Camping World Truck Series Returns to NHMS in 2014
Trucks Return to Magic Mile in 2014
LOUDON, NH — Absent from the Magic Mile since 2011, the 175-lap NASCAR Camping World Truck Series event will run on Saturday, Sept. 20, 2014.
Absent from the Magic Mile since 2011, the 175-lap NASCAR Camping World Truck Series event will run on Saturday, Sept. 20, 2014. NHMS
Anchored by its two traditional NASCAR Sprint Cup weekends, New Hampshire Motor Speedway officials announced today the return of the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series in 2014, the 24th consecutive year of NASCAR racing at the 1.058-mile oval. The Truck Series will join NASCAR’s top-tier national touring series, the Nationwide Series and Sprint Cup Series as featured events next July and September.
Absent from the Magic Mile since 2011, the 175-lap NASCAR Camping World Truck Series event will run on Saturday, Sept. 20, the day before the SYLVANIA 300 Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship event on Sunday afternoon, Sept. 21. A 200-lap Nationwide Series event will highlight an action-packed racing schedule on Saturday, July 12. The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series will run the Camping World RV Sales 301 on Sunday, July 13.
“For the 18th straight year, we are thrilled to host two NASCAR Sprint Cup Series events here in New England for our very supportive fan base that included ticket-buyers from 44 states and 12 foreign countries this past season.” said Jerry Gappens, executive vice president and general manager of the speedway. “After a lot of feedback and encouragement from our fans the past two years, we have worked with NASCAR to bring back the trucks. Our schedule of three NASCAR national touring series, supported by two to three regional touring series gives us two entertaining NASCAR race weekends for our fans.”
Gappens said he was in discussions with NASCAR and the American-Canadian Tour officials about including their popular regional tour series to complete the Saturday racing cards in July and September. An announcement is expected soon on those support events. Gappens said he expects NASCAR Sprint Cup qualifying to remain on Fridays of each weekend and is working with NASCAR officials on potential format changes.
The Camping World Truck Series had run 16 consecutive years from 1996 through 2011. The trucks made their NHMS debut back in 1996 in a race won by Ron Hornaday Jr., who was also the last driver not named Kyle Busch to win a truck race in Loudon. Busch won the last three truck races at NHMS, sitting on the pole in 2010 and 2011.
Busch has also been dominant in the Nationwide Series races at the Magic Mile, winning four of the last five 200-lap Saturday features. His win in 2010 gave him two in a row and ended a string of 23 straight different winners, dating back to the Nationwide’s Granite State debut in 1990.
Unlike the Truck or Nationwide series, the Sprint Cup Series hasn’t seen a repeat winner at New Hampshire since Kurt Busch swept both races in 2004. In fact, since 2008, there have been 12 different drivers to take their cars into Victory Lane. Brian Vickers won in July, while Matt Kenseth picked up his series-leading seventh win of the season during September’s SYLVANIA 300 Chase for the Sprint Cup playoff race.
NASCAR’s premier stock car division has been racing twice a year at NHMS since 1997. It has hosted a race in the Chase since the playoff’s inception in 2004.
Ticket holders from 2013 NASCAR races at NHMS have first opportunity to renew their seats for 2014. Anyone renewing tickets by Oct. 31 will be entered into a drawing for a variety of race weekend upgrades and perks, including a chance to win the grand prize 2014 Harley Davidson Street Bob motorcycle. All remaining tickets for the July Camping World RV Sales 301 weekend will go on sale Nov. 15 and on Jan. 2, 2014 for SYLVANIA 300 weekend events. Fans may renew or purchase tickets for the 2014 season in-person at the speedway’s ticket office, visit the speedway website at www.nhms.com, or call the NHMS Ticket Hotline at (603) 783-4931.
Sources: NHMS.com