2023 Crayon 301 Preview
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The NASCAR Cup Series regular season continues this weekend in New England at “The Magic Mile,” New Hampshire Motor Speedway. The fight for the last couple of playoff spots is heating up as 15th to 19th in the standings are only separated by 26 points with seven races left before the postseason starts at Darlington. This battle will make every race from here on out crucial and for this upcoming race, here are some drivers that I believe have the best chance of holding up a lobster in victory lane on Sunday.
According to NASCAR’s website, Christopher Bell has the best odds of winning at New Hampshire and I could not agree more. Bell has run three races at Loudon in the Xfinity Series and he has won all of them and in his two Cup Series starts at the track for Joe Gibbs Racing, he finished second in 2021 and he won the race last year. If darkness did not end the race early by a few laps in 2021, Bell could have definitely run down Aric Almirola to win that race too. On top of that, Bell claimed the pole in qualifying earlier today so as long as Bell stays out of trouble, he should be in position to win right from the drop of the green flag.
Bell’s teammate Martin Truex Jr also has a great shot at winning his third points race of the season since he led 172 laps during last year’s race, more than half of the entire event. Truex also put up that performance in a season that saw him go winless and now he has recaptured his race-winning speed with crew chief James Small. Truex won the pole for this race in 2022 and he will be starting right beside Bell on the front row tomorrow afternoon so these two drivers should be seen as the clear top two favorites for the victory.
My next driver that I am highlighting has the best average finish in the Cup Series coming into this weekend’s race, Kyle Busch. Busch has an 11.2 mark, barely beating out points leader William Byron’s 11.4 as Byron has built up his points lead by earning 95 more stage points than Busch. Nevertheless, I think Busch has a better chance at winning at New Hampshire than Byron because Busch is a three time winner at the track and he also has a top 10 streak going on currently which he will try to extend to eight straight races. Even though Richard Childress Racing was mediocre at New Hampshire last season and even thought Busch might be going to a backup car after his crash in the final round of qualifying, I am still confident in the #8 team’s momentum that they are bringing into Sunday.
Bubba Wallace is another Toyota driver who had a solid run at last year’s running at New Hampshire, finishing third when it was all said and done. Wallace and his teammate Tyler Reddick both made the final round of qualifying and Wallace will start eighth while Reddick managed to put up a slightly quicker lap so he will start sixth. 23XI Racing is still looking for their second win of the season as the only one was Reddick’s win at COTA back in March and I think that New Hampshire could be the place where this team claims the checkered flag once again.
For most races this season, Stewart-Haas Racing has been a disappointment but on short tracks, they have shown some speed this year, especially at Martinsville back in April. New Hampshire is a similar track to Martinsville as they are both tracks with no banking so I think there is a chance some Stewart-Haas cars will have some solid runs. Aric Almirola followed up his pole at Atlanta last weekend with a third place effort this weekend and I mentioned earlier that he won at Loudon back in 2021. Therefore, I believe he could be within reach of victory late in Sunday’s race, battling with other contenders like Bell and Truex.
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Kevin Harvick will start 13th tomorrow and he is a four time winner at the track so he knows how to get it done at the Magic Mile. Last year, Harvick also finished fifth in a Next Gen car so even during Stewart-Haas’s decline in performance recently, Harvick is still putting up respectable numbers on pretty much every type of track, including short, flat tracks like New Hampshire.
Ryan Preece’s specialty has always been running well on the short tracks since he got his start in Modifieds around the New England area. In the Modified Series, Preece actually won at New Hampshire back in the summer of 2021 so like Harvick, he also has had past success in Loudon during his racing career. Preece also won the pole at Martinsville earlier this season and led 135 laps so although he is starting back in 21st, I could see him as a dark horse for the win and maybe he could be at least in the top 10 by the end of the day.
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Chase Briscoe will be starting way back in 27th so he will have to make quite the march if wants any chance at winning but I would not rule it out entirely since his only career win came last year at Phoenix, another short track on the schedule.
New Hampshire has become an exciting race every single season the past couple of years so I am looking forward to watching the race tomorrow as there is so much on the line for each and every driver in the field.
