New Hampshire International Speedway

NASCAR's northernmost venue hosts NEXTEL Cup events in July and September.

Accommodating as it does some 101,000 spectators, it is no wonder that New Hampshire International Speedway plays host to the largest sporting events in New England.

A bucolic location in New Hampshire hardly seems an ideal place to showcase a sport indigenous to the Southeast, but New Hampshire International Speedway has thrived as the host of two NEXTEL Cup events per year-the first in July, the second in September. Nestled into the countryside next to Highway 106 between Loudon and Belmont, New Hampshire is a flat 1.058-mile oval that is banked 12 degrees in the turns and 2 degrees on the straights.

Owned by Bob Bahre and opened in 1990, New Hampshire held its first Winston Cup race in 1993. Rusty Wallace won the initial Slick 50 300 over Mark Martin and the late Davey Allison. Seven years later, Wallace set the track qualifying record of 132.089 mph during time trials for the Thatlook.com 300 in July of 2000. Jeff Burton is the leading winner at NHIS with four victories. Jeff Gordon, with three wins, is the only other NEXTEL Cup driver with more than one.

With grandstand seating for 91,000, New Hampshire routinely draws more than 100,000 fans for a NEXTEL Cup event - there is no sporting event in New England that boasts a bigger crowd. In barely more than a decade since its opening in 1990, the motorsports complex at New Hampshire has proven itself a viable venue for a wide variety of speed sports, including NEXTEL Cup, the Busch Series, the Craftsman Truck Series, the Busch North Series, the Featherlite Modified Series, CART, the Indy Racing League, Formula Ford 2000, Toyota Atlantic and Indy Lights.

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