NHIS
'New Hampshire International Speedway' is a 1.058 mile (1703 m) oval track which has hosted
NASCAR racing since the 1990s. It is commonly referred to by its location,
Loudon.
History
The track was opened in June 1990, after nine months of construction following the Bahre family's purchase of the Bryar Motorsports Park. The existing road circuit was redeveloped into a multi-purpose track, with NASCAR added to the popular
Loudon Classic motorcycle,
WKA go-kart and
SCCA races on the complex. It was the largest speedway in
New England, and later expansion has made it the largest sports venue of any type in the region. NASCAR made its debut at the track in July 1990, with a
Busch Series race won by
Tommy Ellis. For three years, the Busch Series hosted a pair of races at the track each year.
These races were successful and led to Loudon earning a spot on the
NEXTEL Cup schedule in 1993. Rusty Wallace won the inaugural Slick 50 300 in July of that year.
A second race was added to the schedule in 1997, taking one of the spots that
North Wilkesboro once had on the schedule after that track was sold in an estate sale. The race is held in the middle of September, and in 2004, Loudon became the first race in NASCAR's Chase for the Cup "playoff" series.
The track also hosted open wheel racing for seven years, hosting
CART from 1992-1995, then the
Indy Racing League from 1996-1998.
In 2000, the track was the site of a pair of fatal accidents which took the lives of promising young drivers. In May, while practicing for a Busch Series race,
Adam Petty perished when his throttle stuck exiting the second turn, resulting in a full speed crash head-on in the middle of the third and fourth turns. When the Winston Cup Series made their first appearance of the season, a similar fate befell 1998 Rookie of the Year
Kenny Irwin, Jr.. For safety reasons, track owners decided to run
restrictor plates on the cars during their return trip to the speedway in September 2000, making it the first track in recent history outside of Daytona and Talladega to use them. It would be the last one as well; an uneventful race won by
Jeff Burton, which had no lead changes, was the result of the experiment. It was the first wire-to-wire race since the 1970's.
The
2001 New Hampshire 300 was originally scheduled for
September 16, the Sunday after the
September 11 terrorist attacks. NASCAR initially announced that the race would be held as scheduled, but the event was postponed until the Friday after
Thanksgiving. There was much concern about the weather, but race day turned out to be unseasonably mild.
Two changes were made. In 2002, in an effort to increase competitive racing, the track's corners were turned into a progressive banking system, as the apron was paved and became part of the track, and the track's banking was varied from 4 degrees in the lower two lanes to 12% grade (about seven degrees). The addition of SAFER barriers to the corner walls was made in 2003.
During the September 2003 Sylvania 300, an incident occurred at this track involving
Dale Jarrett where his car was stuck in the middle of the race track and was in danger of getting hit while other cars raced back to the caution flag. As a result, NASCAR banned racing back to the caution flag, resulting in a "free pass" (popularly referred to as "the lucky dog") in which the first car behind the leader not on the lead lap would get their lap back during each caution period in all of NASCAR's national and regional series.
In mid-May 2006, Loudon was one of many New England communities which experienced damaging floods after a week of near-record rainfall. Several roads and bridges were washed out near the speedway. The infield was flooded, as was the track itself (while a road racing event was going on.) The facility also experienced flooding in October 2005.
[1]
Pronunciation - Loudon is pronounced 'lau' d&n' as in loud un except with the d in the second syllable instead of in the first.
Current Events
★
NASCAR Nextel Cup -
Lenox Industrial Tools 300
★
NASCAR Nextel Cup -
Sylvania 300
★
NASCAR Busch Series -
New England 200
★
NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series -
Sylvania 200
Records
★
NASCAR Nextel Cup Qualifying:
Ryan Newman, 28.561 sec. (133.357 mph),
2003
★
NASCAR Nextel Cup Race:
Jeff Burton, 2 hrs. 42 min. 35 sec. (117.134 mph),
1997
★
NASCAR Busch Series Qualifying:
Kevin Harvick, 29.138 sec. (130.716 mph),
2001
★
NASCAR Busch Series Race:
Bobby Hamilton Jr., 1 hr. 55 min. 2 sec. (110.368 mph),
2002
★
NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Qualifying:
Mike Skinner, 29.383 sec. (129.626 mph),
2006
★
NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Race:
Jack Sprague, 1 hr. 56 min. 13 sec. (109.244 mph),
2001
★
NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour Qualifying:
Mike Ewanitsko,
North Babylon, NY, 28.693 sec. (132.743 mph),
2001
★
NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour Race:
Chuck Hossfeld,
Ransomville, NY, 1 hr. 2 min. 33 sec. (101.487 mph),
2002
Open wheel race history
NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Race Winners
[2]
External links
★
New Hampshire International Speedway Official Site
★
New Hampshire International Speedway Page on
NASCAR.com
★
Trackpedia guide for drivers including telemetry sessions at the track (road course only)
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