The 2016 Bad Boy Off Road 300 was a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race held on September 25, 2016, at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon, New Hampshire. Contested over 300 laps on the 1.058 mile (2.4 km) speedway, it was the 28th race of the 2016 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season, second race of the Chase and second race of the Round of 16.
Report Background
New Hampshire Motor Speedway is a oval speedway located in Loudon, New Hampshire.
Entry list Driver Team Manufacturer1Jamie McMurrayChip Ganassi RacingChevrolet2Brad KeselowskiTeam PenskeFord3Austin DillonRichard Childress RacingChevrolet4Kevin HarvickStewart–Haas RacingChevrolet5Kasey KahneHendrick MotorsportsChevrolet6Trevor BayneRoush Fenway RacingFord7Regan SmithTommy Baldwin RacingChevrolet10Danica PatrickStewart–Haas RacingChevrolet11Denny HamlinJoe Gibbs RacingToyota13Casey MearsGermain RacingChevrolet14Tony StewartStewart–Haas RacingChevrolet15Clint BowyerHScott MotorsportsChevrolet16Greg BiffleRoush Fenway RacingFord17Ricky Stenhouse Jr.Roush Fenway RacingFord18Kyle BuschJoe Gibbs RacingToyota19Carl EdwardsJoe Gibbs RacingToyota20Matt KensethJoe Gibbs RacingToyota21Ryan Blaney (R)Wood Brothers RacingFord22Joey LoganoTeam PenskeFord23David RaganBK RacingToyota24Chase Elliott (R)Hendrick MotorsportsChevrolet27Paul MenardRichard Childress RacingChevrolet30Josh WiseThe Motorsports GroupChevrolet31Ryan NewmanRichard Childress RacingChevrolet32Jeffrey Earnhardt (R)Go FAS RacingFord34Chris Buescher (R)Front Row MotorsportsFord38Landon CassillFront Row MotorsportsFord41Kurt BuschStewart–Haas RacingChevrolet42Kyle LarsonChip Ganassi RacingChevrolet43Aric AlmirolaRichard Petty MotorsportsFord44Brian Scott (R)Richard Petty MotorsportsFord46Michael AnnettHScott MotorsportsChevrolet47A. J. AllmendingerJTG Daugherty RacingChevrolet48Jimmie JohnsonHendrick MotorsportsChevrolet55Reed SorensonPremium MotorsportsChevrolet78Martin Truex Jr.Furniture Row RacingToyota83Matt DiBenedettoBK RacingToyota88Alex Bowman (i)Hendrick MotorsportsChevrolet95Michael McDowellCircle Sport – Leavine Family RacingChevrolet98Cole WhittPremium MotorsportsChevroletOfficial entry list
Practice
First practice Kyle Larson was the fastest in the first practice session with a time of 28.018 and a speed of .
Pos Driver Team Manufacturer Time 1 42 Kyle Larson Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet 28.018 135.941 2 24 Chase Elliott (R) Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 28.028 135.893 3 4 Kevin Harvick Stewart–Haas Racing Chevrolet 28.056 135.757Official first practice results
Second practice Kyle Larson was the fastest in the second practice session with a time of 28.814 and a speed of . PosDriverTeamManufacturerTime142Kyle LarsonChip Ganassi RacingChevrolet28.814132.186278Martin Truex Jr.Furniture Row RacingToyota28.814132.186320Matt KensethJoe Gibbs RacingToyota28.836132.085Official second practice results
Final practice Kyle Larson was the fastest in the final practice session with a time of 28.729 and a speed of . PosDriverTeamManufacturerTime142Kyle LarsonChip Ganassi RacingChevrolet28.729132.577211Denny HamlinJoe Gibbs RacingToyota28.735132.54935Kasey KahneHendrick MotorsportsChevrolet28.748132.489Official final practice results
Qualifying
Carl Edwards scored the pole for the race with a time of 28.119 and a speed of . He said afterwards that his team "just give me fast race cars. We worked in qualifying trim most of our first practice this weekend and now we have to translate that speed to a good race set-up for Sunday. We’d like to come out of here with the trophy and make our way to the next round of the Chase.”
