Kyle Larson, Martin Truex Jr. pace Saturday morning Sprint Cup practice

Kyle Larson and Martin Truex Jr. each led the way in Saturday morning’s first practice session at New Hampshire Motor Speedway after they both posted a fast lap of 132.186 mph.

They were followed by Matt Kenseth (132.085 mph), Denny Hamlin (132.030) and rookieChase Elliott (131.980).

Truex posted the best average speed over 10 consecutive laps at 131.139 mph. He was followed by Kenseth (131.033 mph) and Kyle Busch (130.757). Twenty-two of the 40 cars ran at least 10 consecutive laps in the session.

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. spun in the opening moments of practice on cold tires .

Final Sprint Cup practice begins at 11:30 a.m. ET on CNBC.

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. dedicates runner-up finish at Bristol to Bryan Clauson

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. dedicated his second-place finish in Sunday’s Bass Pro Shops / NHRA Night Race at Bristol to the memory of his late friend, Bryan Clauson.

Stenhouse has been on an emotional roller coaster since Clauson’s Aug. 6 crash in a USAC Midget race at Belleville, Kansas. Clauson, 27, died the next day, and Stenhouse spent the NASCAR off week comforting Clauson’s family at the Knoxville Nationals in Iowa.

“It’s definitely been tough, but I think going to Knoxville and being with his family, being with his fiancée (Lauren) and being with friends that we all had a great time together, you know, talking about it, talking through things and talking about all the good things that Bryan did and his organ donation really helped a lot of us really feel comforted with what he was still doing after the fact,” Stenhouse said.

Clauson’s memorial service Thursday was “one of the toughest days that I think I had,” Stenhouse said. “But again, just being there and telling stories really I think helped us all get through it.  Lauren has been a rock getting everybody though. You would think it would be the other way around.  She’s really helped a lot of people.”

Lauren Stewart and her parents attended the race at Bristol.

“They came and just hung out all day on Saturday throughout the day around the motor home, and I was like, well, rain delays are good for some things,” Stenhouse said. “We all got to hang out together and spend some more time together, and that definitely has been helping us a lot the last couple weeks.”

In his interview above with NBC Sports, Stenhouse also talked about the significance of doing well and how he just didn’t have quite enough to catch race winner Kevin Harvick.

Stenhouse also talked about Clauson’s plan to compete in a total of 200 races – across a variety of racing platforms including sprint and midget cars, as well as having competed this year in the Indianapolis 500, earning a career-best finish.

“I know Bryan was watching and wanting us to win tonight, and we gave it all we had,” Stenhouse said. “He was trying to run 200 races. Somebody asked me, how do you feel coming to here and racing, and talking with Tim, Bryan’s dad, he was like, ‘Man, I feel like Bryan is probably mad at me right now because I’m not at home working on a midget to get it ready to go racing because Bryan, all he wanted to do was race.’  That’s what he was doing, and leading one of the biggest races of the year.

“If he had to choose a way to go out, I feel like that was the way he wanted.”

KEVIN HARVICK WINS RAIN-DELAYED BRISTOL RACE

Kevin Harvick won the Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race on Sunday evening at Bristol Motor Speedway, one day after the race was postponed due to inclement weather.

Ricky Stenhouse Jr., in the No. 17 Roush Fenway Racing Ford, finished in second place, 1.9 seconds behind the 2014 Sprint Cup Series champion.

Denny Hamlin, Austin Dillon and Chris Buescher rounded out the top five.

Scheduled for a green-flag time of 1 p.m. ET, persistent rain delayed the start for nearly four hours.

Kyle Busch led 256 laps, but was involved in a four-car wreck on Lap 357. His car spun due to what the driver said was a broken part, and Justin Allgaier drilled his No. 18 Toyota.

Shortly thereafter, an 11-car wreck -- triggered when Kurt Busch got loose and collected Brad Keselowski -- thinned the field further.

The Sprint Cup Series returns to the track on Sunday, Aug. 28 for the Pure Michigan 400 at Michigan International Speedway (2 p.m. ET, NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). There are now just three races remaining in the regular season.

This story will be updated.

