Biggest NASCAR Storylines to Watch Ahead of Sprint Cup Series at New Hampshire

A 5-Hour Energy drink is perfect for the roughly 300 miles around New Hampshire Motor Speedway. It’s the right mix of stimulant without excessive fluid. It’s also the greatest placebo this side of the White Mountains.

The 5-Hour Energy 301, won last year by Brad Keselowski, cruises on the short track north of the Mason-Dixon Line. That plays to the strength of certain drivers over others, certainly the Joe Gibbs drivers this year.

Last week at Kentucky, Kyle Busch stormed past Keselowski to win his second race of the year and ascend ever closer to the top 30, his benchmark for citizenship in Chase-dom.

There are eight races remaining in the regular season, so let's get ready for a smattering of Loudon-marinated storylines ahead of the 5-Hour Energy 301.

Kyle Busch was 37th in the Sprint Cup standings heading into the race at Kentucky with chances of the postseason slipping further and further away. At Daytona International Speedway the prior week, Busch took the scenic route around the track, finishing 17th.

It threatened his already tenuous chance to reach the Chase, this despite already winning at Sonoma. The last thing he needs is to do this year to be Chase-eligible is finish in the top 30. Saturday’s win at Kentucky bumped him up two spots to 35th in the standings, just 87 points behind Cole Whitt in 30th.

"Finishes like this, runs like this, they sure do help," Busch said in Jeff Gluck’s USA Today story. "And thankfully we're going to a lot of races here now that are more driver (influenced) than circumstances (influenced). So it's going to be on my hands and Adam Stevens and this whole race team's hands."

Busch now heads to tracks where he’s had a great deal of success. Busch took second in three of the past four runnings at Loudon, and that’s only going to bolster his confidence to chase down Whitt.

Thirtieth is the new first place for Busch.

Riffing off the Kyle Busch slide, let’s take a moment and jam with the Joe Gibbs drivers. All four—Busch, Denny Hamlin, Carl Edwards and Matt Kenseth—finished inside the top five at Kentucky. (As an aside, the runner-up, Joey Logano, once drove for Gibbs.)

There could be a Sprint Cup lurking in the Gibbs garage, and heading to the short track at Loudon could spell a sixth win on the season, good for a tie with Hendrick Motorsports for the most this year.

Hamlin won at Martinsville and Kenseth won at Bristol. Among the JGR drivers, Busch holds the pocket aces with his recent success at Loudon.

Whatever JGR is doing in the garage to prepare for the tighter turns of these mile-or-under racetracks, it better hit repeat on the CD player because it’s working. The way JGR is coming on at this time of the year spells trouble for Stewart-Haas Racing and HMS going forward.

A real wild card for drivers looking to point into the Chase—drivers like Jeff Gordon, Jamie McMurray and Kasey Kahne—is someone like Tony Stewart.

He’s a three-time Cup champ and capable of winning anywhere, especially the short tracks. Smoke has three wins at Loudon and, given the newer Chase format, if he wins (this despite being 28th in the standings), he’s in the Chase, ahead of all winless drivers and, for the time, a two-time race winner in Kyle Busch.

Smoke’s recent dip in performance can be attributed to the new rules packages that he, admittedly, has failed to adjust to.

Stewart said in Kenny Bruce’s NASCAR.com story:

There's something about the way this package is that just doesn't suit my driving style. It's a scenario that when you drive for so long, you're used to one thing … coming into this year and taking the amount of horsepower they took out was a pretty radical change for the Cup Series.

I think it was more the horsepower reduction than it was anything that I feel like has hurt me this year. I've grown up driving high‑horsepower cars, high power‑to‑weight ratio cars. This hasn't been what I'm used to feeling.

When (If?) Stewart can get a handle on the new rules package (as several drivers clearly have, even his own teammates), he is fully capable of winning a race and squeezing out yet another winless driver from Chase contention.

Smoke, as you know, rises.

Our resident defending champion for the summer race at Loudon is Brad Keselowski. A year ago, he was positively dominant, leading 138 of 305 laps to take the checkers and wave the American flag while he burned out his Goodyears.

"This Ford Fusion was hauling today,” Keselowski said in Nate Ryan’s 2014 USA Today story. “It's a privilege to have a car like this; we're just clicking. I guess you could say we were red hot. It was just a great race — hard fought — Kyle (Busch) made me earn it out there in the end. … I had a lot fun making my way through the field today."

Keselowski has led just 260 laps on the year, well off the pace of his 1,540 from 2014. Even in the race he won this year, he led just one lap. You do the math. So, no, he hasn't had what you would call a dominant year by any stretch.

It may be a subpar season to date, but counting out the 2012 Sprint Cup champ falls on the side of poor decisions.

Team Penske swept the Loudon races and won an amazing 11 races in 2014. That’s nearly one out of every three races, and Logano could boast that he reached Homestead with a chance at at the Sprint Cup.

Logano, despite only winning this year’s Daytona 500, has had a quietly great 18 races. He has led 9.6 percent of all laps this year (494) and has racked up 10 top-fives and 13 top-10s.

Kevin Harvick, Jimmie Johnson and, of late, Kyle Busch have stolen much of the headlines, but Logano has been steering that No. 22 Ford to solid results in 2015.

"If I look at the speed in our cars, we need to be faster," Logano said in Bob Pockrass’ ESPN.com story. "We're not fast enough to be racing for wins. We're racing for top-fives right now and that's not good enough. Maybe at certain tracks we were fast enough to win, but on a consistent basis, we're fighting for top-fives and we want to fight for wins."

If ever there were a time to iron out these wrinkles, it’s now. For Logano, he doesn’t want to peak just yet, not with the 10 races in the Chase looming.

The luster of that Daytona 500 win has faded, and it’s time to see which Logano will show at Loudon and beyond.