Robert Laberge/Getty Images Kurt Busch won pole position for Sunday's Foxwoods Resort Casino 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, coming in with a top speed of 133.591 mph and a best time of 28.511 seconds. As NASCAR writer Jeff Gluck noted, it's Busch's third pole of the season and the 25th of his career. Martin Truex Jr., Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin and Ryan Blaney rounded out the top five from Friday's qualifying. NASCAR.com shared the full results. "I like the way that we made the right changes through each of the rounds," Kurt Busch said, per NASCAR. "And we stuck to a game plan. That's exactly what you hope to have each time you go through a qualifying, where you don't have to deviate away from the plan you set in place." Hamlin, who finished fourth in qualifying, is the defending winner at the race. And he's willing to face a fear if it means retaining his title, as he joked after qualifying, per Matt Weaver of Autoweek: "Yeah, I've never really liked them to begin with," Hamlin said last September, per Reid Spencer of NASCAR.com. "I don't like the taste of them. I don't—I just don't like looking at them. They have pincers, really, so I don't like anything that’s ugly and has pincers." Video Play Button Videos you might like "I don't know—its just a big scorpion in my mind," he continued. "I try to stay away from them and, yeah, I've had some interesting moments with them for sure that I don't care to recall or bring back up." Each year, the winner of this race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway is gifted a live lobster named Loudon. And drivers react differently to the unique prize. "Joey Logano had no problem because he's an East Coast guy," Greg Makris, the owner of the Makris Lobster and Steak House restaurant that presents and later cooks the lobster, told Ray Duckler of the Concord Monitor. "Jimmy Johnson was a little intimidated by Loudon, but drivers tell me they like it." It remains to be seen how Kurt Busch would feel about a live lobster trophy. He'll be gunning to find out Sunday.<doc-sep>Kurt Busch is in a great position for this weekend's Foxwoods Resort Casino 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway after winning his third NASCAR Monster Energy Cup Series pole of the year. Busch is still looking for his first win of the season, but with three top-fives and 10 top-10s, he has been in the running all year long. Friday's qualifying was just another example of how well he has been driving. "I like the way we made the right changes through each of the rounds and we stuck to a game plan," Busch told NBCSN. "That's exactly what you hope to have each time you go to qualifying." NASCAR SCHEDULE: Dates, times, TV info Martin Truex Jr., who is coming off of his second consecutive win at Kentucky, will start second Sunday (2 p.m. ET, NBCSN). "I just missed Turn 1 just slightly there in that last run on the first lap, but overall it was a solid day," Truex said. "We had a decent practice — a short practice, you know, because we waited a little bit for the VHT (traction compound) to kind of get run in, and we went out there and ran and were probably a little bit off further on balance more than we needed to be at the end of practice. "So made some changes for qualifying, and the guys did a good job of getting it right and we were close. So (a) couple thousandths, a few inches here or there in a different spot on the race track and might have been able to make it up, but a solid effort for us, and we can go get them on Sunday from second." Kyle Busch, who has five wins this season, will start third. Kevin Harvick, who won at Phoenix and finished fifth at Richmond, two tracks that are similar to New Hampshire's 1.058-mile track, will start 14th. (Material from the NASCAR Wire Service was used in this report.) NASCAR at New Hampshire: Starting lineup for the Foxwoods Resort Casino 301 Position, car number, driver, manufacturer, speed 1. (41) Kurt Busch, Ford, 133.591 mph. 2. (78) Martin Truex Jr., Toyota, 133.502 mph. 3. (18) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 133.431 mph. 4. (11) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 133.361 mph. 5. (12) Ryan Blaney, Ford, 132.720 mph. 6. (2) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 132.715 mph. 7. (20) Erik Jones, Toyota, 132.674 mph. 8. (88) Alex Bowman, Chevrolet, 132.618 mph. 9. (19) Daniel Suarez, Toyota, 132.581 mph. 10. (9) Chase Elliott, Chevrolet, 132.462 mph. 11. (24) William Byron #, Chevrolet, 132.383 mph. 12. (21) Paul Menard, Ford, 132.190 mph. 13. (10) Aric Almirola, Ford, 132.586 mph. 14. (4) Kevin Harvick, Ford, 132.554 mph. 15. (14) Clint Bowyer, Ford, 132.402 mph. 16. (47) AJ Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 132.379 mph. 17. (3) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 132.259 mph. 