NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Top Story News Schedule Race Update/Results Statistics Point Standings Starting Grid Race Preview Driver Info Team Info Track Info Season Chart All-Time Wins Odds Weather NASCAR - Sprint Cup - LENOX Industrial Tools 301 Preview From The Sports Network   DATE: Sunday, July 17th SITE: New Hampshire Motor Speedway (1990) -- Loudon, New Hampshire TRACK: 1.058-mile oval - 1,500 feet (Frontstretch); 1,500 feet (Backstretch) CAPACITY: 95,491 (Grandstand Seating) ANNUAL: 19th TELEVISION: TNT ANNOUNCERS: Adam Alexander, Wally Dallenbach, Kyle Petty RADIO: Performance Racing Network (PRN)/SIRIUS NASCAR Radio START TIME: 1 p.m. (et)/Green Flag: 1:16 p.m. (et) DEFENDING CHAMPION: Jimmie Johnson RUNNER-UP: Tony Stewart POLE WINNER: Juan Pablo Montoya (Finished 34th) LAPS: 301 MILES: 318.5 QUALIFYING RECORD: Juan Pablo Montoya, 2009 (133.431 m.p.h.) RACE RECORD: Jeff Burton, 1997 (117.134 m.p.h.) TOTAL PURSE: $5,256,417 (2010 figures) PAYOUTS: 1st Place - $265,493; 2nd Place - 207,146; 3rd Place - $174,046 2010 Finish Finish Driver Start Finish Driver Start 1 Jimmie Johnson 10 6 Ryan Newman 5 2 Tony Stewart 25 7 Clint Bowyer 9 3 Kurt Busch 3 8 Dale Earnhardt Jr 31 4 Jeff Gordon 16 9 Joey Logano 11 5 Kevin Harvick 24 10 AJ Allmendinger 28 2010 LENOX Industrial Tools 301 Facts and Figures AVERAGE SPEED: 113.308 m.p.h. TIME OF RACE: 2 hours, 48 minutes, 38 seconds MARGIN OF VICTORY: 0.753 second CAUTION FLAGS: 4 for 19 laps LEAD CHANGES: 14 among 9 drivers POLE WINNER: Juan Pablo Montoya (132.337 m.p.h.) Past LENOX Industrial Tools 301 Winners (Starting Position) Car -- Speed 2010 -- Jimmie Johnson (10th) -- Chevrolet -- 113.308 m.p.h. 2009 -- Joey Logano (24th) -- Toyota -- 97.497 m.p.h. 2008 -- Kurt Busch (26th) -- Dodge -- 106.719 m.p.h. 2007 -- Denny Hamlin (11th) -- Chevrolet -- 108.215 m.p.h. 2006 -- Kyle Busch (4th) -- Chevrolet -- 101.384 m.p.h. 2005 -- Tony Stewart (13th) -- Chevrolet -- 102.608 m.p.h. 2004 -- Kurt Busch (32nd) -- Ford -- 97.862 m.p.h. 2003 -- Jimmie Johnson (6th) -- Chevrolet -- 96.924 m.p.h. 2002 -- Ward Burton (31st) -- Dodge -- 92.342 m.p.h. 2001 -- Dale Jarrett (9th) -- Ford -- 102.131 m.p.h. 2000 -- Tony Stewart (6th) -- Pontiac -- 103.145 m.p.h. 1999 -- Jeff Burton (38th) -- Ford -- 101.876 m.p.h. 1998 -- Jeff Burton (5th) -- Ford -- 102.996 m.p.h. 1997 -- Jeff Burton (15th) -- Ford -- 117.134 m.p.h. (race record) 1996 -- Ernie Irvan (6th) -- Ford -- 98.930 m.p.h. 1995 -- Jeff Gordon (21st) -- Chevrolet -- 107.029 m.p.h. 1994 -- Ricky Rudd (3rd) -- Ford -- 87.599 m.p.h. 1993 -- Rusty Wallace (33rd) -- Pontiac -- 105.947 m.p.h. NOTE: Formerly called Slick 50 300 (1993-95), Jiffy Lube 300 (1996-99) thatlook.com 300 (2000), New England 300 (2001-03), Siemens 300 (2004-05), LENOX Industrial Tools 300 (2006, 07). One mile was added to 2008 race. Past LENOX Industrial Tools 301 Pole Winners (Finish) 2010 -- Juan Pablo Montoya -- 34th 2009 -- None -- Weather 2008 -- Patrick Carpentier -- 31st 2007 -- Dave Blaney -- 29th 2006 -- Ryan Newman -- 39th 2005 -- Brian Vickers -- 11th 2004 -- Ryan Newman -- 3rd 2003 -- Matt Kenseth -- 3rd 2002 -- Bill Elliott -- 34th 2001 -- Jeff Gordon -- 2nd 2000 -- Rusty Wallace -- 15th 1999 -- Jeff Gordon -- 3rd 1998 -- Ricky Craven -- 29th 1997 -- Ken Schrader -- 11th 1996 -- Ricky Craven -- 26th 1995 -- Mark Martin -- 3rd 1994 -- Ernie Irvan -- 30th 1993 -- Mark Martin -- 2nd Last Race Results RACE: Quaker State 400 (July 9th) SITE: Kentucky Speedway -- Sparta, Kentucky MILES: 400.5 LAPS: 267 WINNER: Kyle Busch RUNNER-UP: David Reutimann THIRD: Jimmie Johnson FOURTH: Ryan Newman FIFTH: Carl Edwards