Picturesque New England could turn ugly for some

New Hampshire should be beautiful this time of year. The mountains are nearby. The lakes are there. I'm sure the weather will be perfect. All the elements of a wonderful weekend to begin the month of July. And it looks like July will be a scorcher, on the track that is.

The stars of the Nextel Cup Series won't get much of a chance to enjoy the New Hampshire scenery; the only view most of them will have will be the walk from the motor coach to the garage and back on a busy weekend at New Hampshire International Speedway. Of course, come Sunday, one driver will have the best view in all of New England, the one from Victory Lane.

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After the last five races, I find it exciting to think the series has welcomed three new drivers into the winner's circle. And I believe we could see another first-time winner this week. I will add that Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson will be on a mission to win and show that they can (and will) be competitive without their regular crew chiefs at the track. It seems that whenever the Hendrick boys get themselves in a Paris Hilton-type dust-up, they rally together and show their strength and classy style. Well, we'll see.

Each week there are many factors that play into the winning formula. We certainly saw that at Sonoma last week. (Watch's Weber's CNN Podcast recap) Some of those factors will play out at New Hampshire for two reasons; it's a "short" race and it can be very difficult to pass with 43 cars on a 1-mile track, but the passing has improved in recent years because of modifications to the racing surface.

Fuel mileage could be a factor, again. We saw it last week. We have seen it here in the past. At Sonoma we were reminded that the crew does not always know for certain if the driver has enough fuel to reach the finish. And, of course, sometimes the crew chief does not always tell a pit reporter everything they know.

The public relations people for Jamie McMurray told our NASCAR on TNT pit reporters that Jamie wasn't ready to talk after the race. That's too bad. Jamie won the pole and was ready to talk then. He drove a terrific race but when he ran out of gas at the end, he wasn't ready to talk to them. Out of fuel, full of frustration.

"Last weekend in Sonoma was tough for the whole No. 26 team," McMurray said through a press release this week. (Continued)