The only trip to the Northeast for the Cup series happens this weekend with a trip to Loudon New Hampshire’s New Hampshire Motor Speedway and it’s flat 1-mile surface. The Granite State has seen racing at this track since 1990 and was previously a twice-a-year stop on the Cup schedule until 2017 when one of the dates was moved to Las Vegas Motor Speedway instead. As you may have heard on the podcast this week, there is some debate as to whether this is a short track or not simply because the size of it doesn’t suggest it would be, as typical short tracks are less than a mile in length, but the flatness and the way it’s driven does resemble the style of a short track.

In terms of the package this week, the cars will have the 750-horsepower, low-downforce aero package on board just like we’ve seen at tracks less than 1.5-miles in length and road courses. So keep that in mind as to who has typically done better in these cars than the standard intermediate ones. It also means that getting into the braking zones will be much like Richmond and Phoenix and even Martinsville and hence why the Green Flag Speed rankings are based on the last 10 races at those tracks. They are also tracks that you’ll hear referenced this week as well as similar tracks to compare to.

Strategy Notes:

The strategy here is to play this like a short track in that the laps get clicked off quickly and so a driver can stay out front for a while pretty easily. In fact in four of the last five races here we’ve seen at least one driver lead more than 100 laps and in two of those, we’ve seen two drivers accomplish that feat. In the last three races here, there have been no fewer than five drivers a race to move up double-digit spots in PD and quite a few to move up at least six spots as well. So with the laps led it’s like a short track but with PD it acts more like an intermediate track. In terms of cars finishing on the lead lap here, roughly half the cars have finished at least one lap down in each of the last five races at New Hampshire so cars starting well in the back may have to worry about being lapped and cutting down on their top-end PD upside.

Facts To Know

  • There are five drivers in the field this week with Driver Ratings over 100 in the last five New Hampshire races.
  • Interestingly, only two drivers in the field this week have a Top-15 Rate of over 90-percent in the last five races here.
  • The tires that are on the cars this weekend were also run here in July of last year as well as every Phoenix race since the start of 2020.
  • Over the last five races here, some with qualifying and some with the formula or owners points setting the field, 38-percent of the drivers to finish in the top-10 spots started outside the top-12.
  • Three wins by Ford and two wins by Toyota have happened in the last five races here.
  • Out of the 15 total top-three finishing spots in that span, only two have been taken by Chevys with Kyle Larson finishing runner-up in both 2017 races in the CGR 42-car.
  • Three of the top-five DFS scoring starting spots are in the first four spots on the grid for both DK and FD.

The table below shows the number of drivers to reach each stat-type over the last five races similar races with Race 1 being the most recent.

 RaceRaceRaceRaceRace 
 12345AVG
Positive Place Differential182221212120.6
Six+ Place Differential Spots101310111010.8
Double-Digit Place Differential566244.6
Double-Digit Fast Laps788656.8
20+ Laps Led235233
50+ Laps Led222232.2
100+ Laps Led120211.2

For the tables below:

* The Category Rankings table: The numbers in the tables for each column represent that driver's rank amongst the other in the field for that particular stat. They are ranked with 1 being the best in each column.

* The DFS Scoring Table: Race 1 is the most recent race in the sample size with Race 5 being the earliest. We are using the Last 5 New Hampshire races for the data.