Qualifying results Pos Driver Team Manufacturer 119 Carl Edwards Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 28.075 28.187 28.119 278 Martin Truex Jr. Furniture Row Racing Toyota 28.255 28.164 28.169 331 Ryan Newman Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 28.256 28.343 28.235 448 Jimmie Johnson Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 28.234 28.186 28.243 511 Denny Hamlin Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 28.192 28.174 28.256 642 Kyle Larson Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet 28.143 28.173 28.280 71 Jamie McMurray Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet 28.268 28.240 28.323 820 Matt Kenseth Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 28.285 28.171 28.347 95 Kasey Kahne Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 28.257 28.244 28.377 1024 Chase Elliott (R) Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 28.158 28.215 28.445 112 Brad Keselowski Team Penske Ford 28.300 28.342 28.489 1218 Kyle Busch Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 28.185 28.300 28.542 1341 Kurt Busch Stewart–Haas Racing Chevrolet 28.434 28.348 1427 Paul Menard Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 28.259 28.349 1522 Joey Logano Team Penske Ford 28.256 28.385 1621 Ryan Blaney (R) Wood Brothers Racing Ford 28.482 28.401 1747 A. J. Allmendinger JTG Daugherty Racing Chevrolet 28.333 28.417 1888 Alex Bowman (i) Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 28.545 28.477 194 Kevin Harvick Stewart–Haas Racing Chevrolet 28.253 28.484 2095 Michael McDowell Circle Sport – Leavine Family Racing Chevrolet 28.500 28.609 2117 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Roush Fenway Racing Ford 28.640 28.631 2214 Tony Stewart Stewart–Haas Racing Chevrolet 28.371 28.642 2323 David Ragan BK Racing Toyota 28.387 28.686 2410 Danica Patrick Stewart–Haas Racing Chevrolet 28.608 28.895 2544 Brian Scott (R)Richard Petty Motorsports Ford 28.645 2643 Aric Almirola Richard Petty Motorsports Ford 28.662 276 Trevor Bayne Roush Fenway Racing Ford 28.705 2834 Chris Buescher (R) Front Row Motorsports Ford 28.720 293 Austin Dillon Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 28.725 307 Regan Smith Tommy Baldwin Racing Chevrolet 28.727 3113 Casey Mears Germain Racing Chevrolet 28.749 3216 Greg Biffle Roush Fenway Racing Ford 28.816 3393 Matt DiBenedetto BK Racing Toyota 28.865 3438 Landon Cassill Front Row Motorsports Ford 28.937 3546 Michael Annett HScott Motorsports Chevrolet 28.958 3698 Cole Whitt Premium Motorsports Chevrolet 28.962 3715 Clint Bowyer HScott Motorsports Chevrolet 29.068 3855 Reed Sorenson Premium Motorsports Chevrolet 29.143 3930 Josh Wise The Motorsports Group Chevrolet 29.411 4032 Jeffrey Earnhardt (R) Go FAS Racing Ford 29.826 Official qualifying results
Race First half
Under clear blue New Hampshire skies, Carl Edwards led the field to the green flag at 2:17 p.m. He held the led for 30 laps before Martin Truex Jr. ran him down to take the lead on lap 31. The first round of green flag stops started on lap 75. Truex pitted from the lead on lap 77 and handed it to Kyle Busch. He pitted on lap 79 and handed the lead to Brad Keselowski. He pitted on lap 80 and the lead cycled back to Truex.
Debris brought out the first caution of the race on lap 122.
The race restarted on lap 132. A spring rubber on the backstretch brought out the second caution of the race on lap 165.
Second half The race restarted on lap 172. Matt Kenseth passed underneath Truex going into turn 3 to take the lead on lap 179. The final round of green flag stops began with 83 laps to go. Kenseth pitted from the lead with 69 laps to go and handed it to Keselowski. He pitted with 66 laps to go and handed the lead to Danica Patrick. Michael Annett getting into the wall in turn 2 brought out the third caution of the race with 60 laps to go. He went on to finish 40th. Patrick pitted under the caution and handed the lead back to Kenseth.
The race restarted with 52 laps to go. The fourth caution of the race flew with 36 laps to go after Michael McDowell suffered a left-rear tire blowout and spun out in turn 3. Edwards was sent to the tail end of the field on the restart for a commitment cone violation.
The race restarted with 32 laps to go. The fifth caution of the race flew with 16 laps to go after Trevor Bayne rear-ended the wall in turn 4.
The race restarted with 11 laps to go. The sixth caution flew with 10 laps to go after Ricky Stenhouse Jr. got turned by Paul Menard in turn 2.