Blake Koch gets his ‘dew’ on with Darrell Waltrip throwback scheme for Darington

On Tuesday, Blake Koch and Kaulig Racing became the latest Xfinity Series team show off their retro paint scheme for the Sept. 3 VFW Sport Clips Help a Hero 200 at Darlington Raceway, which will air on NBC.

Kock’s No. 11 LeafFilter Chevrolet will be a time capsule from the early 1980s as a tribute to the career of three-time Sprint Cup champion Darrell Waltrip.

Kaulig Racing revealed Koch’s paint scheme, based on Waltrip’s No. 11 Mountain Dew car that he ran in the 1981 and 1982 seasons when Waltrip won his first two titles.

MORE: Check out all of the Darlington throwback paint schemes

Twenty-four of Waltrip’s 84 career wins came with the white-and-green paint scheme, including the 1981 CRC Chemicals Rebel 500 at Darlington.

Waltrip won at Darlington five times in his career.

“Running this paint scheme at Darlington is a huge honor for us at Kaulig Racing as well as those of us at LeafFilter,” said Matt Kaulig, owner of Kaulig Racing in a press release. “Darrell Waltrip is a true icon in the sport of NASCAR, and his success in the Mountain Dew paint scheme makes it extremely recognizable to both those in the racing industry and fans new and old. In 2015, Darlington Raceway delivered on its first ‘throwback’ themed Labor Day weekend, and we’re excited to be apart of this year’s celebration that’s guaranteed to be even bigger.”

Koch is in his sixth season of Xfinity Series competition and is 12th in the point standings. In five starts at Darlington, Koch’s best finish is 18th in 2011.

“It is an awesome feeling to be apart of something as cool as the throwback weekend at Darlington,” Koch said in a press release. “It’s even cooler to be able to run a Darrell Waltrip paint scheme, a driver who is a legend in our sport. He had a ton of success during his career in the No. 11, hopefully we can continue that trend.”

Koch is not the only driver who will compete in an old Waltrip paint scheme at Darlington. For the Sept. 4 Southern 500, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. will use the paint scheme Waltrip had for his first Sprint Cup win.

Roush puts all three cars in top 10 for first time in 65 races

While it wasn’t a win, Trevor Bayne got the closest he’s been to victory lane in five years Saturday when he finished third in the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway.

But Bayne’s second top five of 2016 also got Roush Fenway Racing the closest it’s been to a win in more than a year.

The team that hasn’t won since Sonoma Raceway in June 2014 put all three of its entries – Bayne, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (fifth) and Greg Biffle (eighth) – in the top 10 for the first time in 65 races. That stretch started with the August night race at Bristol in 2014.

Daytona began with Biffle on the pole – Roush’s first since Carl Edwards had it at Texas in November 2013 – and ended with Bayne getting Roush its best result since Biffle finished second in the 2015 Coca-Cola-600.

“For our organization to be on the pole this weekend, to have three cars in the top eight, two in the top five, I think that’s kind of a landmark for us as an organization with the struggles we’ve had to get all three teams running strong on a weekend like this,” Bayne said. “It’s not a win that we need to get in the Chase, but it’s a great step in the right direction for making it in on points.”

Leaving Daytona, Bayne currently is the highest Roush driver in the points in 17th. He’s six points behind the cutoff of the 16 cars that will make the Chase for the Sprint Cup.

Biffle, who had a pole for the first time since October 2012 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, earned his first top 10 since the September race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway last year. That was after his No. 16 Ford received damage in the Lap 90 crash that involved 22 cars that required multiple pit stops to repair

“It was a rough night after we got in that wreck,” Biffle said in a news release. “We got pretty severe damage and were able to come back and finish eighth. We had a pretty fast car, and (Brad Keselowski) was unbelievably fast. We have some work to do still, but I am so proud of my guys.”

Stenhouse came home with his second top five of the year and the fifth of his career. His finished fifth at Auto Club Speedway in March.

Stenhouse had started fourth and was riding in the back when the “Big One” occurred, and he was able to brake his No. 17 Ford in time to avoid it. Stenhouse lined up eighth during the overtime restart before getting a push into the top five.

“Clint (Bowyer) was pushing me the whole last lap. I wasn’t sure that we would be able to be pushed all the way through the corners, but we were able to hold it in a straight line as best as we could,” Stenhouse said in a news release. “The Roush Fenway Racing guys worked really hard, and Jack (Roush) has put a lot of confidence in everyone to get our cars better each week.”

