Tim Horrigan's NASCAR Page
Copyright © 2006-2009 Timothy Horrigan
I guess I qualify as a Nascar fan, even if I am an effete Northeastern liberal. I am also very peripherally involved in the sport as an active participant. For the past several years, I have been working on race weekends at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon, NH. My first event was the Fall 2001 race, which was moved from the weekend after 9/11 to the Friday after Thanksgiving. From 2002 to 2007, I worked at Unit 61 (not to be confused with Area 51), an NHIS souvenir tent near the end of the main grandstand. In 2008, under the new ownership, I worked as a "runner" instead, bringing stuff back and forth from the units. I missed the 2009 season, aside from several visits as a guest. If they want me back, I hope to return in 2010, unless my duties as a New Hampshire State Representative prove to be in conflict.
There
probably are thousands of Nascar-related web sites out there, so
there might not be much I need to add.
Three of my favorite Nascar-related web sites are:
I suppose I should also mention my employer's, Speedway Motorsports, Inc.'s web site, even though it is all routine corporate information (although it does link to the various SMI tracks' sites, which are interesting):
I am working on an epic poem entitled Loudon Blues which is partially about racing and which was named after the racetrack. Click here to read a few excerpts.
I hope to add more content as the Nascar season progresses. For now, here's what I got....
My brief Loudon guide (see below)
My
Brief Loudon Guide
Here
are a few (hopefully) helpful pieces of info about New
Hampshire Motor [formerly International] Speedway. I have worked
there (in the souvenir department) since 2001, doing every Cup race
except the September 2008 event (which I missed because of the
election) and I hope
to return for the 2008 Nascar season. I did one event in 2008 even
before the summer Nascar event: I worked the first day of the Loudon
Classic motorcycle races.
All remarks are strictly my own personal opinion.
After the 2007 season Bob Bahre, the legendary founder of the track, sold the facility to one of the giants of the race track industry, Speedway Motorsports Inc., bought the track for the (pretty big) sum of $340 million.
Bob Bahre is a wonderful, down to earth fellow. The first time I met him, he was walking out of a restroom with a clear plastic bag of garbage in his hand (presumably this bag was the liner of the loo's trash can.) Even though he is a multimillionaire, he still helps take out the trash.
Immediately after the sale, only one change was announced: the track was renamed "New Hampshire Motor Speedway" to fit in with SMI's other oval tracks which are all named "[Whatever] Motor Speedway." When I first visited the renamed NHMS in June 2008 the place did not look much different. SMI put up new signs, repaved the access roads (and the track itself), and built some new skyboxes. Many changes gave followed. And even more changes are on the way. The track is not going to lose any Cup dates in 2009. It's going to have two dates for the foreseeable future. And (if the schedule can be worked out) it will be gaining an Indy car date. (The track used to run open wheel cars, but those have been gone for about a dozen years.)
When and Where
Traditionally, there are two Nascar weekends per year at Loudon, one in June or July (generically known as the New England 300, currently sponsored by Lenox/Irwin Industrial Tools, which is a division of the same conglomerate which makes Rubbermaid and Sharpie products.) and one in mid-September (generically known as the New Hampshire 300, currently sponsored by Sylvania.)
The July race in recent years marked the beginning of the second half of the season, being the the 19th of 36 points races, taking place on the second or third Sunday after the Fourth of July. In 2007, the race was moved up to the Sunday before July Fourth, i.e., July 1, 2007. This made it the 17th points race of the season, i.e., the beginning of the so-called 10-race "Race to the Chase" series. The schedule change was fortunate since there is now a Busch Series race in early August in Montréal, which is not far from Loudon. The month-long interval leaves a little extra time for Quebecois fans (who are très fanatical) to rest up between events and save up a few more loonies and twonies to buy more hats and T-shirts.
The fall race traditionally marks the beginning of the 10-race Nextel Cup Chase for the Championship series. (The September race weekend coincides with the onset of the "leaf peeping" season in northern New England and also in Quebec: a detour to the north before or after the race is highly recommended!)
Next year's Sprint Cup events will be:
The Lenox Industrial Tools 301 (Sunday, June 27, 2010)
The Sylvania 300 (Sunday, September 19, 2010)
The street address of the track is: 1122 Route 106 North; Loudon, NH 03307. (This is almost certainly not where you will end up parking your car, however!)
