The 2001 New Hampshire 300 was a

NASCAR The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. The privately owned company was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1948, and hi ...

Winston Cup The NASCAR Cup Series is the top racing series of the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR). The series began in 1949 as the Strictly Stock Division, and from 1950 to 1970 it was known as the Grand National Division. In 1971, ...

race held at

New Hampshire Motor Speedway New Hampshire Motor Speedway is a Oval track racing, oval speedway located in Loudon, New Hampshire, which has hosted NASCAR racing annually since 1990, as well as the longest-running motorcycle race in North America, the Loudon Classic. Nickna ...

. Originally scheduled to be run on September 16, 2001, the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercia ...

forced a postponement of the race until November 23, 2001. Thus, the race served as the final event of the

2001 NASCAR Winston Cup Series The 2001 NASCAR Winston Cup Series was the 53rd season of professional stock car racing in the United States, the 30th modern-era Cup series. It began on February 11, 2001, at Daytona International Speedway and ended on November 23, 2001, at N ...

season. The race was won by

Robby Gordon Robert Wesley Gordon (born January 2, 1969) is an American auto racing driver. He has raced in NASCAR, CART, the IndyCar Series, the Trans-Am Series, IMSA, IROC and the Dakar Rally. He is active in top-tier off road motorsports such as BITD, NO ...

, driving the #31

Lowe's Lowe's Companies, Inc. (), often shortened to Lowe's, is an American retail company specializing in home improvement. Headquartered in Mooresville, North Carolina, the company operates a chain of retail stores in the United States and Canada. A ...

Chevrolet for

Richard Childress Racing Richard Childress Racing (RCR) is an American professional stock car racing team that currently competes in the NASCAR Cup Series and the NASCAR Xfinity Series. The team is based in Welcome, North Carolina, and is owned and operated by Richard ...

. It was his first of three victories in the Cup Series and was the only one of the three that did not take place on a road course.

Background

NASCAR did not want to cancel the New Hampshire 300 outright, but this created a logistical issue as there were no scheduled off weeks for the Cup Series cars for the remainder of the season. This left Thanksgiving weekend as the only remaining option, which NASCAR decided to take. The problem this presented was that the weather conditions in New England during November were significantly different than those in September, with snow potentially being a factor if temperatures were cold enough. The series' tire supplier, Goodyear, were tasked with coming up with a racing tire that could hold up against the potentially adverse conditions. NASCAR decided to schedule the New Hampshire 300 for Black Friday, November 23, to allow for two potential weather postponement dates. The race went off as scheduled, however, with no weather delays.

Practice results

Qualifying

NASCAR did not conduct qualifying for the race. Instead, the field was set by the points standings following the

Chevrolet Monte Carlo 400 The Federated Auto Parts 400 is an annual NASCAR Cup Series stock car race held at the Richmond Raceway in Richmond, Virginia, being the second of two races at the track with the first one being the Toyota Owners 400 in the spring. As of 2020, ...

Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, Virginia, the capital of Virginia, United States * Richmond, London, a part of London * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town in England * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, ...

, which was the race run the week before the originally scheduled New Hampshire 300. Thus, the front row was occupied by

Jeff Gordon Jeffery Michael Gordon (born August 4, 1971) is an American former professional stock car racing driver, who is the Vice Chairman for Hendrick Motorsports. He raced full-time from 1993 to 2015, driving the No. 24 Chevrolet for Hendrick M ...

in the #24

DuPont DuPont de Nemours, Inc., commonly shortened to DuPont, is an American multinational chemical company first formed in 1802 by French-American chemist and industrialist Éleuthère Irénée du Pont de Nemours. The company played a major role in ...

Chevrolet for

Hendrick Motorsports Hendrick Motorsports (HMS) is an American professional auto racing organization that competes in the NASCAR Cup Series. The team was founded in 1984 as All Star Racing by Rick Hendrick. Hendrick Motorsports has won a NASCAR-record 291 Cup Seri ...

, the pole sitter due to his having led the points following the race, and

Ricky Rudd Richard Lee Rudd (born September 12, 1956), nicknamed "The Rooster", is an American former racing driver. He is the uncle of actor Skeet Ulrich and former NASCAR Busch Series driver Jason Rudd. He retired in 2007 with 23 career wins. He was named ...

in the #28

Havoline Havoline is a motor oil brand currently commercialized by Chevron. The brand had been previously owned by Texaco (since 1931), until the company was acquired by Chevron in 2001. History First introduced in 1904, the Havoline motor oil brand w ...

