Indy series will return to N.H.

By Dave D’Onofrio

The Indy Racing League will make its return to New Hampshire Motor Speedway next year, bringing top-level open-wheel racing back to the Loudon oval for the first time since 1998 and adding a third major race weekend between the facility’s two NASCAR dates.
The IRL had no official comment on IndyCar’s possible return, but both league and track sources confirmed yesterday that the speedway will be added to the 2011 schedule, with an official announcement expected to come at the track Sunday morning, before the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Lenox Industrial Tools 301.
“We’re crossing the T’s and dotting the I’s,” said Jerry Gappens, speedway executive vice president and general manager. “We’ve been in serious discussions for the last few weeks, and I feel very positive about it.”
The race will be scheduled for July 31 next year, a Sunday that would fall five weeks after Loudon’s first NASCAR event of the season and seven weeks before the second — as long as the track maintains its now-traditional spots on the Cup Series schedule.
That’s the segment of the summer Gappens had targeted in two earlier attempts to land an IndyCar race for New Hampshire, both of which were rebuffed by the IRL’s previous regime.
This year he began laying the groundwork for his latest appeal as soon as new league President Randy Bernard took over in February, establishing contact via e-mail and opening a dialogue that Speedway Motorsports Inc. Chairman Bruton Smith continued earlier this month during IndyCar’s stop at Texas Motor Speedway.
According to Gappens, the league expressed an interest in expanding its relationship with SMI - parent company of the speedway and host of three IRL races this season - and Loudon was attractive because the league wants to keep a balance between ovals and road courses and would like to establish a following in the Northeast. Since that meeting, talks have kept moving closer to an agreement.
“They want to build on that relationship with SMI,” Gappens said. “They have an appreciation for Bruton and his ability to promote.”
An Indiana native who understands the history and tradition of IndyCar racing, Gappens said he has “a deep desire to make this work” and is thrilled about the possibilities of what he expects would be a two-day weekend event potentially incorporating other racing as well.
“They have a great on-track product,” he said, “and I think they’ll put on a great show.”
Open-wheel shows were staged at the speedway in six of the seven seasons between 1992-98, with the IRL sanctioning an event between NASCAR races in both ’97 and ’98. In recent days Smith has threatened to pull a Cup contest from New Hampshire if the track and the town of Loudon don’t reach a compromise on the cost of security during the race weekend, and the reacquisition of an IRL race would seem to add teeth to those threats because the track could now lose a Cup weekend and still be left with two major-league events.
But Gappens said as far as he’s concerned the issues are unrelated.
“One has nothing to do with the other,” he said. “I’ve been working on this for three years, and I want to build our schedule. I want to enhance what we have, not take away from it.”
Gappens has told his staff to keep its focus on the coming weekend, when the speedway will host NASCAR in New England’s largest sporting event and also welcome Danica Patrick for her first Nationwide Series start in almost four months. Since running the first three races of this season, she’s focused on her full-time gig as an IndyCar driver.