The race restarted with six laps to go. Kevin Harvick beat Kenseth going into turn 3 to take the lead with five laps to go and drove on to score the victory.
Post-race
Driver comments Harvick said in victory lane that the key "was just a smooth restart. I just didn’t want to spin the tires. I don’t know what happened to him, or if I just timed it right. It worked out good when we got to Turn 1.” He added that one of his "main goals this year was to not stretch ourselves out so bad. ... The things that we’re doing are good enough to be competitive, and we just need to not make mistakes and go from there.”
Speaking about the final restart in the media center after the race, Kenseth said he "didn’t do a very good job. I let Kevin lay back on me and NASCAR said something about the restart before that and I have no idea what I did wrong. I probably shouldn’t have had that in my mind so I made sure I got rolling early and I spun the tires a little bit and he got half a car length anticipating it and just did it perfect and beat me through one and two and cleared me. It’s my fault. I shouldn’t have worried about what they (NASCAR) said and just got to turn one first.”
Race results Pos Driver Team Manufacturer Points 1 4 Kevin Harvick Stewart–Haas Racing Chevrolet 300 44 2 20 Matt Kenseth Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 300 40 3 18 Kyle Busch Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 300 39 4 2 Brad Keselowski Team Penske Ford 300 38 5 41 Kurt Busch Stewart–Haas Racing Chevrolet 300 36 6 19 Carl Edwards Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 300 36 7 78 Martin Truex Jr. Furniture Row Racing Toyota 300 36 8 48 Jimmie Johnson Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 300 33 9 5 Kasey Kahne Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 300 32 10 42 Kyle Larson Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet 300 31 11 22 Joey Logano Team Penske Ford 300 30 12 21 Ryan Blaney (R) Wood Brothers Racing Ford 300 29 13 24 Chase Elliott (R) Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 300 29 14 88 Alex Bowman (i) Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 300 0 15 11 Denny Hamlin Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 300 26 16 3 Austin Dillon Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 300 25 17 43 Aric Almirola Richard Petty Motorsports Ford 300 24 18 10 Danica Patrick Stewart–Haas Racing Chevrolet 300 24 19 1 Jamie McMurray Chip Ganassi Racing Ford 300 22 20 31 Ryan Newman Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 300 21 21 47 A. J. Allmendinger JTG Daugherty Racing Chevrolet 300 20 22 15 Clint Bowyer HScott Motorsports Chevrolet 300 19 23 14 Tony Stewart Stewart–Haas Racing Chevrolet 299 18 24 17 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Roush Fenway Racing Ford 299 17 25 27 Paul Menard Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 299 16 26 95 Michael McDowell Circle Sport – Leavine Family Racing Chevrolet 298 15 27 13 Casey Mears Germain Racing Chevrolet 298 14 28 93 Matt DiBenedetto BK Racing Toyota 298 13 29 38 Landon Cassill Front Row Motorsports Ford 298 12 30 34 Chris Buescher (R) Front Row Motorsports Ford 298 11 31 44 Brian Scott Richard Petty Motorsports Ford 298 10 32 23 David Ragan BK Racing Toyota 297 9 33 16 Greg Biffle Roush Fenway Racing Ford 297 8 34 7 Regan Smith Tommy Baldwin Racing Chevrolet 297 7 35 98 Cole Whitt Premium Motorsports Chevrolet 294 6 36 55 Reed Sorenson Premium Motorsports Chevrolet 293 5 37 32 Jeffrey Earnhardt (R) Go FAS Racing Ford 290 4 38 6 Trevor Bayne Roush Fenway Racing Ford 282 3 39 30 Josh Wise The Motorsports Group Chevrolet 268 2 40 46 Michael Annett HScott Motorsports Chevrolet 236 1Official race results
Race summary Lead changes: 8 among different drivers Cautions/Laps: 6 for 31 Red flags: 0 Time of race: 2 hours, 54 minutes and 15 seconds Average speed:
Media Television NBCSN covered the race on the television side. Rick Allen, Jeff Burton – the all-time wins leader at New Hampshire Motor Speedway with four wins – and Steve Letarte had the call in the booth for the race. Dave Burns, Mike Massaro, Marty Snider and Kelli Stavast handled pit road on the television side.
NBCSNBooth announcersPit reporters Lap-by-lap: Rick AllenColor-commentator: Jeff BurtonColor-commentator: Steve Letarte Dave BurnsMike MassaroMarty SniderKelli Stavast
Radio