Carpentier won't hold back from front
LOUDON, N.H. - The last time the Sprint Cup Series rolled into New Hampshire Motor Speedway, in September 2007 for the Sylvania 300, the pole-sitter kept a stranglehold on first place for most of the day and shredded the competition for his first career Cup victory.
The likelihood of a repeat performance in today's Lenox Industrial Tools 301, however, is slimmer than the spindly Kyle Busch.
Last Sept. 16, Clint Bowyer led the field to the drop of the green flag and stayed in front for 222 laps to grab his first checkered. Today, Patrick Carpentier, a former open-wheel driver who turned a hot lap of 129.776 miles per hour in qualifying Friday, can, like Bowyer, sprint for his first Cup win. It will be Carpentier's first career race at NHMS.
"I'm going to lead these guys on the green flag, and hopefully I get to stay there for a while," said Carpentier, who is currently 37th in the standings, two slots away from automatically qualifying for every event. "We'll go back and forth in the race, but the important thing for us is to finish this race, get some points, and get that car closer to the top 35."
But even Carpentier, a Montreal native driving for Gillett Evernham Motorsports (Montreal Canadiens owner George Gillett bought into the organization last year), acknowledges that such a scenario will require the drive of his life. During the final practice yesterday, Carpentier's best lap was clocked at a pedestrian 125.749 m.p.h. in race trim, the 36th-fastest of the session.
"We were just a little too loose today during practice," Carpentier said. "We kept working on our [No. 10] Dodge, and by the time the last session was over, we were able to get the car to rotate better through the middle."
A rain-interrupted qualifying session made for some surprises for today's upside-down lineup. Fellow go-or-go-homers Scott Riggs (fourth), Dario Franchitti (seventh), and A.J. Allmendinger (10th) will join Carpentier in the top 10. Denny Hamlin, winner of last year's Lenox Industrial Tools 300, will start in 12th place. Bowyer will take off from the 18th position, points leader Kyle Busch turned the 27th-fastest qualifying lap, and NHMS veterans Tony Stewart (28th) and Jeff Burton (31st) will take the green from deep in the field.
Hold on to your race helmets.
"Last year it was good to me," Bowyer said. "But that's not to say that it will be this year. A lot of things have changed."
Last September, crew chief Gil Martin gave Bowyer a dominant hot rod that had the rest of the field shaking their heads, wondering how they could possibly catch - to say nothing of overtake - the No. 07 Chevrolet. Bowyer's car was balanced. His motor was kicking. The No. 07's pit crew executed crisp stops. Bowyer's rout was nearly as sweeping as a wire-to-wire NHMS victory in 2000 by Burton, his Richard Childress Racing teammate.
While Carpentier and the darkhorses will have the early advantage in track position (always a bonus at hard-to-pass NHMS), the 1.058-mile track hasn't been kind to wannabes. The Joe Gibbs Racing cars of Busch, Hamlin, and Stewart, all in the top 12 in the standings, have traditionally ran well at the flat track and should make their way to the front. RCR drivers Bowyer, Burton, and Kevin Harvick have combined for six wins at NHMS.
The Hendrick Motorsports threesome of Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon, and Dale Earnhardt Jr., also among the top 12, have not been as strong at NHMS as their JGR foes. But the trio was among the seven fastest cars in the final practice yesterday.
"This is a good track for us," Gordon said. "It has been for many, many years. I feel confident we can usually come in here, not be on our A game, but have a top-five car. I'm hoping that's the case this weekend."
One wild card could be the weather, which projects to be unstable today, just like it has been all weekend. On Friday, halfway through qualifying, rainstorms delayed the session for approximately two hours. The sky was overcast at NHMS for much of yesterday, producing a cool track and fast lap times in the Nationwide Series' Camping World RV Sales 200. With spring-like temperature predicted for today, the Cup cars should be fast.
"With the cooler conditions, the more the track has grip and the tighter it makes your car," Hamlin said. "It's a tough balance, especially when the sun bounces in and out of the clouds."
Fluto Shinzawa can be reached at fshinzawa@globe.com. 