After spending last weekend in wine country, the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series travels to the land of lobster and clam chowder this weekend. In one week's time, teams will span nearly the entire width of the continental United States from Napa, California to Loudon, New Hampshire. Aside from facing the logistical challenges of traveling such great distances, teams will also have to adjust their priorities for the handling of their race cars, as they go from a road course with left and right turns to a true flat track.
The New Hampshire International Speedway (NHIS), with only 12 degrees of banking in the turns, is a mile-long flat track that forces teams to find new ways to get their cars to rotate through the center of both corners, while maintaining as much of the speed as possible that they built up down the 1500-foot straight aways. Fans will see exciting two-groove racing for 300 miles on Sunday afternoon. The action will be most similar to that experienced at Martinsville Speedway back at the beginning of April.
New Hampshire International Speedway is another of the few remaining tracks on the Nextel Cup schedule that is privately-owned. Owned by the Bahre family, NHIS has been open since it's ground-breaking in 1989. The track hosted its first NASCAR-sanctioned event with the Budweiser 300 Busch Series race held on July 15, 1990. It took only three years for NASCAR to find room on the schedule for a Cup date on July 11, 1993. Since then the track has been hosting two sold-out NASCAR weekends every year.
In addition to all the NASCAR Nextel Cup and Busch races hosted at NHIS's oval configuration, the track also plays host to the Whelen Modified Series and the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. A few times a year the facility transitions into a 1.6-mile road course configuration to host races for other forms of racing such as motorcycles, sports cars and go-karts.
With a seating capacity of 91,000 grandstand seats and 38 VIP suites, NHIS has proven to be one of the top racing facilities in the Northeast. Combine that with exciting racing action and tasty local cuisine, it's easy to see why New Hampshire International Speedway continues to be a favorite stop for many fans to beat the summer heat.
New Hampshire International Speedway Quick Facts
New Hampshire Lap Record: Ryan Newman (28.561 seconds and 133.357 mph), Sept. 12, 2003
New Hampshire Race Record: Jeff Burton (2 hrs., 42 min., 35 sec/117.134 mph), July 13, 1997
2006 Nextel Cup Winner: Kevin Harvick
Total Purse: $5,315,335
