2022 Ambetter 301 Explained

The 2022 Ambetter 301 was a NASCAR Cup Series race held on July 17, 2022, at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon, New Hampshire. Contested over 301 laps, on the 1.058miles speedway. It was the 20th race of the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season.

This race was the last start for 2004 champion Kurt Busch, as Busch suffered a concussion during the second qualifying round for the next race, and the injuries from that crash ended up being career-ending; he announced on August 26, 2023 that he was officially retiring.

Report

Background

New Hampshire Motor Speedway is a 1.058miles oval speedway located in Loudon, New Hampshire, which has hosted NASCAR racing annually since the early 1990s, as well as the longest-running motorcycle race in North America, the Loudon Classic. Nicknamed "The Magic Mile", the speedway is often converted into a 1.6miles 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.

Entry list

• (R) denotes rookie driver.
• (i) denotes driver who is ineligible for series driver points.

	Driver	Team	Manufacturer
1			Chevrolet
2	Austin Cindric (R)		Ford
3			Chevrolet
4			Ford
5			Chevrolet
6			Ford
7			Chevrolet
8			Chevrolet
9			Chevrolet
10			Ford
11			Toyota
12			Ford
14			Ford
15	J. J. Yeley (i)		Ford
16	A. J. Allmendinger (i)		Chevrolet
17			Ford
18			Toyota
19			Toyota
20			Toyota
21	Harrison Burton (R)		Ford
22			Ford
23			Toyota
24			Chevrolet
31			Chevrolet
34			Ford
38	Todd Gilliland (R)		Ford
41			Ford
42			Chevrolet
43			Chevrolet
45			Toyota
47			Chevrolet
48			Chevrolet
51			Ford
77	Josh Bilicki (i)		Chevrolet
78	B. J. McLeod (i)		Ford
99			Chevrolet
Official entry list

Practice

William Byron was the fastest in the practice session with a time of 29.877 seconds and a speed of 127.483mph.^[8]

Practice results

Pos		Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Time
1	24				29.877	127.483
2	18				29.903	127.372
3	14				29.938	127.223
Official practice results

Qualifying

Martin Truex Jr. scored the pole for the race with a time of 29.964 and a speed of 127.113mph.^[9]

Qualifying results

Pos		Driver	Team	Manufacturer
1	19			Toyota	29.739	29.964
2	9			Chevrolet	29.898	30.009
3	45			Toyota	29.669	30.032
4	23			Toyota	30.070	30.106
5	20			Toyota	29.968	30.127
6	24			Chevrolet	29.945	30.136
7	10			Ford	30.135	30.219
8	5			Chevrolet	29.748	30.224
9	6			Ford	30.276	30.409
10	4			Ford	29.945	0.000
11	12			Ford	29.997	—
12	22			Ford	30.056	—
13	8			Chevrolet	30.186	—
14	11			Toyota	30.187	—
15	34			Ford	30.267	—
16	17			Ford	30.293	—
17	18			Toyota	30.312	—
18	1			Chevrolet	30.332	—
19	99			Chevrolet	30.364	—
20	16	A. J. Allmendinger (i)		Chevrolet	30.391	—
21	7			Chevrolet	30.410	—
22	43			Chevrolet	30.422	—
23	41			Ford	30.455	—
24	47			Chevrolet	30.461	—
25	31			Chevrolet	30.476	—
26	38	Todd Gilliland (R)		Ford	30.523	—
27	48			Chevrolet	30.584	—
28	2	Austin Cindric (R)		Ford	30.601	—
29	14			Ford	30.675	—
30	3			Chevrolet	30.759	—
31	21	Harrison Burton (R)		Ford	30.785	—
32	78	B. J. McLeod (i)		Ford	30.885	—
33	15	J. J. Yeley (i)		Ford	31.064	—
34	77	Josh Bilicki (i)		Chevrolet	31.101	—
35	42			Chevrolet	31.288	—
36	51			Ford	31.359	—
Official qualifying results

Race

Stage Results

Stage OneLaps: 70

Pos		Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Points
1	19	Martin Truex Jr.	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	10
2	23	Bubba Wallace	23XI Racing	Toyota	9
3	5	Kyle Larson	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	8
4	9	Chase Elliott	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	7
5	4	Kevin Harvick	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	6
6	20	Christopher Bell	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	5
7	45	Kurt Busch	23XI Racing	Toyota	4
8	10	Aric Almirola	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	3
9	24	William Byron	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	2
10	11	Denny Hamlin	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	1
Official stage one results

Stage TwoLaps: 115

Pos		Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Points
1	19	Martin Truex Jr.	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	10
2	4	Kevin Harvick	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	9
3	9	Chase Elliott	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	8
4	22	Joey Logano	Team Penske	Ford	7
5	5	Kyle Larson	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	6
6	45	Kurt Busch	23XI Racing	Toyota	5
7	1	Ross Chastain	Trackhouse Racing Team	Chevrolet	4
8	24	William Byron	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	3
9	20	Christopher Bell	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	2
10	23	Bubba Wallace	23XI Racing	Toyota	1
Official stage two results

