Filed under: IRL, NASCAR
LOUDON, N.H. -- Hours before the green flag dropped for
NASCAR's Sprint Cup Series race at
New Hampshire Motor Speedway, track owner Bruton Smith, flanked by last month's Indy 500 winner Dario Franchitti and
IZOD IndyCar Series Chairman Randy Bernard, announced that the facility will be on the IndyCar schedule next July.
Even New Hampshire Governor John Lynch attended the announcement in the track's infield. It will be the first IndyCar race in the area since two-time NASCAR champ Tony Stewart won in the series at this track in 1998.
"Rumors about this having been going on awhile and I can tell you everyone is looking forward to racing here,'' said Franchitti, who made three hot laps in his Target Ganassi Indycar just before the start of Sunday's LENOX Industrial Tools 301. "We'll put on a helluva show.''
Having the IndyCar Series at the speedway gives New Hampshire three major auto races, including two Sprint Cup Series dates, and has prompted a lot of speculation that Smith might be inclined to move one of the NASCAR race weekends to another of his facilities, Kentucky Speedway. That 1.5-mile oval, located between Louisville, Kentucky and Cincinnati, Ohio, has hosted a successful IndyCar Series race since 2000 but does not have a NASCAR Cup Series date.
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