2001 New Hampshire 300

The 9/11 attacks left the sports world in somewhat of disarray and NASCAR was no exception. The major issue that the Winston Cup Series had was that their last scheduled off week had been the week between the Dodge/Save Mart 350 at Sears Point at the end of June at the Pepsi 400 at Daytona in early July. There were no other open dates scheduled between then and the final race, the NAPA 500 in Atlanta, so NASCAR had two options: either cancel the New Hampshire 300 outright, or extend the season by one week and finish the season at Loudon instead of Atlanta.

NASCAR opted for the latter and rescheduled the New Hampshire 300 for the week after the NAPA 500, which resulted in the race being held on Thanksgiving weekend. The series' tire supplier, Goodyear, were tasked with coming up with a racing tire that could hold up against potentially hazardous conditions; the weather in New England, especially in New Hampshire, is significantly different in autumn than it is during the summer months when NASCAR typically visits Loudon and the possibility of the race being disrupted by wintry conditions and snow would have to be considered.

With this in mind, NASCAR tenatively scheduled the New Hampshire 300 for Black Friday, November 23, 2001, the day after Thanksgiving; this allowed for two days of leeway in case the weather would cause a postponement. In the end, weather did not play a factor—in fact, the conditions at Loudon that day were unseasonably mild and the race went off as planned. Still, this was the latest date that a Cup Series season had ended since 1974, when the final points race was run on November 24 of that year.

NASCAR did not conduct qualifying for the race. Instead, the field was set by the points standings following the Chevrolet Monte Carlo 400 at Richmond, which was the race run the week before the originally scheduled New Hampshire 300.

Thus, the front row was occupied by Jeff Gordon in the #24 DuPont Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports, the pole sitter due to his having led the points following the race, and Ricky Rudd in the #28 Havoline Ford for Robert Yates Racing, who had won the Richmond race and who had been sitting second in the points race afterward.

There were originally 46 entries slated for the race, but after NASCAR elected to set the field by the points following Richmond this resulted in Morgan Shepherd's #89 Racing for Jesus Ford and Hermie Sadler's #13 Little Trees Chevrolet being withdrawn. The 43rd place team in the points after Richmond, the #27 Pontiac from Eel River Racing, had shut down in October after losing both its driver, Rick Mast, and its sponsor, Duke's Mayonnaise, to Donlavey Racing. The other team on the original entry list, the #96 Ford from PPI Motorsports that had been driven by Andy Houston earlier in 2001, had also shut down in the fall after its sponsor McDonald's left the team due to Houston's lack of results.

The race saw Robby Gordon, driving the No. 31 Chevrolet for Richard Childress Racing, pick up his first career win.[http://www.race-database.com/results/results.php?year=2001&race=36&series_id=2 Robby Gordon's first NASCAR win] at Race Database[http://www.racing-reference.info/race/2001_New_Hampshire_300/W Racing information for the 2001 New Hampshire 300] at Racing-Reference

However, it was a controversial win, as he and Jeff Gordon, who had been up front all day, were facing each other, made contact with 16 laps to go. This would put Robby in the lead during the final caution of the race. Jeff would retaliate under yellow and be black flagged. This did not affect Jeff's title hopes, as he had already clinched the title at Atlanta Motor Speedway the week before.

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New Hampshire 300

New Hampshire 300

Category:NASCAR races at New Hampshire Motor Speedway

Category:Sports events affected by the September 11 attacks