Background

New Hampshire Motor Speedway is a 1.058-mile (1.703 km) oval speedway located in Loudon, New Hampshire which has hosted NASCAR racing annually since the early 1990s, as well as an IndyCar weekend and the oldest motorcycle race in North America, the Loudon Classic. Nicknamed "The Magic Mile", the speedway is often converted into a 1.6-mile (2.6 km) road course, which includes much of the oval.

The track was originally the site of Bryar Motorsports Park before being purchased and redeveloped by Bob Bahre. The track is currently one of eight major NASCAR tracks owned and operated by Speedway Motorsports.

Qualifying results

Second practice

Kyle Larson was the fastest in the second practice session with a time of 28.814 and a speed of 132.186 mph (212.733 km/h).^[14]

Final practice

Kyle Larson was the fastest in the final practice session with a time of 28.729 and a speed of 132.577 mph (213.362 km/h).^[15]

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.^[16] 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.^[17] 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.^[18]

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.^[19]

Post-race

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: 109.291 miles per hour (175.887 km/h)

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.

Radio

The Performance Racing Network had the radio call for the race, which was simulcast on Sirius XM NASCAR Radio.