Final Stage Results

Stage ThreeLaps: 116

Pos	Grid		Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Laps	Points
1	5	20	Christopher Bell	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	301	47
2	2	9	Chase Elliott	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	301	50
3	4	23	Bubba Wallace	23XI Racing	Toyota	301	44
4	1	19	Martin Truex Jr.	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	301	53
5	10	4	Kevin Harvick	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	301	47
6	14	11	Denny Hamlin	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	301	32
7	9	6	Brad Keselowski	RFK Racing	Ford	301	30
8	18	1	Ross Chastain	Trackhouse Racing Team	Chevrolet	301	33
9	19	99	Daniel Suárez	Trackhouse Racing Team	Chevrolet	301	28
10	3	45	Kurt Busch	23XI Racing	Toyota	301	36
11	6	24	William Byron	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	301	31
12	17	18	Kyle Busch	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	301	25
13	28	2	Austin Cindric (R)	Team Penske	Ford	301	24
14	8	5	Kyle Larson	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	301	37
15	29	14	Chase Briscoe	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	300	22
16	20	16	A. J. Allmendinger (i)	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	300	0
17	16	17	Chris Buescher	RFK Racing	Ford	300	20
18	11	12	Ryan Blaney	Team Penske	Ford	300	19
19	23	43	Erik Jones	Petty GMS Motorsports	Chevrolet	300	18
20	25	31	Justin Haley	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	300	17
21	13	8	Tyler Reddick	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	300	16
22	24	47	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	JTG Daugherty Racing	Chevrolet	300	15
23	30	3	Austin Dillon	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	300	14
24	12	22	Joey Logano	Team Penske	Ford	300	20
25	31	21	Harrison Burton (R)	Wood Brothers Racing	Ford	300	12
26	26	38	Todd Gilliland (R)	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	300	11
27	23	41	Cole Custer	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	300	10
28	15	34	Michael McDowell	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	299	9
29	33	15	J. J. Yeley (i)	Rick Ware Racing	Ford	299	0
30	36	51	Cody Ware	Rick Ware Racing	Ford	297	7
31	7	10	Aric Almirola	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	282	9
32	21	7	Corey LaJoie	Spire Motorsports	Chevrolet	88	5
33	34	77	Josh Bilicki (i)	Spire Motorsports	Chevrolet	5	0
34	35	42	Ty Dillon	Petty GMS Motorsports	Chevrolet	5	3
35	27	48	Alex Bowman	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	4	2
36	32	78	B. J. McLeod (i)	Live Fast Motorsports	Ford	4	0
Official race results

Race statistics

• Lead changes: 8 among 7 different drivers
• Cautions/Laps: 9 for 52
• Red flags: 0
• Time of race: 3 hours, 14 minutes and 45 seconds
• Average speed: 98.113mph

Media

Television

USA covered the race on the television side. Dale Earnhardt Jr., four-time and all-time Loudon winner Jeff Burton and Steve Letarte called the race from the broadcast booth. Kim Coon, Parker Kligerman and Marty Snider handled the pit road duties from pit lane.

Radio

PRN had the radio call for the race, which was also simulcast on Sirius XM NASCAR Radio. Doug Rice and Mark Garrow called the race from the booth when the field races down the frontstretch. Rob Albright called the race from turns 1 & 2 and Doug Turnbull called the race from turns 3 & 4. Brad Gillie, Brett McMillan and Wendy Venturini handled the duties on pit lane.

Standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings

	Pos	Driver	Points
	1	Chase Elliott	734
1	2	Ross Chastain	667 (–67)
1	3	Ryan Blaney	656 (–78)
2	4	Martin Truex Jr.	619 (–115)
1	5	Kyle Larson	616 (–118)
1	6	Kyle Busch	594 (–140)
	7	Joey Logano	582 (–152)
	8	Christopher Bell	570 (–164)
2	9	Kevin Harvick	551 (–183)
	10	William Byron	536 (–198)
2	11	Alex Bowman	510 (–224)
	12	Aric Almirola	490 (–244)
	13	Austin Cindric	489 (–245)
2	14	Kurt Busch	485 (–249)
	15	Daniel Suárez	479 (–255)
2	16	Tyler Reddick	474 (–260)
Official driver's standings

Manufacturers' Championship standings

	Pos	Manufacturer	Points
	1	Chevrolet	737
	2	Ford	672 (–65)
	3	Toyota	665 (–72)

• Note: Only the first 16 positions are included for the driver standings.

. – Driver has clinched a position in the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs.

Notes and References

1. Web site: 2022 schedule . Jayski.com. . June 5, 2022.
2. Web site: New Hampshire Motor Speedway. NASCAR.com. NASCAR Media Group, LLC.. June 5, 2022. January 3, 2013. May 2, 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20170502073112/http://www.nascar.com/en_us/nascar-tracks/new-hampshire-motor-speedway.html. dead.
3. Web site: Entry List. Jayski.com. Jayski's Silly Season Site. July 11, 2022. July 11, 2022.
4. Web site: Practice Results. NASCAR.com. NASCAR. July 16, 2022. June 16, 2022.
5. Web site: Qualifying Results. NASCAR.com. NASCAR. July 16, 2022. July 16, 2022.
6. Web site: Ambetter 301 Results. NASCAR.com. NASCAR. July 17, 2022. July 17, 2022.
7. Web site: Points standings. Jayski.com. Jayski's Silly Season Site. July 17, 2022. July 17, 2022.
8. Web site: Utter. Jim. William Byron tops Saturday Cup practice at New Hampshire. Motorsport.com. Motorsport Network. July 16, 2022. Loudon, New Hampshire. July 16, 2022.
9. Web site: Utter. Jim. Truex beats Elliott for New Hampshire pole. Motorsport.com. Motorsport Network. July 16, 2022. Loudon, New Hampshire. July 16, 2022.