With finishes of seventh at the Chicago Street Race and fourth at Atlanta, McDowell is now 15th in the series standings.
He followed that up by posting the fastest average single lap speed (126.416 mph) to lead all competitors in Saturday’s practice.
“For a guy that normally sucks at New Hampshire, that was a good practice,” McDowell said. “We got to go out there and do it in qualifying now.”
Martin Truex Jr. ended up second-fastest (126.408 mph) and Ross Chastain was third (126.077 mph). All three came from Group A.
Among those drivers who ran at least 10 consecutive laps, Truex had the best average speed (125.495 mph). He was followed by McDowell and Christopher Bell, respectively, in that category.
Group A
McDowell, who ran the most laps in the first 20-minute sessions (26), also ended up with the fastest average lap speed (126.416 mph).
Truex was second-fastest (124.408 mph) and Chastain was third (126.077 mph).
23XI Racing teammates Tyler Reddick and Bubba Wallace rounded out the top five.
About 12 minutes into the session, Kyle Busch made some hard contact with the wall, doing some right-side damage to his No. 8 Chevrolet. He immediately hit pit road for repairs.
Not sure this one will buff out pic.twitter.com/S9pQItyQBX
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) July 15, 2023
Over his team radio, Busch had claimed the car was “wrecking loose” prior to the impact.
Group B
Bell, who won this race a year ago, ended up fastest in the second 20-minute session (125.256 mph) but no one could match the speeds from Group A.
Daniel Suarez ended up second-fastest (125.248 mph) and Joey Logano was third (124.997 mph).
Kyle Larson was fourth and Ryan Preece, a former NASCAR Modified champion with a lot of experience at New Hampshire, rounded out the top five.
| Cla | # | Driver | Manufacturer | Laps | Time | Gap | Interval | Mph |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 34 |  Michael McDowell |
Ford | 26 | 30.129 | 126.416 | ||
| 2 | 19 | Martin Truex Jr. |
Toyota | 19 | 30.131 | 0.002 | 0.002 | 126.408 |
| 3 | 1 | Ross Chastain |
Chevrolet | 21 | 30.210 | 0.081 | 0.079 | 126.077 |
| 4 | 45 | Tyler Reddick |
Toyota | 15 | 30.251 | 0.122 | 0.041 | 125.907 |
| 5 | 23 | Bubba Wallace |
Toyota | 16 | 30.273 | 0.144 | 0.022 | 125.815 |
| 6 | 31 | Justin Haley |
Chevrolet | 16 | 30.306 | 0.177 | 0.033 | 125.678 |
| 7 | 8 | Kyle Busch |
Chevrolet | 6 | 30.325 | 0.196 | 0.019 | 125.599 |
| 8 | 6 | Brad Keselowski |
Ford | 11 | 30.328 | 0.199 | 0.003 | 125.587 |
| 9 | 17 | Chris Buescher |
Ford | 24 | 30.395 | 0.266 | 0.067 | 125.310 |
| 10 | 20 | Christopher Bell |
Toyota | 27 | 30.408 | 0.279 | 0.013 | 125.257 |
| 11 | 99 |  Daniel Suarez |
Chevrolet | 24 | 30.410 | 0.281 | 0.002 | 125.248 |
| 12 | 11 | Denny Hamlin |
Toyota | 22 | 30.447 | 0.318 | 0.037 | 125.096 |
| 13 | 22 | Joey Logano |
Ford | 20 | 30.476 | 0.347 | 0.029 | 124.977 |
| 14 | 5 | Kyle Larson |
Chevrolet | 22 | 30.503 | 0.374 | 0.027 | 124.866 |
| 15 | 41 | Ryan Preece |
Ford | 26 | 30.509 | 0.380 | 0.006 | 124.842 |
| 16 | 43 | Erik Jones |
Chevrolet | 13 | 30.529 | 0.400 | 0.020 | 124.760 |
| 17 | 12 | Ryan Blaney |
Ford | 24 | 30.549 | 0.420 | 0.020 | 124.678 |
| 18 | 16 | A.J. Allmendinger |
Chevrolet | 21 | 30.577 | 0.448 | 0.028 | 124.564 |
| 19 | 4 | Kevin Harvick |
Ford | 24 | 30.594 | 0.465 | 0.017 | 124.495 |
| 20 | 54 | Ty Gibbs | Toyota | 24 | 30.603 | 0.474 | 0.009 | 124.458 |
| 21 | 7 | Corey Lajoie |
Chevrolet | 10 | 30.627 | 0.498 | 0.024 | 124.361 |
| 22 | 38 | Todd Gilliland |
Ford | 21 | 30.632 | 0.503 | 0.005 | 124.341 |
| 23 | 10 | Aric Almirola |
Ford | 25 | 30.648 | 0.519 | 0.016 | 124.276 |
| 24 | 2 | Austin Cindric |
Ford | 21 | 30.660 | 0.531 | 0.012 | 124.227 |
| 25 | 24 | William Byron |
Chevrolet | 21 | 30.672 | 0.543 | 0.012 | 124.178 |
| 26 | 14 | Chase Briscoe |
Ford | 21 | 30.732 | 0.603 | 0.060 | 123.936 |
| 27 | 51 | Cole Custer |
Ford | 20 | 30.754 | 0.625 | 0.022 | 123.847 |
| 28 | 9 | Chase Elliott |
Chevrolet | 17 | 30.774 | 0.645 | 0.020 | 123.767 |
| 29 | 47 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. |
Chevrolet | 17 | 30.785 | 0.656 | 0.011 | 123.723 |
| 30 | 42 | Noah Gragson |
Chevrolet | 23 | 30.810 | 0.681 | 0.025 | 123.622 |
| 31 | 48 | Alex Bowman |
Chevrolet | 21 | 30.827 | 0.698 | 0.017 | 123.554 |
| 32 | 3 | Austin Dillon |
Chevrolet | 23 | 30.861 | 0.732 | 0.034 | 123.418 |
| 33 | 21 | Harrison Burton |
Ford | 15 | 30.970 | 0.841 | 0.109 | 122.984 |
| 34 | 15 | Ryan Newman |
Ford | 24 | 31.028 | 0.899 | 0.058 | 122.754 |
| 35 | 78 | B.J. McLeod |
Chevrolet | 11 | 31.037 | 0.908 | 0.009 | 122.718 |
| 36 | 77 | Ty Dillon |
Chevrolet | 14 | 31.141 | 1.012 | 0.104 | 122.308 |