Next week, the series will head to the recently repaved and reconfigured Kentucky Speedway. A Roush car has not finished in the top 10 at the 1.5-mile track since Matt Kenseth finished seventh in 2012.

After a down 2015, Roush Fenway Racing drivers enjoying ‘new normal’

There’s a “new normal” at Roush Fenway Racing.

After a dismal 2015 there’s more structure, less finger-pointing and all three teams are competing toward the front.

To top it off, Trevor Bayne is getting some sleep.

“Last year I feel like I had to beat myself up a little bit,” Bayne recently told NBC Sports. “I’d be looking at data and having sleepless nights trying to figure how I could drive the car different, and now this year that we have faster cars, I feel like I can kinda do what I know how to do naturally.”

Bayne is 20th in the Sprint Cup standings after 14 races. At this point last year, his first full season with Roush, he was 30th. Heading to Michigan International Speedway, Bayne has one top five and two top-1o finishes.

The biggest sign of improved speed for Roush is in qualifying. Bayne has advanced to the second round of qualifying 10 times and the final round five times. Bayne has an average start of 16.8. His average last year was 27.9.

“Last season I feel like qualifying was one of the hardest parts of my weekend,” Bayne said. “We would be 30th, you know? Hardly making the second round at times, and this season we’ve made it to the final round almost every week, and I think (crew chief) Matt (Puccia) does a really good job.”

The improvements are even more significant for fourth-year driver Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

Stenhouse has started in the top 10 seven times. Last year, Stenhouse started in the top 10 just three times. For the Coca-Cola 600, all three of Roush’s car qualified in the top 10 for the first time since 2013 at Chicagoland Speedway.

“The new normal at Roush Fenway is everybody is working together,” Stenhouse told NBC Sports. “It’s not blaming this department or this department … I feel like everyone has been hands on, in the ditch with each other, you know digging and trying to claw our way out of this and I think it’s been showing.”

Greg Biffle‘s best finish through 14 races is 11th in the Coke 600, which he started a season-best sixth in.

“We’re definitely on an upswing, especially the 16 team,” Biffle told NBC Sports. “The problem is we don’t have any results to show for it. Meaning we’re not able to close right now. So, we’re getting to the three-quarter point in the race, things are happening, we’re getting involved in stuff. Or particularly Dover, the big wreck. Probably had one of the best cars we did all season.”

Biffle isn’t sitting by as the team tries to return to the level of competition it enjoyed when he started racing full-time for Roush in 2003.

That’s included Biffle coordinating pit stop practices among the teams and driving the pit stop car. It’s one way Biffle has committed to show he’s in “100 percent” to build Roush back up.

“I took charge and went down to pit stop practice and told the guys, ‘Hey, I’m going to be here every week for the next month, or one day a week, and I’m going to drive the pit stop car and we’re going to practice other things,’ ” Biffle said. “I recognized that they were kind of stuck in the same old routine and it needed to be changed up. And it brought so much energy and life back into my team that at Dover we had the best pit stops we’ve had in six months. And so then I went to Trevor and Ricky and asked them to do the same thing with their team.”

The more cohesive operation at Roush has the team the closest it’s been to consistently competing since Carl Edwards won at Sonoma Raceway in 2014. It’s seen Bayne, who hasn’t won since his 2011 Daytona 500 upset, lead a career-high 22 laps at Talladega Superspeedway to make his season total 34, also a career best.

After struggling in the back of the pack in 2015, Roush is showing signs it can turn its “new normal” into the kind of success Mark Martin helped create for the team during the height of his Hall of Fame career in the 1990s.

“It takes time to catch up and it’s hard to catch up,” Bayne said. “The guys that you’re trying to beat are also getting better. So you have to make huge gains to do what we’re doing this season.”

Fastenal signs multi-year extension with Roush Fenway Racing

Roush Fenway Racing announced Wednesday morning that Fastenal has signed a multi-year extension as primary sponsor for Ricky Stenhouse Jr.‘s team. As part of the agreement, Fastenal will increase the number of races it will serve as primary sponsor in 2017.