POLE WINNER: Kyle Busch (Finished 1st) TIME OF RACE: 2 hours, 55 minutes AVERAGE SPEED: 137.314 m.p.h. MARGIN OF VICTORY: 0.179 second CAUTION FLAGS: 6 for 32 laps LEAD CHANGES: 20 among 12 drivers LAP LEADERS: Kyle Busch - pole; Kurt Busch 1-31; Kyle Busch 32; T. Kvapil 33; J. Yeley 34; K. Kahne 35; Kyle Busch 36-81; L. Cassill 82-83; Kyle Busch 84-141; B. Keselowski 142-157; Kyle Busch 158; T. Stewart 159; B. Keselowski 160-185; Kyle Busch 186-193; D. Hamlin 194-198; D. Ragan 199-201; M. Truex Jr. 202; B. Keselowski 203-239; Kurt Busch 240-249; D. Reutimann 250-256; Kyle Busch 257-267. LENOX Industrial Tools 301 Entry List Car Driver, Hometown Car/Name 00 David Reutimann (Zephyrhills, FL) Toyota/Tum's 1 Jamie McMurray (Joplin, MO) Chevrolet/Bass Pro Shops 2 Brad Keselowski (Rochester Hills, MI) Dodge/Miller Lite 4 Kasey Kahne (Enumclaw, WA) Toyota/Red Bull 5 Mark Martin (Batesville, AR) Chevrolet/GoDaddy.com 6 David Ragan (Unadilla, GA) Ford/UPS 7 Robby Gordon (Orange, CA) Dodge/Speed Energy 9 Marcos Ambrose (Launceston, Australia) Ford/DeWalt 11 Denny Hamlin (Chesterfield, VA) Toyota/FedEx Freight 13 Casey Mears (Bakersfield, CA) Toyota/GEICO 14 Tony Stewart (Columbus, IN) Chevrolet/Office Depot/Mobil 1 16 Greg Biffle (Vancouver, WA) Ford/Roush Fenway Racing 17 Matt Kenseth (Cambridge, WI) Ford/Affliction Clothing 18 Kyle Busch (Las Vegas, NV) Toyota/Interstate Batteries 20 Joey Logano (Middletown, CT) Toyota/Home Depot 22 Kurt Busch (Las Vegas, NV) Dodge/Shell/Pennzoil 24 Jeff Gordon (Vallejo, CA) Chevrolet/Drive to End Hunger 27 Paul Menard (Eau Claire, WI) Chevrolet/Menards/Richmond 29 Kevin Harvick (Bakersfield, CA) Chevrolet/Budweiser 31 Jeff Burton (South Boston, VA) Chevrolet/Caterpillar 32 Mike Bliss (Milwaukie, OR) Ford/U.S. Chrome 33 Clint Bowyer (Emporia, KS) Chevrolet/Cheerios/Hamb. Helper 34 David Gilliland (Riverside, CA) Ford/Taco Bell 36 Dave Blaney (Hartford, OH) Chevrolet/Golden Corral 37 Tony Raines (LaPorte, IN) Ford/TBA 38 J.J. Yeley (Phoenix, AZ) Ford/Long John Silver's 39 Ryan Newman (South Bend, IN) Chevrolet/U.S. Army 42 Juan Pablo Montoya (Bogota, Colombia) Chevrolet/Target 43 A.J. Allmendinger (Los Gatos, CA) Ford/Best Buy 46 To Be Announced Chevrolet/Red Line 47 Bobby Labonte (Corpus Christi, TX) Toyota/Capital Window 48 * Jimmie Johnson (El Cajon, CA) Chevrolet/Lowe's 50 T.J. Bell (Reno, VA) Toyota/Green Smoke 51 Landon Cassill (Cedar Rapids, IA) Chevrolet/Security Benefits 55 Jeff Green (Owensboro, KY) Ford/TBA 56 Martin Truex Jr. (Mayetta, NJ) Toyota/NAPA Good to Go 60 Mike Skinner (Susanville, CA) Toyota/Big Red 66 Michael McDowell (Glendale, AZ) Toyota/HP Racing 71 Andy Lally (Northport, NY) Ford/TRG Motorsports 77 Scott Wimmer (Wausau, WI) Dodge/Speed Energy 78 Regan Smith (Cato, NY) Chevrolet/Furniture Row Racing 81 Scott Riggs (Bahama, NC) Chevrolet/Whitney's Collision 83 Brian Vickers (Thomasville, NC) Toyota/Red Bull 87 Joe Nemechek (Lakeland, FL) Toyota/NEMCO Motorsports 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. (Kannapolis, NC) Chevrolet/Amp Energy/Nat'l Guard 99 Carl Edwards (Columbia, MO) Ford/Scotts Ortho * - defending champion. Leading Contenders (Finish the last nine years) Driver 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 Jimmie Johnson 15th Won 11th 13th 9th 5th 9th 9th Won Tony Stewart 39th 22nd 5th Won 37th 12th 13th 5th 2nd Kurt Busch 8th 11th Won 2nd 38th 21st Won 3rd 3rd Jeff Gordon 29th 24th 2nd 25th 15th 2nd 11th 2nd 4th Kevin Harvick 9th 2nd 13th 22nd 5th 8th 14th 34th 5th Ryan Newman 5th 4th 3rd 7th 39th 10th 15th 29th 6th Clint Bowyer --- --- --- --- 27th 37th 22nd 20th 7th Dale Earnhardt Jr 23rd 6th 31st 9th 43rd 