nascar 2012- race 19

Racing at the “Magic Mile”




LOUDON, NEW HAMPSHIRE - The Nationwide Series ran their mid-season race at Loudon, New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Saturday. 200 laps would be run as scheduled. The Pole Sitter # 22 Brad Keselowski set a new track record in his qualifying attempt. 29.067 was enough to put him in the number one spot. # 38 Kasey Kahne would start second. This race was the first of four races, that the drivers would be running for an extra $100,000.00. The “Dash for Cash” will be at the next four races. The top four finishers in each event, go onto the next event after the money. The first race at New Hampshire, had # 3 Austin Dillon, # 2 Elliott Sadler, # 6 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and # 43 Michael Annett going for the cash. Dillon finished ahead of the rest, and took the first hundred-thousand. The next race will have Dillon, Sadler, Stenhouse Jr. and # 12 Sam Hornish Jr. competing for the money. The Loudon track is one of the flattest tracks they race on. The corners only have between two and seven degrees of banking. This is Keselowski’s third straight year of getting the pole position, and # 54 Kyle Busch has had three straight victories at the track. # 23 Austin Dillon had to race without his crew chief Danny Stockman, due to penalties received two weeks in a row. This time, NASCAR suspended the crew chief for two weeks, and fined him $10,000.00. The New Hampshire motto is “Live Free or Die” The National Anthem was sang by Amanda Daly.



The race began with some bad luck for # 54 Kyle Busch. He was having troubles with his fuel pressure cutting out. After falling back right away at the start, he would eventually go to the garage for replacement of the entire fuel system. He did return to the race, twenty plus laps down. His attempt at a fourth consecutive victory ended with the fuel problems. #99 Travis Pastrana also had a rough start to the race, when the cars began a accordion affect at the green flag, and Pastana’s front end was wrinkled up right away. The first caution came out on lap 38 for debris, for debris they said came off the 99 car, after he blew a tire. The second caution on lap 80 was also for Pastrana, when he blew another tire and hit the wall hard. That ended the day for his race.



The third caution was on lap 121, when # 4 Danny Eflund was spun out by # 88 Cole Whitt and # 18 Ryan Truex while they were racing for ninth place on track.. The final caution came out for # 7 Danica Patrick on lap 150, when # 81 Bowles and Patrick got together. Patrick’s car spun out while she was running in the tenth spot. She did recover to finish fourteenth, keeping her in ninth place in the points chase.



On the restart # 33 Kevin Harvick took the lead, and looked like he was going to win easily, when a couple lap cars got in his way. A car 33 laps down got in Harvick’s way and slowed him down a great deal. While this happened # 22 Brad Keselowski was able to storm past him for the victory. This was Harvick’s fifth time, finishing in second place at New Hampshire.



The rest of the top ten were: # 33 Kevin Harvick, # 3 Austin Dillon, # 12 Sam Hornish Jr., # 6 Ricky Stenhouse Jr., # 38 Kasey Kahne, # 2 Elliott Sadler, # 31 Justin Allgaier, # 30 Jamie McMurray and # 18 Ryan Truex.



After the race, # 6 Stenhouse Jr. was getting out of his race car, when the 90 plus degree heat got the best of him, and he passed out. He was transported to the in-field medical center and given an IV. Stenhouse had also been fighting with illness all week. He reported having strep throat. A second driver Kahne seen this happening, and reported that he almost had his knees buckle under him as well.



The next race is at Chicago, next Sunday. The STP 300 will start at 1 PM.









LENOX INDUSTIAL 301



LOUDON, NEW HAMPSHIRE - The Sprint Cup Series also ran at the one mile flat track on Sunday. They would race for 301 laps, for a total distance of 318 miles. Again, the temperatures were in the lower 90’s. The Pole Sitter was # 18 Kyle Busch, with # 5 Kasey Kahne starting beside him. Thirteen year old Emma Joanis sang the National Anthem, as a couple Goshawks from the local air base flew over. Darrell Bates was the Grand Marshal. This would be TNT’s final race for the “Summer Series”.



The day didn’t start out much better for Kyle Busch, when during a green flag pit stop on lap 67, Busch was penalized for speeding on entry to pit road. His pit crew also had troubles with the lug nuts on one tire, making his stop extra long. He had led all the laps up to this stop, and fell back to 23rd after the penalty. The first caution came out on lap 89 for debris in turn three. This was never shown to viewers what it was. The second caution on lap 193 was also for debris that was never shown.



Busch’s troubles would continue on lap 231, when after getting all the way back to second place, he made a pit stop and over-shot his pit box. The caution would then come out for the third time, catching Busch in the pits. He would fall one lap down in nineteenth spot. He finished the race in sixteenth after leading for 72 laps throughout the race. The caution was for # 10 David Reutimann. His engine let go, and dumped some oil on the track. During the final round of pit stops, # 11 Denny Hamlin, who had dominated three quarters of the race, had some complications explaining what he wanted from his crew chief. They changed four tires, when the rest of the field only changed two. # 5 Kasey Kahne took over the lead, and sailed to the finish. Hamlin re-started thirteenth, and finished in second. The rest of the top ten were: # 15 Clint Bowyer, # 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr., # 2 Brad Keselowski, # 24 Jeff Gordon, # 48 Jimmie Johnson, # 29 Kevin Harvick, # 16 Greg Biffle and # 39 Ryan Newman.



The next race is in two weeks on July 29 at Indianapolis.







GLOBAL RALLYCROSS CHAMPIONSHIP



LOUDON, NEW HAMPSHIRE - The Global Rally-cross Championship Series then raced after the Cup series race ended at the speedway.



Round one was won by 34 Tanner Foust, with 12 David Blink taking second.



Round two was won by 38 Brian Deegan, with 40 Dave Mirra finishing second. This round had to be re-started due to a crash that happened right away. 26 Andy Scott and 43 Ken Block got together, and Block’s car was wrecked. A red flag stopped the race. Not only was the car wrecked, but the tracks obstacles was also destroyed.



Round three was won by 199 Travis Pastrana, with 77 Samuel Hubinett finishing second. Again the race needed to be re-started after a red flag, when Sabenak jumped the start.



Round four, also known as the (LCQ) Last Chance Qualifier was won by 12 Steve Verdier, with 43 Ken Block, 26 Andy Scott and 33 Liam Doran all qualifying for the final round.



The final Round was as wild as the first four, with Travis Pastrana winning in his Dodge Dart over-all. Hubineett would be second, Deegan third, Foust was fourth and Block finished in fifth. Scott, Doran, Binks, Verdier and Mirra rounded out the ten racers.



If you haven’t seen these type of races, you really need to watch them at least once. They are small (mostly) foreign cars, that race with several obstacles in their way. I have only watched few, but have become a fan quickly, as these guys are jumping across ramps, sliding around corners in sand and racing across water. It is far from your average race with the stock cars.