“We’ve seen a lot of improvement across the board this year,” Ricky Stenhouse Jr. said in a team release. “We are very happy that Fastenal will continue to be a part of the momentum at Roush Fenway. There has been a lot of hard work and effort put into this team and our goal and expectation is to reward Fastenal with a trip to victory lane and the Chase in the near future.”

This is the fifth season Fastenal has served as a primary sponsor for a Roush Fenway Racing Sprint Cup team. This is Fastenal’s second season as the anchor partner on Stenhouse’s car. The announcement did not say how many races Fastenal will serve as the primary sponsor beginning next year. Fastenal has served as the primary sponsor in five of the first 12 points races this season, including the Daytona 500. It also was the primary sponsor for Stenhouse in the Sprint Unlimited.

Stenhouse is 20th in the points entering this weekend’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. He has finished in the top 20 in five of the last six points races.

Danica Patrick looks for this weekend to be a sign of things to come

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Danica Patrick grabbed a hold on the climbing wall and launched. She moved one leg up to another hold and the next, moving at a steady pace until she reached the top.

She did it as part of a promotional event for sponsor Nature’s Bakery at the U.S. National Whitewater Center with contest winners who had chosen to scale the rock climbing wall with Patrick.

Her climb toward the front in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series has not been as swift, but she feels that tonight’s Sprint Showdown could be a sign of things to come. At least she hopes.

Patrick is in the Sprint Showdown at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Three drivers will race their way into Saturday’s Sprint All-Star Race by winning any of the three segments. The final two drivers in the 20-car Sprint All-Star Race will be selected by a fan vote.

Patrick has competed in the Sprint All-Star Race twice, earning entry via the fan vote. She finished 20th in both races. She enters this weekend coming off a season-best 13th-place finish at Dover.

“I hope we can race our way in,’’ Patrick said. “That’s for sure what every driver wants to do if they’re not in the (all-star race). It’s the most honorable way to get in, but it’s not as though there is not honor in getting through the fan vote because it just means you’re resonating with the fans and they’re showing that they like you and appreciate you and want to see you race.

“I hope that we’re good because, to be honest, if we race our way in, that means really good things moving forward in the season, too. It’s not going to be easy to qualify our way in because there are lots of great drivers that aren’t necessarily already in the race. So, I think that probably overall more than anything racing my way in will mean that I think we’re going to be a lot better moving forward in the season.’’

Among those entered in the Sprint Showdown looking to advance to the Sprint All-Star Race are Kyle Larson, Austin Dillon, Greg Biffle, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and rookies Chase Elliott and Ryan Blaney.

Chase Grid: Kenseth qualifies, Elliott earns big gain after Dover

With his win at Dover International Speedway, Matt Kenseth became the first driver to qualify for the Chase for the Sprint Cup in the last five races.

There have now been seven different winners through the first 12 races of the Sprint Cup season. With Denny Hamlin‘s poor performance since winning the Daytona 500, Kenseth was able to move up eight spots on the latest Chase grid to sixth, ahead of Hamlin.

Chase Elliott, who finished third Sunday for a career-best result, moved up three spots on the grid to ninth. The only driver ahead of him on the gird who hasn’t won a race is Kurt Busch. Busch is the only driver with 10 finishes in the top 10 through 12 races.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Austin Dillon had the biggest drops, each falling three spots to 13th and 12th, respectively.

The first four drivers out of the 16 spots that will qualify for the Chase are AJ Allmendinger, Ryan Newman, Trevor Bayne and Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

Rodney Childers on loose or missing lug nuts: ‘no way around it’

Shortly after the news that Kyle Busch‘s crew chief, Adam Stevens, was the first to be suspended for violating NASCAR’s revised lug nut rule, a peer chimed in on the rule.

Rodney Childers, crew chief for Kevin Harvick (the runner-up to Busch at Kansas Speedway), lamented the suspension of Stevens on Twitter. Childers said “there is no way around” a lug nut being loose or falling off at some point in a race.

NASCAR’s rule book states all five lug nuts on a wheel must be fastened in a “safe and secure manner at all times during the event.”

The revised lug nut rule was issued on April 25, prior to the race weekend at Talladega Superspeedway.