4th 24th 13th 8th Joey Logano --- --- --- --- --- --- --- Won 9th Kyle Busch --- --- --- 4th Won 11th 25th 7th 11th Jeff Burton 12th 9th 12th 14th 7th 7th 12th 31st 12th Denny Hamlin --- --- --- --- 6th Won 8th 15th 14th David Reutimann --- --- --- --- --- 38th 19th 4th 15th Greg Biffle --- 43rd 28th 5th 3rd 31st 21st 18th 16th Matt Kenseth 33rd 3rd 4th 10th 14th 9th 18th 22nd 17th Jamie McMurray --- 40th 7th 40th 33rd 16th 41st 33rd 18th David Ragan --- --- --- --- --- 15th 40th 38th 20th Mark Martin 16th 18th 14th 15th 4th --- --- 14th 21st Martin Truex Jr --- --- --- --- 18th 3rd 4th 37th 22nd Carl Edwards --- --- --- 12th 2nd 13th 17th 19th 25th Brad Keselowski --- --- --- --- --- --- --- 6th 26th Paul Menard --- --- --- --- --- 39th 29th 30th 28th Juan Pablo Montoya --- --- --- --- --- 19th 32nd 12th 34th Kasey Kahne --- --- 8th 6th 8th 25th 30th 10th 36th Brian Vickers --- --- 34th 11th 17th 43rd 16th 35th --- Mover of the Week David Reutimann - Started in the 17th position and finished 2nd Sports Network Selections Pick to Win - Kurt Busch Darkhorse - David Ragan Last Week's Pick to Win (Carl Edwards) - Finished 5th Last Week's Darkhorse (Joey Logano) - Finished 14th NOTES: The driver to beat this week is certainly Kyle Busch, as he is riding high into New Hampshire Motor Speedway this weekend after winning two of the three NASCAR national touring series races this past week at Kentucky. Busch claimed NASCAR win No.98 in last Thursday's Camping World Truck Series event and then No.99 in Saturday's Sprint Cup Series race. His next win will make him just the third NASCAR driver with 100 or more victories to his credit. Richard Petty holds the record with 200 wins, followed by David Pearson with 106. One of Pearson's victories came in a Nationwide race in 1982 at Rockingham. To date, Busch's NASCAR win column includes 22 in Sprint Cup, 48 Nationwide and 29 in trucks. Busch has performed well at New Hampshire in the past. He has one Sprint Cup victory at this track (July 2006). Busch has also won the last two Nationwide races here. Last season, Jimmie Johnson won the Lenox Industrial Tools 301 after taking the lead from Kurt Busch with less than two laps remaining. Johnson, who also won the previous week's road-course race at Sonoma, CA, took the lead from Jeff Burton just after a restart with 12 laps remaining. Burton did not pit, while the other leaders came in for the final time following an incident with Juan Pablo Montoya and Reed Sorenson. Two laps after losing the lead, Burton, on old tires, got loose and crashed into Kyle Busch while the two were battling for position. The final caution set up an eight-lap shootout to the finish. After the last restart, Kurt Busch chased down Johnson and made a bump and run move on the four-time defending series champion to take the top spot for the first time in the 301-lap race. But Johnson came storming back and took the lead with a lap and a half to go. Johnson then cruised to his fifth victory of the season and the 52nd of his Cup career. Currently fifth on the points list, Johnson now owns 54 titles. Two years ago, Joey Logano, in his rookie season, benefited from crew chief Greg Zipadelli's gutsy late-race pit strategy for his first Sprint Cup win in the rain-shortened race at New Hampshire. Logano, who hails from Middletown, CT, overcame a one-lap deficit after cutting his left-rear tire in the late-stages of the race. He was the only driver who had yet to pit during the final round of green flag stops. Ryan Newman gave up the lead when he ran out of fuel and coasted into in the pits. That allowed Logano to take the top spot for the first