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LOUDON, N.H. – Jack Roush is one of the most prominent men in auto racing.
He is in his 16th year as a Winston Cup owner and has a five-driver stable that includes four of the top 12 drivers in the points standings: Matt Kenseth (1st), Kurt Busch (8th), Jeff Burton (10th) and Mark Martin (12th). The other, 20th-place Greg Biffle, leads the rookie points.
They have combined for five wins in 19 races this season to give Roush 65 trips to Victory Lane in his career.
He has watched the NASCAR Winston Cup series grow dramatically in popularity over the last 16 years.
What has led to the remarkable growth?
“It has been under the control of a benevolent dictatorship: the France family. And they have managed it so that they’ve maintained the viability of the teams and the racetracks. It’s a good bargain. It’s good entertainment value for the fans and it has been extraordinarily interesting based on all the color, excitement and contention that goes with it.
“They kept all those things in balance so one group didn’t have an interest it satisfied at the expense of the others,” said Roush.
He pointed out that NASCAR Winston Cup racing has taken “second place behind the NFL” in terms of fan support and viewership.
“Whether we’ll ever be able to overcome the NFL, I’m not sure. But we’re comfortably in second over the NBA and the other means of sport,” said Roush.
He certainly enjoys owning a team. He was the first Winston Cup owner to have a five-car team in 1998.
Roush said he would like to see Winston Cup racing expand its schedule from 36 to 39 or 40 races.
“We could race on three or four more weekends. We could race on the first and second weekends of February [before the Daytona 500]; The Winston [non-points race in May] could become a points event, not just a show and we’ve got that weekend off the end of June that we could use,” Roush said.
“That would give us four more occasions to go to racetracks we don’t go to at all, new racetracks they’ve built that don’t have events or give a second date to some of the existing tracks that have one date.”
He added that “there’s also a question of how many races should we have in the southeast? How important is the northeast? How important is the southwest and northwest and all that?
“I think there will be more changes in the appearance of NASACR in regards to the racetracks it goes to more than probably anything else in the next five to 10 years,” said Roush.
NHIS track is much improved
Perhaps the most common topic of discussion during a racing weekend at New Hampshire International Speedway is the track surface. It has been repaved several times to try to develop a second racing groove so there can be more passing.
The track has occasionally come apart and the conditions were blasted by the drivers.
But the Bahre family, owners of the track, may have finally hit the jackpot after several side-by-side duels in Sunday’s New England 300 including a four-lap side-by-side battle for the lead involving eventual winner Jimmie Johnson and second-place Kevin Harvick.
The Bahres repaved the corners in turns one and two and three and four last fall.
“It is certainly better,” said Newburgh’s Ricky Craven, who finished 21st.
“I think the Bahres have done a great job,” said Harvick. “You could run two grooves up the track pretty easy, from what I call the first lane. Passing has always been a battle at the bottom. We need flat-track racing. I enjoy the flat tracks and they’ve done a good job to get the side-by-side racing.”
Ricky Rudd said the track was “excellent. Finally. Mr. Bahre has got a race track he can be proud of – it didn’t tear up all day, it had two grooves and it’s a great race track.”
Dale Jarrett and Kurt Busch agreed.
“It was a much wider race track. I appreciate them going in there and repaving it,” said Jarrett. “The next time we come here it should be even better yet. It’s still tough to pass, there’s no doubt about that. It used to be the bottom was where you wanted to be, but now the inside is the place where it’s hard to get down and make a pass. But it did enable us to race a little more side-by-side and transfer positions.”
“It was great,” said Busch. “There was no problem. I would have liked the low groove to come in like it did last year, I mean the yellow-line groove, but it didn’t. People just moved up and it was fine.”
Jerry Nadeau doing ‘great’
Winston Cup driver Jerry Nadeau, who suffered a brain injury in an early-season wreck in practice, was on hand at NHIS over the weekend, the first time he returned to a Winston Cup track since May 2, and said in a press conference that he was doing “great.
“I’m working with great doctors and great therapists. It used to be five days a week that I would go through therapy and now it’s down to three days a week. I’ve been spending time with my wife Jada and my kid.”
Nadeau, who has ties to Aroostook County, said he does plan to return to racing although he can’t yet feel the left side of his body as his brain continues to heal.
“I think it’s really just a matter of time. We’ve already talked about starting out in go-karts and going to some tracks , then taking one of the cars out of the shop and going to Concord (N.C. ) Motorsports Park. Last week, I ran the go-kart and it felt like I never left.”
He said Craven, who also had a head injury earlier in his career, has been helpful.
“He understands what I’m going through because he went through the same situation. He’s a good guy to learn on and get some help from.”
Paquette stands out
Kennebunk’s Jenny Paquette sang an impressive version of the national anthem before Sunday’s New England 300.
Paquette and her country music band, the Jenny Paquette Band, performed after the race.
The Grand Marshal was New Hampshire Gov. Craig Benson.
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