be provided by the Performance Racing Network and SiriusXM Channel 90.

Brett Winningham
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