Around the Track: New Hampshire

New Hampshire International Speedway is a flat one-mile speedway located in the middle of New England, a hotbed for short track racing and an area full of race fans.

In his latest edition of Cingular's "Around the Track," Jeff Burton talks about the Nextel Cup Series' first of two visits to NHIS, for Sunday's New England 300.

New Hampshire's one-mile oval has 12-degree banking in its four corners and two 1,500-foot straightaways, with the frontstretch bisected at its midpoint by the start/finish line.

Jeff Burton: We have real high expectations when we go to New Hampshire. We hope to go there and contend for the win.

We did go there and test, and we feel good about our test. The three-quarter-mile and one-mile flat-track program has really worked well for us this year and we've run extremely well even though our finishes haven't always shown it.

That's what we think is the strength of our program, and we hope to take advantage of that.

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With the impound procedure in effect at New Hampshire we'll mostly be focusing on race setup during practice on Friday.

Qualifying at New Hampshire is tough. It's probably one of the hardest places we go, to qualify at so what we'll do with the impound thing -- which is two practices on Friday and qualifying Saturday at noon -- is work really hard to get the cars to drive well and to get them to do the things we really want them to do.

Then, we'll make some changes for qualifying within the rules that NASCAR gives us then get all you can get in qualifying. Really, that's all that you can do.

Historically at New Hampshire, Friday has always been one of the hardest days because it's so hard to get going fast, there.

If you look at lap times normally it's on their 10th or 15th lap that people run their best time, and then you only get two in qualifying, so it's hard to get going, there.

When you get in the race at New Hampshire, the center of the corner and corner exit speed is everything there. Years ago it used to be that you'd spin the rear wheels easily, there, when today it's very difficult to get the car to turn.

Rear wheel spin isn't really that big of an issue any more, but getting the car to turn, under throttle and to continue to turn under throttle off the corner - that's the big issue and that is what we look for, mainly.

And that's the hardest thing to get in the habit of.

It's very easy to fall behind at New Hampshire. It's hard to pass there, and when you're off just a little bit at a track that's as competitive as New Hampshire, where everybody runs about the same speed, a little bit is a lot.

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It's very easy to get off a little bit, although it's difficult to pass there so if you're not quite as good you can kind of hold your own for a while, because it is so hard to pass.

But there will be three or four cars that are superior, and those cars will be able to pass. The rest -- everybody else -- will just be bottled up.

One thing about New Hampshire is, you can afford to be patient there. In this kind of racing, you have to be patient.

There comes a time when your patience level gets lower and lower, but still, patience is a virtue that you have to have. These races are long and if you don't have it, you'll get in trouble.

The track does change during an event. One of the big things that does happen is a lot of times there's a lot of rubber build-up on the racetrack, and your groove changes.

You need to be able to adapt. If you're not careful, where you find yourself is that your car will only run where the rubber build-up is, and when you get in that deal, you get in trouble.

You need to have a car that you can run in all different kinds of places.

Inside the Numbers Jeff Burton at New Hampshire Date Start Finish Laps Led 09/2004 26 15 - 07/2004 27 12 - 09/2003 15 42 - 07/2003 13 9 10 09/2002 22 20 - 07/2002 21 12 1 11/2001 12 17 - 07/2001 10 11 1 09/2000 2 1 300 07/2000 4 11 1 09/1999 37 4 - 07/1999 38 1 2 08/1998 25 5 - 07/1998 5 1 191 09/1997 39 14 - 07/1997 15 1 99 07/1996 24 4 - 07/1995 30 25 - 07/1994 39 38 - 07/1993 6 37 -

The racing groove obviously has moved up, because they've changed the racetrack and made the bottom groove to where it's not as good as the top. So the groove is definitely higher than where it used to be.

That's changed the racetrack a considerable amount. If anything, the track tightens up a little bit, but the big thing is that because of the rubber build-up you have to change your lines.

At New Hampshire pit access is great. The pit exit is really good -- no problems there. It's a good, long, wide pit road and the pit boxes are fairly large.

It's a really long front straightaway -- not like a lot of places we go where there can be a curve on pit road. It's like a paper clip, so you have a really long and wide pit road.

It's one of the most friendly pit roads that we have.

With passing being so difficult on the racetrack, good pit stops are a requirement to win at New Hampshire. You have to have good stops.

I did lead every lap in this race in New Hampshire's fall race in 2000, but winning there is all about how your car handles.

You've got to have good acceleration off the corner -- your car really has to pull well up off the corner, for sure. Good track position is vital, and having a good handling car is what it takes.

New Hampshire is another track where my brother, Ward, and I have each won. That's pretty special. I've always liked New Hampshire.

I ran the first Busch South race they ever ran there, and from my first time there I really liked it.

It's really cool any time you have brothers that have won at the same racetrack, and I've won four times there, so obviously it's one of my favorites.

It's just a kind of racetrack that's flat and kind of slick, and those kinds of racetracks are where I've had most of my success and I'm hoping we can get some more this weekend with our Cingular Chevrolet.

Jeff Burton, driver of the No. 31 Cingular Chevrolet, will take fans Around the Track each race week during the 2005 Nextel Cup season.