(Photo by Drew Hallowell/Getty Images for NASCAR)
The 17th race on the 2009 Sprint Cup Series' schedule involved a trip to the New England area and the New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
Described as “Martinsville on Steroids”, New Hampshire is a one mile flat track that has a knack for producing surprise winners.
Qualifying for the Lenox Industrial Tools 301 was rained out on Friday afternoon, setting the field by owner points, putting point leader Tony Stewart on the pole.
Stewart though, had wrecked in the first practice session before qualifying and was forced to a backup car for Sunday’s race. At the same time Stewart was wrecking in turn one, Mark Martin was wrecking in turn three.
Martin, fortunately, was able to repair his primary car in time for the race.
Dark clouds and heavy winds hung over the speedway, as the rain from Friday hung around all weekend and Sunday morning.
Many crew chiefs became prepared to race to lap 152, the halfway point of the race, which makes it official if rain hit and the race could not be restarted.
Because a torrential downpour Saturday night washed all the rubber off the racetrack, NASCAR officials called for a competition caution on lap 35. This would allow teams to check tire wear and better diagnose how their cars were handling.
Pole sitter Tony Stewart led the field to the green flag, but wouldn’t lead the first lap. Stewart told his team that the car was too loose, and he lost seven spots in the first three laps.
Stewart would be able to rebound and finish fifth after coming back to lead forty laps.
His early struggles, however, had cleared the way for Jeff Gordon and Kurt Busch to battle for the lead.
And battle they did.
The two were side-by-side and lap-after-lap for some of the most exciting racing of the day. The two also put on a show when three cautions fell in the first 27 laps, putting them along side each other for the double-file restarts and drag race to turn one.
Gordon told his team that if Busch continued to run him up the track, he was going to wreck Busch in the next corner.
Busch did lead 27 laps en route to a third place finish in the event that he won last year when it rained.
“It’s really tough for me to really feel awful about a third place finish because the way we won here last year under the same circumstances.”
The dominate car of the day though, belonged to Jimmie Johnson who stunk up the show in the middle part of the race upon taking the lead and racking up 93 laps led.
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