Matt Kenseth hasn’t always enjoyed the success he’s had in recent years at the Magic Mile. Between 2000 and 2013, Kenseth placed in the top-10 only nine times out of 26 races in Loudon.
“This seems to (have been) one of my worst tracks on the circuit, honestly, and now it seems like it’s been one of our best,” said Kenseth, who will start Sunday’s Bad Boy Off Road 300 in the eighth spot. “That doesn’t mean it’s going to be this week, but it has been in (the) recent past.”
His recent past includes three wins in his last six visits to New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
The difference? In 2013, Kenseth signed on with Joe Gibbs Racing after spending 13 years with Jack Roush’s team. Kenseth placed ninth in his first race at New Hampshire with JGR. When he returned to Loudon later that year, Kenseth won his first race on this track.
“It’s funny how that works. Some of the places that were my strongest when I was at Roush are probably some of my weaker places now,” Kenseth said. “I think a lot of it has to do with obviously the equipment and the people working on it, but that’s hard to figure out sometimes.”
Kenseth’s Gibbs teammate Carl Edwards, the pole winner in Friday’s qualifying, couldn’t pinpoint exactly how Kenseth has suddenly mastered the track at Loudon but also gave credit to the team.
“I went bicycling with Matt last week and I say he’s somehow figured out how to age backwards now,” Edwards said. “He’s getting faster, he’s getting stronger, he’s figured something out here for sure and it gives guys like me hope, you know? You go to these places and hope that you figure something out, but really I think it’s our team.”
Kenseth added his third career win at Loudon in July. But a difference of just a couple of months can change track conditions significantly in New Hampshire. Temperatures reached the high 80s in Loudon in July and are expected to be in the low 60s Sunday.
“On the calendar it seems kind of close, but that seems like a long ways away as far as track conditions and weather,” Kenseth said. “Depending on which series are on the track, how hot the track is, the kind of rubber that’s on the track … I think it changes quite a bit.”
Protests of the fatal shooting of Keith Lamont Scott by a Charlotte, N.C., police officer turned violent Wednesday night in the city that’s home to NASCAR’s headquarters.
The unrest reportedly reached NASCAR’s doorstep as windows were smashed at its main office as well as the NASCAR Hall of Fame.
But while drivers in Loudon remain focused on this weekend’s slew of races, the news out of Charlotte hasn’t failed to reach them.
“A lot of times, when you see things like this happen, it’s in a different city and you don’t recognize where it’s at,” said Joey Logano, who will start in 15th on Sunday. “But when you see the NASCAR building getting vandalized and you see areas of the city that you know very well with just crazy things happening, it makes you sick to your gut.”
“All we can do really is just say some prayers and hope that eventually everything calms down and everyone is able to come to some kind of peace at the end of this thing, and we can move on and move forward and make our world better,” he said.
Sunday’s starting lineup has been set with Edwards taking the poll in Friday’s qualifier. Martin Truex Jr., winner of last weekend’s Chase opener at Chicagoland that punched his ticket to the round of 12, will line up second. Ryan Newman, Jimmie Johnson and Denny Hamlin round out the top-five.
(Nick Stoico can be reached at 369-3339, nstoico@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @NickStoico.)