New hampshire notes

Here are some notes from recent New Hampshire races to help us key on a few guys heading into this weekend:

• Big surprise that Martin Truex and Kyle Busch have dominated here of late.
  
• Busch won last September and led 187 of 300 laps in that race.  He has finished Top 10 in eight of the last ten NH races, with two wins and three more second place finishes in that time.  So he's finished 1st or 2nd in five of the last ten races and has only two finishes outside the Top 10 in those ten races.  He has also led a total of more than 400 of the 1200 laps run in the last four races.
• Truex has led over 100 laps in each of the last four races.  However, his best finish is 3rd.  He's also finished 5th, 7th and 16th in those races.  He's also finished lower than his qualifying spot in three of those four races.  He has no wins at NH.
  
• Kevin Harvick has finished in the Top 5 in five of the last seven NH races -- with one win in that time.  He won the Sept. 2016 race, but only led 8 laps in that race.  He has not led any other laps in the last four races.
  
• Clint Bowyer had two nice runs here last year.  In the first race, he started 19th and finished 7th.  In the second race, he started 16th and finished 7th again.  His best race this year was on a shorter flat track at Martinsville -- where he led 215 laps on route to winning his first race in years.  There is Dominator potential here.
  
• Kyle Larson finished 2nd here in both races last year.  However, in eight career races at NH, he has only led a grand total of 16 laps.
  
• Daniel Suarez also had two nice runs here last year.  In the first race he started 14th and finished 6th.  In the second race he started 25th and finished 8th.  That's very good at a track where it can be difficult to pass.
  
• Eric Jones had a real good run in the last NH race, where he qualified 8th and finished 6th.  He is hot right now, with four straight Top 10 finishes coming into this weekend.
  
• Denny Hamlin has qualified in the Top 5 for six of the last eight races here.  But his finishes have not been so good.  He does have one win -- in July 2017, when he led 54 laps.  He also finished one of those races in 2nd.  Beyond that, however, he's finished 9th or worse despite a great starting spot.
  
• Matt Kenseth has five straight Top 5 finishes -- albeit in far superior equipment at Joe Gibbs Racing.  While I don't expect anywhere near a Top 5 run from the Roush team, he may be a value depending on his salary and qualifying spot.
• Ty Dillon should come cheap and he ran OK here last year.  In the first race, he started 25th and finished 16th.  In the second race, he started 30th and finished 22nd.  A similar performance would more than pay back his modest salary.
  

​More to come Friday and Saturday after the cars hit the track.