When the green flag waves at New Hampshire on Sunday, every car will run the same 301 laps on the same track, chasing the same checkered flag. But with only two races left before the Chase begins, what counts as a good Sunday has a different meaning for every driver.
Start near the back of the Chase picture, where the margin for error is thinnest. Shane van Gisbergen currently holds the 16th and final Chase spot with a 50-point cushion over Ryan Preece. For SVG, Sunday is about keeping Preece from making a significant dent in that advantage. For Preece, it’s about closing the gap enough to give himself a realistic shot at taking that final Chase spot when the regular season ends at Daytona.
Move up the standings and the picture changes. Chase Elliott and Christopher Bell have already clinched their Chase spots and enter New Hampshire tied at 695 points. Getting in isn’t the problem anymore. Now it’s about improving where they’ll start when the points reset.
Then there’s Denny Hamlin, who’s playing an entirely different game. He arrives 115 points ahead of Ryan Blaney with a chance to secure the Chase’s No. 1 seed before Daytona. His magic number Sunday is 37 points. Get them, and the No. 1 seed is officially his.
The battle for the win will always demand the most attention. But this Sunday, some of the most important racing may happen nowhere near the lead. They’ll all take the same green flag, but a good Sunday won’t look the same for any of them.
Carson Hocevar Paint Scheme Sample Piece
Carson Hocevar’s “Fast & Flirty” No. 77 Could Bring New Eyes to NASCAR
Carson Hocevar’s No. 77 will be hard to miss at New Hampshire this weekend. Between the pink hearts, kisses, and “ILY” lettering, it’s already getting plenty of attention.
That might be its biggest win before the car ever hits the track.
If you’ve been following the recent social media breadcrumbs surrounding Hocevar and creator Tabitha Swatosh, the “ILY” probably looked familiar. Swatosh has been sharing the lettering while fans have spent weeks trying to piece together what exactly is happening between her and the man she still calls “NASCAR guy.”
Whether every Easter egg was intentionally leading to this reveal or not, the result is something marketers spend a lot of money trying to create: people talking.
Hocevar has noticed who is talking, too. In a Facebook post, he shared that signing off on such a heavily feminine scheme got him some “weird looks,” but one of the coolest reactions has been hearing from female fans excited about the car.
That’s where this becomes bigger than a pink race car.
Sports fandom doesn’t always start with the sport. Sometimes a personality, creator, relationship or even a paint scheme gives someone a reason to pay attention first.
We’ve already watched that happen on a massive scale with Taylor Swift and the Kansas City Chiefs. Kelce’s merchandise sales jumped nearly 400% after Swift’s first Chiefs appearance, but the bigger lesson wasn’t about jerseys. An entirely new audience suddenly had a reason to care about football.
The scale here is obviously different. The opportunity isn’t.
Someone who follows Tabitha might now know who drives the No. 77. And someone invested in “NASCAR guy” now has a reason to pay attention when he takes the green flag Sunday.
NASCAR doesn’t need every new fan to fall in love with racing first.
Sometimes it just needs to give them a reason to look.