Loudon is a rural community in central New Hampshire, about 8 miles north of the state capital of Concord, and 15 miles south of Laconia. The official PR materials say that the track is an hour north of Boston. You would have to drive like Kurt Busch to make the trip in an hour, but Boston is not very far away. Fans come from all six New England states, Quebec, Atlantic Canada, Upstate New York, and even from the New York City area.
The track is located on Route 106, which roughly parallels Interstate 93. On race days, traffic is very heavy on Route 106, and also on the main east-west highways leading to and from Concord (Route 4 and Route 9.) Getting out after the race is harder than getting in before the race. The post-race traffic is mostly heading south, so if you go in some other direction you can avoid some (though by no means all) of the insanity. There is a major natural barrier to the west, the Merrimack River, and there are few if any alternate routes to the south, but there are plenty of little roads heading north and east. The hard part of the trip south is getting to I-93. Just north of Manchester, there is a toll booth (which now takes E-ZPass) and a fork in the road. The 3-digit alternative, I-293 (which eventually becomes US 3) is actually a more direct route than I-93 proper to most points south.
On Sundays, unless you're driving a shuttle bus or an emergency vehicle, you cannot drive past the track: after the race, Route 106 will be one way south to the south of track and one way north to the north.
Parking is bundled with most ticket package and there are some off-track lots which charge about $20/day. The new owners have been putting a lot of work into improving the on-site parking lots. There are free shuttle busses which run up and down Route 106. You can also park in Concord and take a pay shuttle bus.
The only motel in Loudon proper is a Red Roof Inn on Route 106. Laconia and Concord have a full assortment of hotels and motels, including the ubiquitous chains. Manchester has an even wider assortment. There are many other towns with places you could stay. Fans stay as far away as Portsmouth, which is about 40 miles east of the track.
Tickets
The Sunday Nextel Cup events are usually sold out, although occasionally the track does find that it has a few tickets to sell. In the springs of 2007, 2008 and 2009, the track bought lots of regional TV and radio time. This is not exactly unusual, except that the ads were hawking Sunday Cup tickets, not just Friday and Saturday undercard tickets. (The Lenox 301 in June 2008 came close to not selling out. The last tickets weren't sold till Saturday night. However, there are extenuating circumstances: the economy is very bad and the track added more capacity. In the end we did sell out, keeping our streak alive— and concessions sales were excellent.)
You can find out out about ticket availability by logging onto the track's web site: http://www.NHMS.com/
There are always tickets available on a walkup basis for the Thursday through Saturday programs, although the best seats do sell out far in advance.
"Scalping" tickets is perfectly legal in New Hampshire, though the track still tries to discourage such activity. You will, as you would expect, find quite a few ticket dealers camped out on Route 106 (and even Routes 4 and 28) on race day, though not on the race track property itself.
The tickets don't become physically available until a few weeks
before the event, so anyone offering advance tickets on eBay
and most other internet sites is (most likely) selling tickets which
they don't actually have physical possession of yet. Caveat emptor.
(But:
Go ahead and click here to check out the deals on eBay!)
Ebay's sister site StubHub.com
is a little safer because StubHub.com
doesn't pay the seller until the buyer takes physical custody of the
tickets.
The Track Itself
The track is a paperclip-shaped 1.058-mile oval (hence the nickname "Magic Mile".) The Nextel Cup races are traditionally scheduled for 300 laps, which is 317.4 miles. (There is also a road course, which uses the frontstretch, Turns 1 & 2, and part of the backstretch of the Nascar track, while also looping through the infield and up the grassy knoll behind the backstretch.)
There
is one long grandstand (the Loudon Grandstand, now usually known
simply as the Main Grandstand) extending the length of the
frontstretch, and smaller grandstands wrapping around Turns 1 and 2
(the Concord Grandstand) and Turns 3 and 4 (The Laconia Grandstand.)
There is also a grassy knoll on the backstretch where fans can stand
and watch the race. Track workers sometimes jokingly refer to the
grassy knoll as the "Pittsfield Grandstand" (after another
neighboring town.) There are no lights: there are various legends as
to why there aren't any.
