Weather helps ease NHIS track problems

LOUDON, N.H. -- Despite much cooler temperatures than in July, less than 20 laps into Sunday's NASCAR Winston Cup New Hampshire 300, drivers reported trouble with the track surface in Turns 3 and 4.

After the race, several drivers said that the only thing that saved the 43-car field from conditions similar to those in the July New England 300 was the rain and the accompanying cooler temperatures.

After the July 21 New England 300, drivers in the field complained that a combination of pebbles pulling out of the surface of the 1.058-mile oval in the newly paved Turns 3 and 4 and fragments of rubber made the surface slick and treacherous.

In July, Tony Stewart and Kyle Petty crashed heavily in Turns 3 and 4 when they slid out on the gravelly surface and Jerry Nadeau called the track conditions the "worst he had ever raced on."

Matt Kenseth was leading the race with nine laps remaining when he suffered a cut tire that his team potentially blamed on running over a stone pulled up out of the track surface.

Except for running a road rolling machine over the asphalt in the interim, the track had done nothing to the surface, feeling that the additional curing time for the asphalt would make it as acceptable as the Turns 1 and 2 end, which were repaved in April.

By the time the race's first caution flew, for rain on lap 19, four-time NHIS winner Jeff Gordon was reporting to his crew on his in-car radio that the track was deteriorating in 3 and 4.

Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jimmie Johnson confirmed that when the race was put under a red flag due to rain after 22 laps.

New Hampshire 300  Standings  Results  Video Highlights  Winner: Ryan Newman  Crew Chief: Matt Borland

"We've really got a great race car," Johnson said. "We lost some spots because guys were being pretty aggressive -- rooting and gouging. Unfortunately the track is kind of coming up -- marbling up in 3 and 4. Something is going on over there."

In the end, Johnson was satisfied with his finish.

"I don't think it came up as much," Johnson said. But, if you got out of the groove, you were definitely in trouble. I thought it was a little better race than we had here before."

"I think the track was only better because it was so overcast," said Mark Martin, who finished 16th after cutting a tire halfway through the event. "It was going bad out there.

"We were having problems with it. It if would have been sunny, I think would have had the same kind of mess on our hands."

The race in July, despite the complaints, had 23 lead changes.

Johnny Benson, who led 43 laps, was more upset with Rusty Wallace than he was about the racetrack.

"It was getting pretty slippery, bur everyone was slipping and sliding," Benson said. "It was the same conditions for everybody."

"I am pleased with the way we ran," said Benson, who finished a season-high fourth. I am just not pleased with the 2 car (Wallace). But, he wants his teammate, and that's how he does it."