FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Sunday, July 16th, 2017

NOTES & QUOTES FROM NBCSN’S MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP SERIES COVERAGE FROM NEW HAMPSHIRE MOTOR SPEEDWAY

 “Denny Hamlin and the No. 11 become the 11th team to secure a spot in the playoffs.” – Krista Voda on Denny Hamlin

 

“They are driving at the edge of control.” – Steve Letarte on the Battle Between Hamlin and Kyle Larson for the Checkered Flag

Race Winner Denny Hamlin Joins Live Edition of NASCAR America from the NASCAR Hall of Fame – Wednesday at 5 p.m. ET on NBCSN

 

LOUDON, N.H. – July 16, 2017 – NBC Sports Group marched into its third week of the 2017 NASCAR on NBC season, with more than 17 hours of trackside coverage from New Hampshire Motor Speedway, in Loudon, N.H. Coverage was highlighted by this afternoon’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Race on NBCSN. Denny Hamlin and the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota won the race, after holding off Kyle Larson in the final laps. Hamlin’s win today secured his spot as the 11th driver to make the 2017 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs.

 

NBC Sports’ lead NASCAR announcer Rick Allen, 21-time Cup Series winner Jeff Burton, and Daytona 500-winning crew chief Steve Letarte called the race on NBCSN. Marty Snider, Kelli Stavast and Dave Burns reported from pit road alongside features contributor Rutledge Wood.

 

Coverage began on NBCSN at 1:30 p.m. ET with NASCAR America, followed by Countdown to Green at 2:30 p.m. ET. Krista Voda anchored pre-race coverage alongside analysts Kyle Petty and Dale Jarrett.

 

Hamlin will join this week’s edition of NASCAR America from the Hall of Fame, Wednesday at 5 p.m. ET, live on NBCSN. As part of NBCSN’s comprehensive coverage of the 2017 NASCAR season, NASCAR America will present a live show each week from the NASCAR Hall of Fame. Each episode will include an in-depth interview with an active driver, and highlight their journey to professional racing.

 

Race Results

 

Position Driver Car #
1 Denny Hamlin 11
2 Kyle Larson 42
3 Martin Truex Jr. 78
4 Matt Kenseth 20
5 Kevin Harvick 4

 

The following are highlights from this afternoon’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series coverage from New Hampshire on NBCSN.

 

POST-RACE COVERAGE

 

Voda on Hamlin: “Denny Hamlin and the No. 11 become the 11th team to secure a spot in the playoffs.”

 

Allen on Hamlin: “Denny Hamlin felt like he had the Joe Gibbs Racing team on his shoulders, to continue the domination they had in 2016. The backup car propelled Denny Hamlin all the way to the checkered flag.”

 

STAGE 3

 

Letarte on the battle between Hamlin and Kyle Larson with five laps to go: “They are driving at the edge of control. This has come down to just plain-old hard racing. Two great talents behind the wheel, two cars prepared by two different manufactures, and two different shops. Who has the best car and who will do the best job?”

 

Allen on Kyle Busch’s pit road speeding penalty with 62 laps to go: “Kyle Busch too fast entering pit road. The opportunity to potentially get to victory lane in 2017 may have to wait another race.”

 

Letarte on the No. 22 going to the garage after rear suspension issues: “It must be either a mount…or the track bar itself is broken. The No. 22 will have to go to the garage. With this many cars on the lead lap, this is going to cost Joey Logano a lot of points.”

 

Allen on the correlation between winning races and NASCAR America’s weekly Hall of Fame guests: “This Wednesday we will be live at the NASCAR Hall of Fame, and Denny Hamlin will be our guest. Will he be the most recent winner? It happened the first time we went to the Hall of Fame, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. joined us right after his win at Daytona.”

 

STAGE 2

 

Kyle Busch to Burton after winning Stage 2, but coming off of pit road in fourth place: “I’m going to go back to the front, pass the whole field and lap everyone to win this race. How about that?”

 

Burton added: “What a frustrating time for a driver. You are leading the race, you come in, have a pit stop, but come out fourth.”

 

Letarte on spotters: “The concentration level of the spotters is really impressive. As a crew chief, on top of the pit box, you could look down, calculate fuel millage, and perhaps climb down and look at the tires that came off the car. But the spotters have to be one hundred percent focused all the time. You never know when an issue is going to arise.”

 

Letarte on Kasey Kahne: “Between the pit cycle and restarts, something is amiss with this No. 5 car…speed wise. He is well off the pace, back running in the 31st position and about to very quickly go a lap down.”

 

STAGE 1

 

Letarte on Kahne: “At some point the news of Matt Kenseth losing his ride at Joe Gibbs Racing, and other veteran drivers looking for rides, is going to start to build pressure for the driver of No. 5.”

 

Burton on Larson’s climb from the back of the pack to the Top 10 in 30 laps: “He is going through cars. You do not pass cars like this at New Hampshire. This is something I’ve never seen at New Hampshire Motor Speedway before.”

 

Burton on NASCAR on NBC’s new helmet visor camera: “This is by far the best shot in racing. It shows what it looks like for the driver. This is it, this is exactly what a driver sees and exactly what he is looking at.”

 

Burns added: Chris Buescher totally agrees with you. He said ‘I try to get my friends, who are new to the sport, to watch racing. When I saw this camera angle, I told them to watch on Sunday, saying you are going to see it the way we feel it.’”

 

Allen on Kyle Busch: “It has been 34 races, a 34 race winless streak that Kyle Busch is on. The former Series Champion is trying to get out of that position and get into the playoffs.”

 

Snider on Larson’s progress in only six laps: “It is impressive how far that No. 42 has moved up, 16 spots they have gained.”

 

PRE-RACE COVERAGE

 

Petty on Martin Truex Jr. taking the No. 78 to victory lane: “My pick is Martin Truex Jr. I think last week was a statement win, and it would be a wicked pissah of a statement if they could win here today.”

 

Joe Gibbs on the news of Matt Kenseth’s departure to Snider: “That was not the timing we had set up for (the announcement), but we understood. We love everything about Matt, and everything he has done for us on and off the track. I think he is a great driver with a lot of talent, and we hate the fact we will be racing against him in the future. We got put in a situation, with a lot of things happening to our race team over a period of a year-and-a-half, where we wound up at this spot. We did not want to be here, but we had to make a decision.”

 

–NBC SPORTS GROUP–