Pepsi 100 @ New Hampshire

Jon Beaufort & Tyler Everett would make up the front row this week, and would have a fierce battle early on. But once again, cautions came early.

Lap 4 saw caution 1 of the day fly when #99- Jack Ashcroft tried to force 3-wide in Turn 2, and hooked #9- Tom Ashcroft & #82- Ryan Jeffries into the outside wall. Another incident would start avoiding the first one as #98- Bob Boyd sideswipes the 9 and shoots down into #81- Cam Bennett, who would go around. #11- Wilson Timothy & #49- Scott Strickland were also involved.

On Lap 39, #36- Dustin Houston would capitalize on a wiggle by Jon Beaufort and would swoop to take the lead from Beaufort. #26- Gregory Hadaway would move into 2nd place not too long after the fact. A few laps later on Lap 42, Hadaway would give Houston a bump, and would move that #26 Ford into the lead racing back to the caution!

The second caution flew just moments before, when #82- Ryan Jeffries' day goes from bad to worse, as his truck would run out of gas and stall out on the backstretch, setting up a cycle of caution flag pit stops, which would see the Top 5 stay the same, consisting of Hadaway, Houston, Beaufort, Hammond, & #5- Bailey Bliss in P5.

Lap 48 would see Gregory Hadaway having some problems with his employee & teammate, #62- Lacey Starling, the rookie from Tacoma, Washington not playing nice, as Dustin Houston would use this to make a daring dive to the inside in Turns 3 & 4 and take the lead back.

The third caution of the day would fly on Lap 52 when #49- Scott Strickland, #19- Scott Andrews, #9- Tom Ashcroft, & #28- AJ Murphy would go four wide coming out of Turn 4, and AJ Murphy would hook Ashcroft, setting up a huge melee on the frontstretch involving them, as well as #01- Hanamaru Tsushima, #25- Braxton Laughlin, #11- Wilson Timothy, & #98- Bob Boyd.

Caution 4 on Lap 63 would come about when #54- Nozomi Toujou, #97- Brittany Chapman, & #49- Scott Strickland were 3 wide coming to lap Hanamaru Tsushima. Chapman would hook Toujou up the track into Tsushima, setting off a wreck that swept all four of them up. They would all keep going.

On Lap 71, it seems nobody learnt from earlier on, as #9- Tom Ashcroft, #00- Yoshiko Kunikida, #78- Max Winfield, & #39- Corbin Rhodes would go four wide, Kunikida would hook Ashcroft & Winfield, setting off another melee on the frontstretch that would sweep up #52- Nevaeh Laughlin, and #26- Gregory Hadaway would come flying in and hit the 52 head on, giving them both terminal engine damage.

In the late stages of the race, #88- John Jefferson would get up to the back bumper of Dustin Houston, who'd been firmly in control up to that point, but it would be to no avail, as Dustin Houston would go back-to-back, winning here at New Hampshire!

Houston goes back to back
Dustin Houston has definitely been one of the guys to beat so far, in the early stages of the 2017 Kobalt Tools Truck Series season, as proven with an emphatic victory here in New Hampshire.

"Double down, baby! Unbelievable! This crew has just been working their butts off on these trucks. It's unreal how good this thing was today. We ran one hell of a race today, and Johnny (Jefferson), boy, he gave me a run for my money, but just didn't quite have enough there at the end. Great stuff again from everyone on this 36 team. We're gonna head out to Charlotte next week and try to hit a trifecta." Said Houston, definitely not short of confidence after today.

F S # DRIVER INTERVAL LAPS LED POINTS STATUS
1 8 36 D Houston 106.937 100 56* 185 Running
2 17 88 J Jefferson -0.25 100 0 170 Running
3 3 55 D Hammond -0.62 100 0 165 Running
4 1 2 J Beaufort -1.26 100 39 165 Running
5 6 99 J Ashcroft -4.97 100 0 155 Running
6 2 33 T Everett -5.26 100 0 150 Running
7 23 05 R Guerrero -6.83 100 0 146 Running
8 26 02 M Jackson -7.24 100 0 142 Running
9 18 87 A Evans -7.57 100 0 138 Running
10 29 19 S Andrews -7.62 100 0 134 Running
11 14 5 B Bliss -7.89 100 0 130 Running
12 16 65 C Wheeler -10.20 100 0 127 Running
13 25 54 N Toujou -10.52 100 0 124 Running
14 5 39 C Rhodes -11.23 100 0 121 Running
15 9 00 Y Kunikida -13.42 100 0 118 Running
16 12 6 C Fitzgerald -16.90 100 0 115 Running
17 28 81 C Bennett -17.13 100 0 112 Running
18 4 62 L Starling -1L 99 0 109 Running
19 30 49 S Strickland -1L 99 0 106 Running
20 24 01 H Tsushima -1L 99 0 103 Running
21 7 9 T Ashcroft -2L 98 0 100 Running
22 15 82 R Jeffries -2L 98 0 97 Running
23 21 52 N Laughlin -28L 72 0 94 Piston
24 22 78 M Winfield -29L 71 0 91 Retired
25 13 26 G Hadaway -29L 71 5 93 Gearbox
26 10 97 B Chapman -35L 65 0 85 Retired
27 20 11 W Timothy -47L 53 0 82 Retired
28 19 98 B Boyd -48L 52 0 79 Accident
29 27 25 B Laughlin -48L 52 0 76 Accident
30 11 28 A Murphy -49L 51 0 73 Accident