Stevens is the third Sprint Cup crew chief to be suspended this year. Cole Pearn, crew chief for Martin Truex Jr., was suspended for the race weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway for a roof flap violation at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Nick Sandler, chew chief for Ricky Stenhouse Jr., was suspended for the Talladega race for an “improper steering wheel coupler” found during the prior race weekend at Richmond International Raceway.

Hendrick, Chevrolet most successful in first 15 years of racing at Kansas Speedway

The newest track on the Sprint Cup circuit is Kentucky Speedway, which has hosted five Cup races since 2011.

But 10 years before that, the new kid on the block was Kansas Speedway, the 1.5-mile track in Kansas City, Kansas, the series returns to for its 16th season this weekend for the GoBowling.com 400.

Saturday’s race marks the 21st race for the Cup series on the track. The very first one, held on Sept. 30, 2001, was won by Hendrick Motorsports’ Jeff Gordon in his No. 24 Chevrolet.

Over the following 14 seasons, that would be the scene that played out the most – a Chevrolet owned by Hendrick going to victory lane.

Six times in 20 races, a Hendrick car has won at Kansas Speedway. Gordon won the first two races and then claimed another in 2014 before retiring at the end of 2015.

Jimmie Johnson is the defending winner of Saturday’s race and has Hendrick’s other three wins, in 2008, 2011 and 2015.

“I really like the surface of the Kansas track and looking forward to a great race,” Johnson said in a press release. “Last year (Crew chief) Chad (Knaus) made a great call and we had a fast Lowe’s Chevy and the gamble paid off.”

Looking to bounce back from a dismal outing at Talladega is Dale Earnhardt Jr., whose best Kansas finish is second in 2011. He wound up third in last year’s spring race.

“That place has widened out pretty good and you can run against the fence there, which is a line that I like to run,” Earnhardt said in a press release. “It’s a very fast racetrack and very smooth – a lot of fun, so we should have a good time. We ran good there on the last several trips, so I anticipate us being very competitive.”

Chevrolet has won 10 of the 20 Kansas races, with Tony Stewart earning two (2006, 2009) with Joe Gibbs Racing and Stewart-Haas Racing. The remaining two victories were claimed by Joe Nemechek and Kevin Harvick while he was with Richard Childress Racing.

Ford has six wins and Toyota has two, but none since 2013.

The next most successful teams at Kansas are Roush Fenway Racing and Team Penske with four wins each. Penske has the most recent success, winning with Joey Logano in two of the last three races, both in the fall race held in the day.

Penske’s first Kansas win came with Ryan Newman in 2003 driving a Dodge. Now Newman is in a Chevrolet at RCR.

“It’s super-fast and it has a little bit of a goofy transition into Turn 1,” Newman said in a press release. “It just seems like it is a combination of downforce and horsepower to go fast. It’s super smooth so it doesn’t really matter so much how your car rides as much as how you have the tires loaded up in each corner and the overall grip you can get out of the car with the downforce.”

Roush’s last Kansas win came in 2012 with Matt Kenseth. The three-car team is looking for its first win since 2014 and has performed well on intermediate tracks so far in 2016, but Ricky Stenhouse Jr. has the only top-10 finish, placing 10th at Atlanta Motor Speedway. But he and teammate Trevor Bayne ran in the top 10 for much of the Texas race.

Stenhouse will be back with crew chief Nick Sandler this week after Sandler was suspended for the Talladega race for an unapproved steering wheel coupler.

“The tires usually don’t wear (at Kansas) so pit strategy becomes a factor because you want to minimize the amount of time you are on pit road,” Sandler said in a press release.

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. crew chief suspended; NASCAR warns Jimmie Johnson, Tony Stewart teams

Nick Sandler, crew chief for Ricky Stenhouse Jr., was suspended Wednesday by NASCAR for this weekend at Talladega Superspeedway for an inspection violation at Richmond International Raceway.

Sandler was fined $20,000, suspended through May 4 and placed on probation through Dec. 31 for an improper steering wheel coupler that was discovered by officials in the opening garage inspection.

Asked if the team would appeal, a Roush Fenway Racing spokesman said the team is “reviewing the matter.” An appeal likely would defer Sandler’s suspension until after Talladega.

NASCAR also gave warnings to the teams of Tony Stewart (failing laser inspection system twice in prerace) and Jimmie Johnson (failed template inspection twice).

It’s the first warning for each team.