time. He then conserved enough fuel before rain fell on the track. NASCAR displayed the red flag 28 laps short of the 301-lap scheduled distance, with the race being called shortly after. Logano's first win came in his 20th start. In 2008, Kurt Busch became a multiple winner of this race, as he defeated Michael Waltrip under the caution for his 18th career Sprint Cup title. Busch, who started 26th on the grid, led the final 10 laps to take the checkered flag. Pole sitter Patrick Carpentier finished 31st, while Tony Stewart, who placed 13th, led for a race-high 132 laps. Starting in the 11th position, Denny Hamlin moved his way to the top and reclaimed the lead on lap 256 of the 300-lap race and held on to defeat Jeff Gordon by less than a second in 2007. Pole sitter Dave Blaney, who led the first 30 laps, placed 29th. Hamlin led twice for 46 laps, as he recorded his third of 17 career Sprint Cup titles. Dale Earnhardt Jr led six times for a race- high 64 laps and finished fourth. In 2006, Kyle Busch recorded his third career Sprint Cup title, as he crossed the finish line 0.406 of a second ahead of Carl Edwards at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Busch reclaimed the lead from Elliott Sadler on lap 240 and held on the rest of the way in front of an estimated crowd of 100,000. Busch, who started fourth on the grid, led for a race-high 107 laps. Pole sitter Ryan Newman, who led for just 16 laps, placed 39th out of 43 cars. Only six cars failed to finish the race. Busch now totals 22 Sprint Cup titles. Tony Stewart led a whopping 232 of the 300 laps in 2005 to win his 22nd of 39 career Sprint Cup titles. Stewart crossed the finish line 0.851 of a second ahead of defending champion Kurt Busch. Pole sitter Brian Vickers finished 11th. With his win, Stewart joined Jeff Burton as the only multiple winner of this race. Burton won this race three consecutive seasons from 1997 through 1999. Stewart won this race for the first time in 2000. Kurt Busch swept both NHMS events in 2004, the second consecutive year a driver had won both races. Busch captured the New England 300 later that year by less than a second over Jeff Gordon after a late-race caution for his 10th of 23 career Sprint Cup victories. In 2003, Jimmie Johnson won both NHIS races. Gordon is a three-time winner at this track and is the only driver to win a NASCAR race at New Hampshire from the pole position (1998), when he captured the New Hampshire 300. In fact, 10 of the 18 winners of this race have started outside the top-10, including last season. Gordon is the all-time lap leader at NHMS, with 1,207 laps led. In 32 previous races, the pole sitter has won only four times and never in this event. The best finish for a pole sitter for the summer race was second by Mark Martin in 1993 and Jeff Gordon in 2001. This and That about NHMS: Groundbreaking for the New Hampshire Motor Speedway was August 13, 1989. It was the first superspeedway to be constructed in the United States since 1969. The official opening was June 5, 1990 with the first race being a Nationwide Series race on July 15, 1990. The track was renamed New Hampshire Motor Speedway in 2008. There have been 32 Sprint Cup races at New Hampshire Motor Speedway; one a year from 1993 through 1996 and two-a-year since. Four drivers have competed in all 32 races: Jeff Burton, Jeff Gordon, Bobby Labonte and Joe Nemechek. Burton is a four-time winner at the "Magic Mile." The next Sprint Cup Series race is the July 31st running of the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, as Jamie McMurray defends his title. 07/12 17:07:08 ET As of July 12, 2011, at 05:07 PM ET