Ford for

Robert Yates Racing Yates Racing was an American stock car racing team that competed in NASCAR through the 2009 season, after which it merged into Richard Petty Motorsports. Previously known as Robert Yates Racing, the team was owned by Doug Yates, who has officia ...

, who had won the Richmond race and who had been sitting second in the points race afterward. There were originally 46 entries slated for the race, but after NASCAR elected to set the field by the points following Richmond this resulted in

Morgan Shepherd Clay Morgan Shepherd (born October 12, 1941) is an American retired professional stock car racing driver and current team owner. He last competed part-time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, driving the No. 89 Chevrolet Camaro for Shepherd Racing Ven ...

's #89 Racing for Jesus Ford and

Hermie Sadler Herman Marion Sadler III (born April 24, 1969) is a candidate for the newly redrawn Virginia State Senate District 17 and was a former American professional stock car racing driver, announcer, professional wrestling promoter, and autism advocate ...

's #13

Little Trees Little Trees are disposable air fresheners shaped like a stylized evergreen tree, marketed for use in motor vehicles, and most commonly seen hanging from rear-view mirrors. They are made of a specially formulated absorbent material produced in a ...

Chevrolet being withdrawn. The 43rd place team in the points after Richmond, the #27 Pontiac from

Eel River Racing Bahari Racing was a NASCAR Winston Cup and Busch team that operated from 1981 to 2001.The Busch team ran from 1989-1996 with Ronnie Sliver and Michael Waltrip driving, and one race with Johnny Benson at Homestead. The team's history of drivers inc ...

, had shut down in October after losing both its driver,

Rick Mast Richard K. Mast (born March 4, 1957) is a former NASCAR driver. He competed in both the Winston Cup and Busch Series before retiring in 2002. He holds a business administration degree from Blue Ridge Community College. Early and Busch career M ...

, and its sponsor,

Duke's Mayonnaise Duke's Mayonnaise is a condiment created by Eugenia Duke in Greenville, South Carolina, in 1917. Duke's Mayonnaise is the third-largest mayonnaise brand in the United States (behind Hellmann's and Kraft), however its popularity was at first l ...

, to

Donlavey Racing Donlavey Racing was a stock car racing team that competed from 1950 until 2002 in the NASCAR Winston Cup Series. It was owned by Junie Donlavey and ran a total of 863 races in NASCAR. Donlavey Racing used a number of makes and numbers, but for yea ...

. The other team on the original entry list, the #96 Ford from

PPI Motorsports PPI Motorsports was a race team which competed in CART, NASCAR and various off-road racing circuits. The team had one of the few remaining single car operations in NASCAR. Early years PPI stood for Precision Preparation, Inc., a company founded ...

that had been driven by

Andy Houston Andrew Houston (born November 7, 1970) is an American stock car racing spotter and former driver. He is a veteran of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, scoring three wins. Houston is the son of legendary Busch driver Tommy Houston and the younges ...

earlier in 2001, had also shut down in the fall after its sponsor

McDonald's McDonald's Corporation is an American Multinational corporation, multinational fast food chain store, chain, founded in 1940 as a restaurant operated by Richard and Maurice McDonald, in San Bernardino, California, United States. They rechri ...

left the team due to Houston's lack of results.

Starting Lineup

Results

The race saw

, driving the No. 31

Chevrolet Chevrolet ( ), colloquially referred to as Chevy and formally the Chevrolet Motor Division of General Motors Company, is an American automobile division of the American manufacturer General Motors (GM). Louis Chevrolet (1878–1941) and ous ...

for

, pick up his first career win.Robby Gordon's first NASCAR win
at Race DatabaseRacing information for the 2001 New Hampshire 300
at Racing-Reference However, it was a controversial win, as he and

, who had been up front all day, were facing each other, made contact with 16 laps to go. This would put Robby in the lead during the final caution of the race. Jeff would retaliate under yellow and be black flagged. This did not affect Jeff's title hopes, as he had already clinched the title at

Atlanta Motor Speedway Atlanta Motor Speedway (formerly known Atlanta International Raceway from 1960 to 1990) is a 1.54-mile entertainment facility in Hampton, Georgia, United States, 20 miles (32 km) south of Atlanta. It has annually hosted NASCAR Cup Series ...

the week before.

Standings after the race

References

{{2001 Winston Cup , state=collapsed

New Hampshire 300 The ISM Connect 300 was a Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series stock car race that was , traditionally held in mid-September at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon, New Hampshire, the other one being the Ambetter 301 in July. The New England ...

NASCAR races at New Hampshire Motor Speedway