NASCAR DFS: Foxwoods Resort 301 Track Breakdown

The northeast beckons this week as the NASCAR Cup Series heads north to the hamlet of Loudon, New Hampshire for the Foxwoods Resort 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. This is a gem of a track and the only trip to the northeast the Cup series will make this year, as the track lost its second date starting last year. It is a 1-mile track but different than the others, in that it is nearly entirely flat. Seriously. The straightaways are banked at one degree and the turns have progressive banking that goes from two to seven degrees the further out you get. That’s half as much as Phoenix or Richmond or even Martinsville has. If you think it’s a follow the leader type track though, you’d be mistaken. Just check out the starting positions table below.

Starting Positions for Winners

There have been 47 races at NHMS since the Cup series first came to the track in July of 1993 and only six times has the pole-sitter finish in Victory Lane. The last time was Kyle Busch in 2017 but prior to that, it was 2011 and Ryan Newman pulling off that feat. There have also been 24 different positions to see a winner with P13 seeing nearly as many as the pole.

Sunday’s race will have 301 scheduled laps so there’s a nice number of fastest laps and laps led points to be had. Four of the last five races here have seen at least one if not two drivers lead 100 laps. Four of the last five races have also seen at least six drivers post double-digit positive position differentials so despite being a flat, shorter, track you can in fact have movement here. The new tires they are using at the track should increase the grip, which is necessary here with the flatness of the banking, and make for good driving conditions according to Goodyear.

Drivers To Watch This Week:

There is normally a video here, but this week, for technical reasons, this section will be written. I hope you don’t mind.

Kyle Busch - $11,900 on DK and $14,500 on FD

Another week with Busch atop the salary charts and atop the drivers to watch section. It’s just too hard not to play him. He’s posted a win, three top-fives, four top-10s, the best average finish at 5.0 in the last five July races, and the most laps led and fastest laps in that span. Over the last 10 races overall here, there’s two wins, six top-fives, and eight top-10s to bolster his record. Busch has also been great at the comparable tracks to New Hampshire in the last few years and this season as well. He’s pricey but based on history, there’s really no reason not to look at him.

Kevin Harvick - $11,100 on DK and $12,500 on FD

Harvick has a very similar history at New Hampshire to Kyle Busch. He’s notched a win, four top-fives, four top-10s, and an average finish of 8.6 in the last five July races. In addition, he has two wins, six top-fives, six top-10s and an average finish of 12.4 in the last 10 races here. We all know how good Harvick has been at Phoenix, well that’s a comparable track as is Richmond and Martinsville. He’s been finding that speed again of late and this is a track that he’s had success at before which makes for a good combination to put in a lineup for DFS.

Denny Hamlin - $9,700 on DK and $11,500 on FD

Hamlin hasn’t been quite as solid as his colleagues above him but he does have a win and three top-10s in the last five July races and an average finish of 12.3 in the last 10 races overall. The other joy of putting him in this section is so you can google him running away from the Lobster they award the winner. He is scared of lobsters. In the three comparable tracks they’ve run this year already (Richmond, Martinsville, Phoenix), Hamlin has three top-fives and an average position differential of 7.7 in those races. The price is still relatively inexpensive for a two-time winner this year and a guy that’s solid at these types of tracks.

Ryan Newman - $7,600 on DK and $8,000 on FD

Newman has a top-five and three top-10s in the last five July races here with the best position differential mark in the field at 12.2. In the last 10, his average finish of 13.3 is good enough to rank ninth in the field. Don’t leave out the fact that his DK and FD scoring averages over the last five races rank fifth and fourth respectively in the field. Newman is the type of guy that knows how to hustle a car around a track, and that’s exactly what’s needed here.

Kyle Larson - $9,400 on DK and $10,400 on FD – Contrarian

Larson is the contrarian play this week as his driving style on the outset doesn’t seem to fit the style of track they are racing at this weekend. However, that couldn’t be further from the truth based on his results. In the last five July races, he has two top-fives and two top-10s and a PD mark of 8.2. In the nine Cup races that he’s run here, there are four top-fives, five top-10s, and a 10.7 average finish. For a guy that seems to like the outside lane and does better at the bigger tracks, he also has a dirt track background which means he knows how to fight for spots in tight spaces, which all you get at New Hampshire. The scoring is there too as he’s ranked top-six in the last five races on DraftKings and FanDuel.

Erik Jones - $9,000 on DK and $9,000 on FD – Fade

Jones has started the last two July races here P7 and P6 respectively and in one he finished P16 and the other, dead last. He did land a top-10 in the Fall race that ran here, but the track is different in the Fall. At these types of tracks in his career, he’s not been great. He’s been okay but not great. At this distance and track-type this year he’s not done well either and in his career, Jones has a 49-percent top-15 rate despite an average start of 12.3. At Jones’ price point there are better options that have shown better both here and at similar tracks this season.

Last Five Foxwoods Resort 301s

Top-20 Driver Over Last 10 Races at New Hampshire Motor Speedway

Top-20 Drivers at Similar Races (Phoenix, Martinsville, Richmond, New Hampshire)

Team Averages at New Hampshire

Momentum

This section will show how drivers have on this type of track this season

Drivers

Team

Draftkings Scoring Averages

FanDuel Scoring Averages

Weekly Rankings (1=Best, 40=Worst)

Race History, NHMS History, Track Type History columns are based on average finish in those spans.