MOORESVILLE, N.C. (Aug. 20, 2026) – NASCAR Cup Series drivers have to go the extra mile at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Literally.
A Cup Series race around the 1.058-mile oval in Loudon is 301 laps, bucking the industry standard of ending races in a multiple of five. It’s a differentiator from the rest of the tracks on the Cup Series schedule and fitting for the region, as New England is also unique with its mix of dense coastal cities, historic small towns, rugged mountains and deep forests that turn into a kaleidoscope of color come autumn.
“New Hampshire is definitely one of the more unique tracks we go to on the schedule,” said Cody Ware, driver of the No. 51 Schluter®-Systems Chevrolet for Rick Ware Racing. “It’s a mile, which we have plenty of on the Cup Series schedule, but nothing quite as flat, and between the cold winters and hot summers, there’s a decent amount of bumps and the pavement changes there in the corners.
“You need your car to turn really well through the corners, but a lot of times, you end up with a free racecar where the front end isn’t as planted as you want it to be. You lose grip and momentum, and that affects your drive off the corner. Finding the right balance is hard, and combine it with all the shifting we’re doing each lap, we’ve got a lot going on inside the racecar. I don’t think there’s another short track where we’re using our hands as much as we are at New Hampshire.”
The “Magic Mile” has just two to seven degrees of variable banking in its corners, each with a 450-foot turning radius. Those corners are connected by two 1,500-foot-long straights, creating a drag race off one corner before drivers are hard on the brakes to navigate the opposite corner. It is a rhythm that gets repeated for approximately three hours during the 301-lap race.
“New Hampshire has kind of turned into a pseudo road course,” Ware said. “We’re doing so much shifting to make the most of every lap and navigate the flat corners. Consistency is key. Perfection is required every lap because even the littlest change in the RPMs that you’re turning – whether you’re downshifting into the corner or grabbing your upshift out of the corner – it all affects your torque band and the balance of your racecar.
“If you don’t grab your shift right off the corner, you might not have enough torque to keep the momentum going, and that’ll hurt your time down the straightaway. So it really requires laser focus and consistency to make that optimal lap time, lap after lap, for 301 laps.”
Beyond the track’s challenging nature, New Hampshire serves as a beacon for New England motorsports. The area is a quiet hotbed of racing, with its history chronicled by the New England Racing Museum, located on track property by the South Entrance.
“The amount of racing, and the various styles of racing available in New England, is pretty impressive,” Ware said. “The fans up there know it, and they’re proud of it too, and they should be.
“The Modified Tour is probably what I most associate with the Northeast, and that’s just an awesome series that has produced a ton of talent. But you’ve also got Supermodifieds, Super Late Models, Late Models, the ACT Tour, and they’re all competing at some really good, well-run short tracks. I think New Hampshire helps put a spotlight on all of that racing because a lot of times they’re right there with us as part of the NASCAR race weekend.”
Ware’s New Hampshire race weekend begins Saturday with practice at 10:30 a.m. EDT followed by qualifying at 11:35 a.m. TruTV and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio will provide live coverage of both. The Dollar Tree 301 goes green on Sunday at 3 p.m. EDT with flag-to-flag coverage delivered by USA Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
About Rick Ware Racing:
Rick Ware has been a motorsports mainstay for more than 40 years. It began at age 6 when the third-generation racer began his driving career and has since spanned four wheels and two wheels on both asphalt and dirt. Competing in the SCCA Trans Am Series and other road-racing divisions led Ware to NASCAR in the early 1980s, where he finished third in his NASCAR debut – the 1983 Warner W. Hodgdon 300 NASCAR Grand American race at Riverside (Calif.) International Raceway. More than a decade later, injuries would force Ware out of the driver’s seat and into full-time team ownership. In 1995, Rick Ware Racing was formed, and with his wife Lisa by his side, Ware has since built his eponymous organization into an entity that competes full-time in the elite NASCAR Cup Series while simultaneously campaigning successful teams in the Top Fuel class of the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series, Progressive American Flat Track, FIM World Supercross Championship (WSX) and zMAX CARS Tour.
