Roush-Fenway Racing driver Ryan Newman sits only a mere two points out of being championship eligible for the first time since 2017. And he has opportunity to improve his chances at one of his historically best tracks – New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

His three wins ties him for most among active drivers (also Jimmie Johnson, Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch, Kurt Busch and Denny Hamlin). His seven Busch Pole positions are most in series history at the track. Twice he won a race from the pole (2002 and 2011) – the only driver ever to do so multiple times.

Newman has seven top-fives and his 19 top-10 finishes in 33 starts is second-best in the field – tying him with Kevin Harvick and trailing only Jimmie Johnson’s 22 top 10s. Only fellow three-time New Hampshire champion Kyle Busch (1,010 laps) and New Jersey native Martin Truex Jr. (744 laps) have led more laps than Newman (722) among active drivers.

He comes to Loudon only two points behind Erik Jones, who holds the 16^th and final Playoff qualifying position with seven races remaining in the regular season.

Newman’s best championship showing came in 2014 when he was runner-up to Harvick.

“We want to be in the Playoffs and have a shot at the championship,’’ Newman said last week at Kentucky. “There are two ways of doing that. We want to lock ourselves in with a win, but we haven’t had the performance this year to be in the top-five consistently in order to do that.

“I feel like we have made progress and I look forward to getting back to these race tracks a second time and show the experience we have gained as a rookie team. It has been a new experience and we have hopefully shown some progress when we get to these places. The goal is always to win, but if you can’t win or don’t think you can win, you hopefully get yourself pointed in and show enough progression to win in the Playoffs and keep moving up.’’

Over the last five starts to the season, Newman has four top 10 finishes. So, it’s not like he doesn’t enter this stretch on the right footing either.