18. (31) Ryan Newman, Chevrolet, 132.200 mph. 19. (22) Joey Logano, Ford, 132.094 mph. 20. (42) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 132.039 mph. 21. (48) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, 131.925 mph. 22. (1) Jamie McMurray, Chevrolet, 131.738 mph. 23. (17) Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Ford, 131.447 mph. 24. (37) Chris Buescher, Chevrolet, 131.238 mph. 25. (13) Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, 131.247 mph. 26. (95) Kasey Kahne, Chevrolet, 130.954 mph. 27. (43) Bubba Wallace #, Chevrolet, 130.860 mph. 28. (32) Matt DiBenedetto, Ford, 130.783 mph. 29. (34) Michael McDowell, Ford, 130.568 mph. 30. (38) David Ragan, Ford, 130.532 mph. 31. (6) Matt Kenseth, Ford, 130.483 mph. 32. (15) Ross Chastain(i), Chevrolet, 129.213 mph. 33. (72) Corey LaJoie, Chevrolet, 129.151 mph. 34. (00) Landon Cassill, Chevrolet, 129.134 mph. 35. (99) Kyle Weatherman, Chevrolet, 127.577 mph. 36. (51) BJ McLeod(i), Chevrolet, 127.555 mph. 37. (23) Blake Jones, Toyota, 124.556 mph. # Rookie. (i) Ineligible for series points.<doc-sep>Mike Hembree USA TODAY Sports LOUDON, N.H. — The start time of Sunday’s Foxwoods Resort Casino 301 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway has been changed to 1 p.m. ET because of threatening weather forecasts. The race originally was scheduled to start at 2 p.m. Sunday’s forecast calls for a 90 percent chance of thunderstorms in the speedway area with “locally heavy” rain predicted. Monday’s forecast is similar. The speedway does not have lights.<doc-sep>The NASCAR Cup and Xfinity teams will make their lone visit of the year to New Hampshire Motor Speedway this weekend. Martin Truex Jr., Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch combined to win 14 of the first 19 races. Will their dominance continue? In Xfinity, there have been six different winners in the last seven races. Will that streak continue. Here’s a look at the track schedule for the weekend: (ALL TIMES ARE EASTERN) FRIDAY, JULY 20 8:30 a.m. – 6:30 p.m. — Cup garage open 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. — Xfinity garage open Noon – 12:50 p.m. — Cup practice (NBCSN) 1:05 – 1:55 p.m. — Xfinity practice (NBCSN) 3:05 – 3:55 p.m. — Final Xfinity practice (NBCSN) 4:45 p.m. — Cup qualifying; multi-vehicle/three rounds (NBCSN, Performance Racing Network) SATURDAY, JULY 21 7 a.m. — Xfinity garage opens 8:30 a.m. – 4 p.m. — Cup garage open 10:05 – 10:55 a.m. — Cup practice (CNBC) 11:05 a.m. — Xfinity qualifying; multi-vehicle/three rounds (CNBC) 12:35 – 1:25 p.m. — Final Cup practice (NBCSN) 1:30 p.m. — Xfinity driver/crew chief meeting 3:30 p.m. — Xfinity driver introductions 4 p.m. — Lakes Region 200 Xfinity race; 200 laps/211.6 miles (NBCSN, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) SUNDAY, JULY 22 8:30 a.m. — Cup garage opens Noon — Cup driver/crew chief meeting 1:20 p.m. — Cup driver introductions 2 p.m. — Foxwoods Resort Casino 301 Cup race; 301 laps/318.46 miles (NBCSN, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio)<doc-sep>
It’s all about track position at New Hampshire Motor Speedway and Kurt Busch, driver of the No. 41 Ford for Stewart-Haas Racing, realized that in qualifying on Friday. Martin Truex Jr. recently won an ESPY for being the Best Driver but it was Kurt Busch who won the Busch Pole Award for the Foxwoods Resort Casino 301 NASCAR Cup Series race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. After deciding to be the first driver to turn a lap during Round 3 of knockout qualifying, Busch ran a slightly faster lap than Truex Jr., who will start P2. It is not impossible to pass at New Hampshire; however, starting from the pole and staying in front of the pack could prove crucial. “We discussed it, and the call was made back at the hauler before the qualifying session started,” Busch said. “It was almost like a non-discussion. It was, ‘This is what’s going to happen in Round 1, this is what’s going to happen in Round 2, and here’s what’s going to happen in Round 3’—and we stuck to our plan.” Busch has secured three pole wins this season and 25 for his career. The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Schedule: Foxwoods Resort Casino 301: (Follow live) The Place: New Hampshire Motor Speedway The Date: Saturday, July 22, 2018 The Time: Approximately 1:00 p.m. ET TV: NBCSN, 12:30 p.m. ET Radio: PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Distance: 318.46 miles (301 Laps); Stage 1 (Ends on Lap 75), Stage 2 (Ends on Lap 150), Final Stage (Ends on Lap 301) Trackside Live (Watch live): 9:15 a.m. ET Press Pass: (Watch live) Post-Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race broadcast: 4:00 p.m. Update: NASCAR changed the start time for the Cup race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway to 1 p.m. ET because of the potential of wet weather.