By: Ashley McCubbin

Chevrolet may have momentum on their side heading to the Magic Mile, courtesy of William Byron leading the standings and winning at Atlanta Motor Speedway. However, they have not visited victory lane at New Hampshire Motor Speedway since 2016 with Kevin Harvick and Richard Childress Racing.

Hendrick Motorsports has become unknown for having rough summer stretches, and Byron’s statistics for the mile oval back that up. He only has an average finish of 13.8 with no finishes inside the top-10. The win at Atlanta also broke a stretch of four previous races without a top-five. If there’s anything that is worth considering, though, the last flat track on the schedule – Phoenix Raceway – saw the No. 24 Chevrolet in victory lane after leading 64 laps.

Toyota was victorious last season at the magic mile, with Christopher Bell leading 42 laps en route to victory lane – following a runner-up the year before. He has shown the same speed in 2023 to place him fourth in points, but notably has failed to score a top-10 in six of the most recent eight races.

He is not the only Joe Gibbs Racing competitor on that ship, as Denny Hamlin has just two top-fives since winning at Kansas Speedway in May. As long as he and Alex Bowman can remain apart, this could be the weekend to turn things around. After all, he has the best average finish (9.5) of all drivers at New Hampshire with a top-10 finish in his last four appearances.

Martin Truex Jr., though, hopes it is time for his third victory of the season – needing to turn his recent luck around. After scoring four straight top-five’s including a victory at Sonoma Raceway, he has failed to place inside the top-25 the past two weeks. Both the Chicago street course and Atlanta are unique in their nature in how they challenge drivers, so perhaps something out of the ordinary threw him off his game. After all, he has the fourth best average finish (11.7) at New Hampshire, with seven top-10’s in his last eight races including the pole last season.

Brad Keselowski also made fairytales come true in scoring his first win as an owner and driver at Atlanta, coming up short in his bid due to strategy en route to finishing sixth. With Ford having won four of the last five races at New Hampshire, including one of those by the driver of the No. 6 while he was with Team Penske in 2020, the door is wide open for him to possibly make it happen. Let’s also consider he has the second best average finish (10th) at New Hampshire, including a top-10 in his last four appearances including a pair of runner-ups.

Daniel Suarez could also use a win after his runner-up at Atlanta, considering he’s flirting with the cut-off line for the NASCAR playoffs and no victories in the bank to lock himself in. Could it happen on Sunday? After starting out his relationship with New Hampshire by a pair of top-10’s, he failed to repeat that performance in the four following races before a ninth last season.