New Hampshire

[Lars]

It’s unfortunate IMO that most everyone basis their opinion of New Hampshire International Speedway off of a couple of events that have happened there. Every message board I go to I’m always reading a post that the racing is boring there, Nascar should take it off the schedule, or that the track just sucks in general.

Yes, Adam Petty & Kenny Irwin Jr. lost their lives at NHIS. Dale Earnhardt lost his live at Daytona, but no one is screaming to remove the Daytona 500 from the schedule. I realize that wouldn’t happen anyhow, with the history & prestige of that race & the fact that the powers that run Nascar also own Daytona Int’l.

In Nascar’s haste after Kenny’s death, they decided to use restrictor plates at NHIS for one race. And yes, that was one of the most pathetic excuses for a race I ever saw. But, my suggestion to anyone that thinks the racing is boring at NHIS, should at least try to go to one race there before forming an opinion.

I’ve been fortunate in the past ten years to go to a number of different tracks to watch a Winston Cup, Busch & Craftsman Truck race and I think NHIS is one of the best, if not the best track that I’ve been too. For comparison, the tracks I’ve seen WC races at are Watkins Glen, the Brickyard, Michigan, Chicagoland, Atlanta, Lowe’s, Daytona & NHIS. I’ll be adding Talladega to my resume this coming October. I’ve also been to Milwaukee & Gateway Int’l for Busch races along with seeing Busch races at Daytona, Michigan & Chicagoland.

My wife’s sister lives in Massachusetts along the New Hampshire border and my wife wanted to go visit her last summer. Never missing an opportunity, I said let’s go when the Nascar boys are running at NHIS. So my youngest and I got tickets to the July race.

I think I called for my tickets in March or April and they really didn’t have much left, but we wanted to go no matter what & we ended up with tickets in row 8 between turns 3 & 4. I wasn’t expecting much, both of the track and our seats. Boy, I was in for a surprise. The track itself was beautiful as well as the seating. Myself being 6’ 1” in height, had plenty of leg room when we got to our seats. I was just at the brand new Chicagoland Speedway the week before & was scrunched in my seat like a sardine. I was also amazed at the sight lines I had of the track, I could see the entire track from my seat, expect a small portion of turn 1. I couldn’t see much of pit stops, but that is the same at any track unless you’re on the front stretch.

As far as the racing goes, I’ll say this: Yes, one of my favorite drivers one the race (Dale Jarrett), but we saw 10 lead changes between 8 different drivers that day & plenty of good racing through out the entire field. We even got to see DJ do the bump & run on his own teammate for the victory. I’m guessing that there have been races at most other tracks with that few of lead changes, most likely even Bristol. I know there has been races at Michigan & Daytona with fewer lead changes.

The traffic was tough getting in and out of the track because there is really one highway leading into the track. This isn’t the only track on the circuit with major traffic problems or one highway leading into the track. But NHIS has the full cooperation of the NH State Patrol. All the other tracks usually just have the local boys helping out around a two to five mile perimeter around the facility. On our way home they had one lane of north bound I-93 closed off to help the allow south bound traffic to drive on it for at least 20 miles south of the track to help the fans get home quicker. I can only assume they do this in the opposite direction heading towards Canada?

Right around Christmas time last year, I got a post card from NHIS. At first I figured it was just something asking me to buy tickets again. Turns out it was a Christmas card thanking me for attending a race at NHIS, wishing me a Merry X-mas & Happy New Year & to top it off, it was hand signed by Bob Bahre. How many of you can say that you have received a hand signed X-mas card from Bruton Smith or Humphy Wheeler & Bill France Jr. or Roger Penske for attending a race at one of their tracks?

Mr. Bahre is always spending money to try and make his track better for both the fans & drivers. He put a lot of time and effort into laying down the new asphalt in hopes that the racing would be better and all he got for his efforts was ****ing & moaning from the drivers and now the fans.

My guess is the reason he lashed out at Bobby LaBonte is because Bobby isn’t usually one of the normal whiners like a Dale Jarrett, Rusty Wallace, Jimmy Spencer, Jeff Gordon, Mikey & Darrell Waltrip & the late Dale Earnhardt. Notice I put one of my favorite drivers at the top of the list so no one can accuse me of picking on their favorite driver. It seems to me that most of us think our favorite drivers can do no wrong, which is not the case.

But in Bobby’s defense, the only time I ever recall Bobby being ticked off is at Bristol quite a few years ago. He took his helmet and threw a fast ball at his car after somebody (can’t remember who) put him into the wall. I loved it, because his helmet was painted up like the Dallas Cowboy’s helmet & I’m a Green Bay Packer fan. I wanted him to launch it again…LOL. But Bristol brings out the emotions, just ask Ward.

Does it matter that NHIS didn’t have enough time to allow the asphalt to cure properly? Yes, but my point is that I never hear or read any positive comments about this facility, except from the few fans, on all the message boards I post at, that I know are regular visitors to NHIS.