This Saturday, Sept. 13 marks the start of nine days of NASCAR in New England with campgrounds opening at 8 a.m. to welcome thousands of campers from all over who make New Hampshire Motor Speedway (NHMS) their home-away-from-home while their favorite drivers battle it out on “The Magic Mile.” The NHMS Operations and Maintenance teams have worked tirelessly for months preparing the 1,200-acre property, from the campgrounds to the racetrack, to shine its brightest.
“Prep [began] a few months ago … right after Bike Week in June”, said New Hampshire Motor Speedway Senior Operations Manager Nick Duggan. “We start planning on when vendors are [going to] be here for painting, decals, installs, signage. … Then a month out, we really get going heavy on mowing, camping lots and parking lots and everything we can get ahead of in time, because you never know what the weather’s [going to] be like come race weekend or week.”
The near-perfect weather lately has helped the team stay ahead of schedule when it comes to the outdoor tasks of hanging banners, painting walkways and racetrack walls, applying decals, mowing, weed whacking and setting up tents.
“A day of rain can set us back two or three days [from] what we need to get done,” said Duggan. “It may rain for a day, but then you [have got to] wait for walls to dry out before you can paint them. Luckily, this year, it’s been pretty good, and we’ve been able to get ahead of a lot of things.”
Not only is the team prepared to house thousands of campers and aid race fans in moving throughout the property, they’ve been collaborating with the New Hampshire Department of Transportation for months on a comprehensive traffic plan to help race fans arriving and exiting each day to get on to and off of the property safely and efficiently.
“Every year we kind of tweak our traffic plan both internally and out on Route 106, pretty much from [Interstate] 93 coming in,” said Duggan. “We start meetings usually three or four months out with the state once a month, just going through, making sure A, make sure everything’s in place, and B, ‘What worked well last year?’ ‘What do we need to tweak a little bit this year for crowd size and everything?’ We had our final meeting this past weekend before the race, so everything’s pretty much locked in, ready to go, and then it’s just a matter of making sure police details are scheduled and coordinated, lights for intersections are there, so it’s a big undertaking between the speedway, all the local police departments, fire departments, and the state DoT is a big player in that.”
On-track action kicks off Friday, Sept. 19 with practice and qualifying sessions for the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour (NWMT) and NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series (NCTS) plus SIG SAUER Academy Dirt Duels at The Flat Track. The action continues on Doubleheader Saturday with the Mohegan Sun 100 NWMT race, the Team EJP 175 NCTS Playoffs race and NASCAR Cup Series (NCS) practice and qualifying. The on-track action culminates Sunday with the NCS taking on “The Magic Mile” to kick off the Round of 12 with the Mobil 1 301. Don’t miss all of the exciting off-track action including “The Magic Mile” Happy Hour Show, Trackside Live, The Groove fan hangout, concerts from Draw the Line and Being Petty: The Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers Experience, Family Movie Night featuring “Captain America: Brave New World,” driver appearances, a variety of live performances, fireworks and much more.
For a full NASCAR weekend schedule, visit NHMS.com/Events/Mobil-1-301/Schedule/.
Tickets:
For tickets and camping for New England’s only NASCAR Playoffs weekend, featuring the Mobil 1 301 NCS and Team EJP 175 NCTS Playoffs races, Mohegan Sun 100 NWMT race and SIG SAUER Academy Dirt Duels, fans should visit NHMS.com or call 833-4LOUDON. Tickets for kids 12 and under are just $10 on Sunday, free on Doubleheader Saturday and start at $10 on Friday.
Follow Us:
Keep track of all of New Hampshire Motor Speedway’s events by following on Facebook (@NHMotorSpeedway), X (@NHMS) and Instagram (@NHMS). Keep up with all the latest information on the speedway website (NHMS.com) and mobile app.
