(photo courtesy hnms.com)
Interesting Louden Tidbits:
• Last race won from the pole: September 2007, Clint Bowyer.
• Average starting position of race winners: 13.1.
• Worst starting position of a race winner: 38th, by Jeff Burton in July 1999.
• Races won from a top-10 starting position: 16 of 31.
• Most wins: Jeff Burton (4).
• 11 different drivers have won the past 11 races.
• Only repeat winner the past 13 races is Kurt Busch.
• 20 drivers have won at Loudon; 15 are active.
• Last winner to go on to win the championship that season: Tony Stewart, July 2005.
• Five of the 13 fall races have been won from the front row — four from the pole, one from second.
• Best average start: Ryan Newman (8.1, 17 races); best average finish: Denny Hamlin (8.2, nine races).
• Best teams in average finish: Stewart-Haas Racing — 10.5; Joe Gibbs Racing — 13.0; Hendrick Motorsports — 15.3; Richard Childress Racing — 15.9; Roush Fenway Racing — 16.4.
The Chase is on …
• Won the Chase opener in 2008; finished ninth at Loudon in September 2009.
• Registered his first Cup Series win at New Hamshire on Sept. 9, 2007. He has finished in the top 12 in five of the past six races at Loudon, including three top-10s.
• The first of his 573 series starts came in the inaugural New Hampshire race in 1993. Since joining RCR, he has five top-10 finishes in 11 races, including three seventh-place runs.
• A three-time winner at Loudon; finished in the top six in the past five races at New Hampshire, including a third-place finish in June.
• Won this race in 2006 while leading 107 laps; finished seventhth and fifth last year and 11th in June
• Started 21st and finished 25th in June; has ony two top-10 finishes in 12 races at New Hampshire.
• Has started on the front row 11 times in 31 races at Loudon; has finished in the top five in five of the past eight races and 14 times overall.
• Six top-10 finishes in nine races at New Hampshire; led 22 laps and finished second in September 2009.
• Finished 34th and 32nd last year, fifth in June; has been running at the end of all 19 starts at Loudon.
• Top-10 finish in the past seven races at New Hampshire and nine of the past 10; finished 39th in September 2006 — his only finish worst than 15th at Loudon and his worst finish in 60 Chase races.
• Had 11 top-10 finishes in his first 16 starts at New Hampshire; his best finish in the past five races is 17th, in June.
• Has led 1,030 laps at Loudon, second to only Jeff Gordon (1,205); has led the most laps in five races at Loudon; has 12 top-five finishes in 23 races at New Hampshire.
Fast Fact
Jeff Burton led all 300 laps in winning at Loudon on Sept. 17, 2000, which was a restrictor-plate race. It was the first race since 1978 that a driver led every lap in a race (Cale Yarborough, Nashville). It was only the sixth time in Cup Series history — and the third time in the modern era — that it has been accomplished. It also was the second superspeedway race in which the winner led every lap. On March 12, 1961, Fireball Roberts led all 178 laps at the 1.4-mile Hanford, Calif., track. Ironically, Burton also is the New Hampshire race winner that has won by leading the fewest laps. He led only two laps in his victory in the 1999 New England 300. (nascar.com)
I looked it up so that you wouldn’t have to!
TIL NEXT TIME, I AM STILL WORKING ON MY REDNECK!
