Contested over 301 laps on the 1.058-mile (1.703 km) speedway, it was the 19th race of the 2016 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.

New Hampshire Motor Speedway is a 1.058-mile (1.703 km) oval speedway located in Loudon, New Hampshire, which has hosted NASCAR racing annually since the early 1990s, as well as the longest-running motorcycle race in North America, the Loudon Classic.

Nicknamed "The Magic Mile", the speedway is often converted into a 1.6-mile (2.6 km) road course, which includes much of the oval.

The track was originally the site of Bryar Motorsports Park before being purchased and redeveloped by Bob Bahre.

The preliminary entry list for the race included 40 cars and was released on July 11, 2016 at 10:12 a.m. Eastern time.

Among the changes is Alex Bowman subbing for Dale Earnhardt Jr. who'll sit out this race due to concussion symptoms.

[15] He said afterwards that his car "had a really weird set of tires or something odd go on on our mock run at the end of practice," Johnson said.

The key is to keep it, but at least we’re starting with it.”[18] Kyle Busch, who qualified second, said his "car wasn’t quite as good as I had hoped it would be as far as the feeling that I had with grip.

[20] Chase Elliott was the fastest in the final practice session with a time of 28.998 and a speed of 131.347 mph (211.383 km/h).

Truex didn't give up and stayed close to Kyle to try and pounce on him for the lead.

Kyle hit pit road on lap 183 and handed the lead to Brad Keselowski.

Ryan Blaney was tagged for speeding on pit road and was forced to serve a pass through penalty.

Entering turn 1, Alex Bowman – subbing for the injured Dale Earnhardt Jr. – suffered a tire blowout and slammed the wall.

[22] Bowman said after the race that he thought Edwards "was backing up because he was blocked in as I was leaving the pit box.

I’ve said it a million times, but I’m blessed with this opportunity to be over here with the guys I get to work with and my great sponsors, Dollar General and of course, can’t do it without Toyota, TRD (Toyota Racing Development), Interstate Batteries, WileyX, Gatorade.

It was a fun day.”[29] After a runner-up finish, Stewart said his crew chief "is doing a great job on the box.

We tried some new things and apparently they didn’t work so we aborted mission in the middle of the race and got some speed back in the 22 but not enough to beat the 20.”[31] "We under-execute as a team on a weekly basis and got to do a better job," an unhappy Harvick said after finishing fourth.

[33] He was docked 15 driver points, crew chief Jason Ratcliff was issued a 25-thousand dollar fine and placed on probation through December 31.

Rick Allen, four-time and all-time Loudon winner Jeff Burton and Steve Letarte had the call in the booth for the race.

Dave Burns, Mike Massaro, Marty Snider and Kelli Stavast reported from pit lane during the race.