A close watch should be kept on Martin Truex Jr., who drives for Dale Earnhardt Inc. That organization is losing Dale Earnhardt Jr. after this season, but news of that move has done anything but deflate DEI or Truex, whose team seems to have kicked it up a notch or two of late. Truex got his first Cup win at Dover and he and his team have turned the page after the news of Junior's impending departure settled in. They have a mindset that they have to do their own thing and they're doing it quite well.

My darkhorse would have been Brian Vickers, but he had his qualifying lap disallowed when his Red Bull Racing Toyota failed post-qualifying inspection because it was too low on the left side.

Keys to success at New Hampshire
This is a flat track and its long straightaways and tight turns make it similar, but bigger than Martinsville (Va.) Speedway. It is banked at only 12 degrees off the corners. The key to this track is getting through the middle and off of the corners. A driver needs to get his car to rotate in the corner and have lots of forward bite exiting the corners.

Racing well at New Hampshire requires a lot of throttle and brake input, and with a tremendous amount of braking going on, the right front tire can heat up and go flat. So it won't be surprising to see some cars get flats in their right front tires.

There is a passing lane to the inside, but this is a tough track to pass on, and if a car is not handling well that driver is in for a long day. Passing will be done through the center of the corner and off on the bottom of the track. The key will be to get through the center of the corner really well and to come off on the bottom. If a driver can get along the side of another car, he'll pretty much have the pass made.

With a resurfacing a couple of years ago New Hampshire came up with a great asphalt combination that produces terrific racing. Past issues of cars getting such grip at New Hampshire that the pavement actually tore up are no more and every driver is thankful for that.

The lower groove became a bit wider when the track was resurfaced as at the same time slightly different banking degrees were implemented and that's made for superb side-by-side racing, and created opportunities to pass more easily than had been the history at New Hampshire.

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