Visibility is outstanding: fans have a great view of the pits and garage area, as well as of the far side of the track. The grandstands are unshaded. The seats are, in most cases, long aluminum benches: butt pads are a good investment. The simple seating aside, the amenities are outstanding: the staff (especially myself) are friendly and there are plenty of restrooms and concession stands. You can bring limited quantities of beer onto the track property, but no alcohol is for sale — except at two or three small concession stands. (I worked on a bill, SB 190, which created a special liquor license to make sure the track to continue its existing practices. It was unclear if the practices were legal before that. It's a long story.)
Now that Winston is no longer a Nascar sponsor, no tobacco is available either. Smoking is still tolerated.(Back in the day, Winston used to give away free cigarettes. But, under the new regime, Sprint/Nextel does not give away free cellphones! Oh well... They will occasionally give away free phone cards, at least.)
This used to be a "one-groove" track where it was difficult to pass, but the racing has been getting better every year as they tweak the surface, the banking, etc. It's a challenging track because the turns are very tight while the straightaways are very long, so it combines the most difficult features of a short track and a superspeedway.
Who Loves Ya?
The same as everywhere else, the most popular driver at Loudon is Dale Earnhardt, Sr.
Dale Jr. is the most popular living driver at Loudon, even though he usually struggles here. He is especially popular with Quebecois fans. Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon have huge followings.
Jimmie swept the Loudon series in 2003, and Jeff has won 3 races here. The "Other Jeff", Jeff Burton is the all-time Cup wins leader with 4 victories, including a bizarre race in 2000 where he led all 300 laps. He has won 5 Loudon races in all counting his Summer 1992 Busch Series win.
Racers with Northern New England roots (e.g., Ricky Craven and Martin Truex) always get a warm reception at Loudon. Quebec's Patrick Carpentier created a lot of excitement in 2008 when he won the pole for the Lenox 301, and not just because he is the handsomest driver on the circuit aside from Kasey Kahne. (Carpentier drove lentement in the race itself and finished 31st, two laps down. Quelle dommage.) In 2009, Middletown, Connecticut's Joey Logano won the Summer Loudon race at the age of 19 years old: he was the youngest winner in Cup history.
The most vigorously reviled villain is Kurt Busch, who swept both Loudon races in his championship year of 2004.
Tony Stewart also used to be widely hated, but since his 2005 championship he has become much more popular. Stewart holds a Loudon record which will be unbeatable until the Indy Cars return (which they will, someday.) He has won races in two different major-league series: he won the summer 2000 and summer 2005 Cup races as well as the summer 1998 Indy Racing League event. (He also won the summer 2008 Nationwide Series race.)
NHIS
Hospitality Tents, etc.
This page does not get a huge number of hits, but a large percentage of those hits are from people Googling phrases like "NHIS+hospitality+tents". I don't know a whole lot about these tents, even though I spend many long hours within sight of them: I am usually at a souvenir stand behind the main grandstand, and the tents are on the other side of a chain link fence. I will say that the main hospitality tent area is in between Route 106 and the track proper. You do, I believe, need a separate pass for the Hospitality area, as well as a ticket for a specific tent. Those items are normally only supposed to be given out along with a race ticket, although people do buy and sell their hospitality passes separately. (Naughty, naughty!) You need a contact with a corporate sponsor to get a hospitality tent pass. Once you get inside the tent there is the usual free food, drink, music, schwag, etc. to be snarfed up.
On a more rarefied level, there is a complex of luxury suites on top of the main grandstand. This is one of the places where the drivers and other celebrities hang out when they're not working. It's virtually impossible to get up there unless you are extremely well-connected. It is difficult but not impossible to get a pass for the infield, where you can get a closeup look at the garages. Myself, I worked 16 events at the track before I had occasion to go to the infield (and then to get there I had to drive a golf cart through 18 inches of rather dubious-looking standing water after a post-race thunderstorm.)
Some sponsors set up tents for the general public outside the track proper. There's no free food or drink to be had, but some of these tents are worth a visit. I especially recommend the racing museum at the Crown Royal tent. The best freebies used to be the colorful MBNA T-shirts, available if you applied for an MBNA Racing Rewards card. I have about a dozen of them myself. Sadly, MBNA no longer exists. Well, actually, I don't mind that they don't exist: I just miss their schwag.
