New Hampshire International Speedway

New Hampshire International Speedway is a 1.058 mile oval track which has hosted NASCAR racing since the 1990's. It is commonly refered to by its location, Loudon.

Related Topics:
NASCAR - Loudon

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The track was opened in June 1990, after 9 months of construction. At the time, it was the largest speedway in New England. NASCAR made its debut at the track in July of that year, with a Busch Series race won by Tommy Ellis. For 3 years, the Busch Series hosted a pair of races at the track each year.

Related Topics:
New England - Busch Series - Tommy Ellis

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These races were successful and led to Loudon earning a spot on the Winston Cup schedule in 1993. Rusty Wallace won the inaugural Slick 50 300 in July of that year.

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A second 300 mile race was added to the schedule in 1997, taking one of the spots that North Wilkesboro once had on the schedule. 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.

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The track also hosted open wheel racing for 7 years, hosting CART from 1992-1995, then the Indy Racing League from 1996-1998.

Related Topics:
CART - Indy Racing League

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In 1999 NHIS held Loudon's first annual Halloween costume party and contest, which has a "Haunted House Maze", games, food (which include pizza from Loudon's local pizza parlor, Brookside Pizza), a few "Guessing Games" (started in the fourth annual party in 2002, which you had to estimate how many items are in a jar, and the prize is the jar of items), and of course, the costume contest. It's for Loudon kids taking 5th grade or as low as pre-K, and the prize package includes a trophy, a bike, a bike helmet, and a certificate. There are 12 prize packs each year; two per grade, one for each gender in a grade.

Related Topics:
1999 - Halloween

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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 in the middle of a turn. When Winston Cup made their first appearance, 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 outside of Daytona and Talladega to use them. It would be the last one as well; a boring race which had no lead changes was the result of the experiment.

Related Topics:
Adam Petty - Kenny Irwin, Jr. - Restrictor plate

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After rightfully scrapping the idea, track officials looked after other ways to increase safety, which eventually resulted in the addition of SAFER barriers to the corner walls in 2003, and the addition of the engine-kill switch to all Busch Series and Winston Cup (now Nextel Cup) cars. Also in 2003, an incident occured 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 and instituted the "Free Pass"/"Lucky Dog" rule in which the first car one lap down would get their lap back during each caution period.

Related Topics:
Nextel Cup - Dale Jarrett

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