The New England 200 is a NASCAR Busch Series race that takes place at New Hampshire International Speedway.
Past Winners:
* 2006 Carl Edwards
* 2005 Martin Truex, Jr.
* 2004 Matt Kenseth
* 2003 David Green
* 2002 Bobby Hamilton, Jr.
* 2001 Jason Keller
* 2000 Tim Fedewa
* 1999 Elton Sawyer
* 1998 Buckshot Jones
* 1997 Mike McLaughlin
* 1996 Randy LaJoie
* 1995 Chad Little
* 1994 Derrike Cope
* 1993 Robert Pressley
* 1992 Jeff Burton
* 1991 Kenny Wallace
* 1990 Tommy Ellis
New Hampshire International Speedway is a 1.058 mile oval track which has hosted NASCAR racing since the 1990s. It is commonly referred to by its location, Loudon.
The track was opened in June 1990, after nine months of construction following the Bahre family's purchase of the Bryar Motorsports Park. The existing motorcycle circuit was redeveloped into a multi-purpose track, with NASCAR added to the popular motorcycle and SCCA races on the complex. It was the largest speedway in New England, and later expansion has made it the largest sports venue of any type in the region. NASCAR made its debut at the track in July 1990, with a Busch Series race won by Tommy Ellis. For three years, the Busch Series hosted a pair of races at the track each year.
These races were successful and led to Loudon earning a spot on the Winston Cup schedule in 1993. Rusty Wallace won the inaugural Slick 50 300 in July of that year.
A second 300 mile race was added to the schedule in 1997, taking one of the spots that North Wilkesboro once had on the schedule after that track was sold in an estate sale. The race is held in the middle of September, and in 2004, Loudon became the first race in NASCAR's Chase for the Cup "playoff" series.
The track also hosted open wheel racing for seven years, hosting CART from 1992-1995, then the Indy Racing League from 1996-1998.
In 2000, the track was the site of a pair of fatal accidents which took the lives of promising young drivers. In May, while practicing for a Busch Series race, Adam Petty perished when his throttle stuck exiting the second turn, resulting in a full speed crash head-on in the middle of the third and fourth turns. When the Winston Cup Series made their first appearance of the season, a similar fate befell 1998 Rookie of the Year Kenny Irwin, Jr.. For safety reasons, track owners decided to run restrictor plates on the cars during their return trip to the speedway in September 2000, making it the first track in recent history outside of Daytona and Talladega to use them. It would be the last one as well; an uneventful race won by Jeff Burton, which had no lead changes, was the result of the experiment. It was the first wire-to-wire race since the 1970's.
The 2001 New Hampshire 300 was originally scheduled for September 16, the Sunday after the September 11 terrorist attacks. NASCAR initially announced that the race would be held as scheduled, but the event was postponed until the Friday after Thanksgiving. There was much concern about the weather, but race day turned out to be unseasonably mild.