The best place to see drivers and other celebrities for free is the SpeedTV studio, which is usually set up somewhere on the "Tilcon Road" which leads from Turns 1 and 2 to the main RV parking area. Also, if you arrive early on Sunday morning, there are always several Cup drivers signing autographs at their souvenir haulers before the main event (especially now that Speedway Motorsports is running the show: the vast majority of those haulers are affiliated with SMI Properties.) Sometimes you even see pit crew members signing autographs. The drivers also like to sign autographs on Saturday mornings. The driver who turns up the most frequently in the concession area is Michael Waltrip, who owns and manages his own team and frequently checks up on his company's souvenir sales.
Useful Links
What Happened to Dale Jr.'s Budweiser Car?:
I was going to delete this whole section which was about various changes which took place in 2007 and 2008. One change still seems to be of interest: the demise of Dale Jr.'s #8 Budweiser car.
The most noticeable change in 2008 was: Dale Earnhardt Jr. no longer drove for Dale Earnhardt, Inc. He surprised some people (though not everyone) by joining Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson and Casey Mears as members of the Hendrick Motorsports stable. (Kyle Busch had to go find another ride, and caught on with Joe Gibbs Racing and set a whole bunch of records even though he didn't do all that well in the 2008 Chase and missed the 2009 chase altogether.
Dale Jr.'s #8 red and black Budweiser car used to sport the second-most famous livery in racing (af2ter his fathers black #3 Goodwrench car.) For almost a decade, Junior drove with Budweiser on (though not in) his car.
Dale Jr. & Dale Sr.'s joint souvenir truck; Loudon
2007
Shortly before Junior left DEI, Jeff Gordon scored his 76th and 77th race wins, tying and then surpassing Dale Sr.'s career totals. This placed Gordon sixth on the "all time" (since 1949) list and first on the "modern era" (since 1973) victory list. Both times, Gordon waved an Earnhardt #3 banner out his car window during his victory laps— while some disgruntled Earnhardt fans booed him and even pelted his #24 car with beer cans (hopefully, Anheuser-Buswch products.)
Evidently, the negotiations between Dale Jr. and his stepmother were bitter. Even after he decided to leave, the question of whether or not he could at least keep using the #8 on his car remained open for most of the summer. It sounds, judging from Junior's rather diplomatic public statements, that Teresa fought more with her stepchildren over the number than anything else. (I say "stepchildren" in the plural because Dale Jr.'s older sister Kelly Earnhardt Elledge is his business manager.)
August 18, 2007 ESPN.com story: "Dale Jr. says Teresa blocked 8 move"
August 19, 2007 ESPN.com story: "Junior the 82nd driver to get seat time in the No. 8" (Junior is actually not the greatest driver to use the #8: Joe Weatherly, Wendell Scott, David Pearson, Mark Martin, and Dale Sr. also drove #8 cars at some point during their Cup careers.)
Teresa Earnhardt did field a #8 car in 2008: the popular veteran Mark Martin (who became a DEI driver when Ms. Earnhardt bought out Bobby Ginn's racing operation) and Aric Almirola shared the ride. But it was not the #8 Bud car: on September 18, 2007, Anheuser-Busch announced that they had signed up Kasey Kahne (the cutest driver on the circuit) and his #9 Dodge, owned by Gillett Evernham Motors.
Kasey
Kahne with Bud on (but not in) his car
For a long time no one knew which number Junior would be using. Finally, on September 19th, 2007, we found out: Junior would be driving the #88 car, and he had three different sponsors: the National Guard, Mountain Dew, and AMP Energy Drink (both Pepsi products.) No, he does not have to join the Guard (although he sure seems like the type of tough, earnest, community-minded young man who would join the Guard if not for his racing career)—but he does have to drink the drinks. He may also want to consider being seen drinking another Pepsico energy drink product: Jeff Gordon 24 Energy (a special racing energy drink "uniquely formulated for race fans and energy drinkers.")
The #88 car has a rich history. Most recently, Ricky Rudd ran the #88 for Robert Yates Racing. Its most recent sponsor was a candy bar: Snickers. 50 years ago, Dale Jr.'s grandfather, the late Ralph Earnhardt, drove a #88 car for (racin' is a small world) Petty Enterprises.
After all that fuss, Mark Martin ended up with Hendrick Motorsports and is doing great, whereas the #8 team went out of business altogether. Kasey Kahne is doing pretty well: unlike Jr., he made the 2009 Chase.
The Chase for the Championship
I moved my Chase for the Championship info to a different page.
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