Green indicates a driver locked into the chase on wins
Yellow indicates a driver currently in on points
Red indicates a driver mathematically eliminated from the chase (not relevant yet)

Top 15 in STARS Kobalt Tools Truck Series Points
1st: #36- Dustin Houston (2 Wins)
2nd: #79- Owen Hill (1 Win)
3rd: #55- Dallas Hammond
4th: #88- John Jefferson
5th: #99- Jack Ashcroft
6th: #33- Tyler Everett
7th: #05- Ricardo Guerrero
8th: #5- Bailey Bliss
9th: #25- Braxton Laughlin
10th: #02- Martin Jackson
-----------------------------------------
11th: #97- Brittany Chapman
12th: #19- Scott Andrews
13th: #52- Nevaeh Laughlin
14th: #65- Colin Wheeler
15th: #26- Gregory Hadaway

(16th in points, #2- Jon Beaufort, is not eligible for the chase due to not running every race.)

1 -- D Houston  3 2 2 3 3.00 1 13.67 293 0/0  

2 -- D Hammond  3 0 2 3 4.33 0 13.67 236 57/57  

3 +9 J Jefferson  3 0 2 2 12.33 0 17.33 183 110/53  

4 +6 J Ashcroft  3 0 2 2 13.67 0 10.67 175 118/8  

5 +4 T Everett  3 0 1 2 10.00 0 13.67 172 121/3  

6 +2 R Guerrero  3 0 1 2 12.00 0 13.67 168 125/4  

7 -1 B Bliss  3 0 1 1 9.33 0 14.67 167 126/1  

8 -5 B Laughlin  3 0 1 2 13.33 0 18.00 160 133/7  

9 +2 M Jackson  3 0 0 2 10.67 0 20.33 155 138/5  

10 -5 B Chapman  3 0 0 2 14.00 0 14.33 138 155/17  

11 +4 S Andrews  3 0 0 2 14.00 0 26.33 130 163/8  

12 -8 O Hill  2 1 1 1 13.00 0 15.50 129 164/1  

13 -6 N Laughlin  3 0 1 1 17.00 0 22.67 128 165/1  

14 +2 C Wheeler  3 0 0 1 16.00 0 10.00 115 178/13  

15 -2 G Hadaway  3 0 0 1 16.33 0 13.33 108 185/7  

16 +18 J Beaufort  2 0 1 1 13.50 1 2.50 107 186/1  

17 -3 T Ashcroft  3 0 0 0 15.67 0 15.67 105 188/2  

18 -1 H Tsushima  3 0 0 0 17.00 0 16.00 95 198/10  

19 +3 C Rhodes  3 0 0 0 17.00 0 14.00 92 201/3  

20 -1 C Fitzgerald  3 0 0 0 19.00 0 17.67 89 204/3  

21 -3 S Strickland  3 0 0 0 18.67 0 26.00 85 208/4  

22 -1 L Starling  3 0 0 0 18.67 0 11.67 82 211/3  

23 +8 A Evans  2 0 0 1 14.50 0 14.00 79 214/3  

24 -1 C Bennett  3 0 0 0 20.67 0 22.00 79 214/0  

25 +5 N Toujou  3 0 0 0 24.67 0 23.67 67 226/12  

26 -2 M Winfield  2 0 0 0 17.50 0 17.50 66 227/1  

27 -2 B Boyd  3 0 0 0 23.33 0 14.00 60 233/6  

28 -- W Timothy  3 0 0 0 25.00 0 23.67 57 236/3  

29 -9 H Kashima  1 0 0 1 9.00 0 30.00 56 237/1  

30 +3 Y Kunikida  2 0 0 0 21.50 1 5.00 56 237/0  

31 -5 A Murphy  3 0 0 0 26.33 0 13.67 55 238/1  

32 -5 M Dillinger  1 0 0 0 13.00 0 14.00 41 252/14  

33 -4 C Minami  1 0 0 0 18.00 0 29.00 29 264/12  

34 -2 K Hammarling  1 0 0 0 22.00 0 11.00 22 271/7  

35 -- R Jeffries  1 0 0 0 22.00 0 15.00 21 272/1  

36 -- A Young  1 0 0 0 24.00 0 12.00 20 273/1  

37 -- A Stratton  1 0 0 0 25.00 0 10.00 18 275/2  

38 -- N Bassanelli  1 0 0 0 27.00 0 27.00 16 277/2  

39 -- R McBrien  1 0 0 0 29.00 0 7.00 14 279/2