2001 New Hampshire 300

Race details[1]
Race 36 of 36 in the2001 NASCAR Winston Cup Series
The 2001 New Hampshire 300 program cover, with the cover advertising its original scheduled date of September 16.
Date	November 23, 2001 (2001-11-23)
Official name	New Hampshire 300
Location	New Hampshire Motor Speedway
Course	Permanent racing facility
Course length	1.058 miles (1.703 km)
Distance	300 laps, 317.4 mi (510.806 km)
Weather	Cold with temperatures approaching 51.1 °F (10.6 °C); wind speeds up to 5.1 miles per hour (8.2 km/h)
Average speed	127.48 miles per hour (205.16 km/h)
Pole position
Driver	Jeff Gordon	Hendrick Motorsports
Time	2001 Owner Points as of Richmond
Most laps led
Driver	Jeff Gordon	Hendrick Motorsports
Laps	257
Winner
No. 31	Robby Gordon	Richard Childress Racing
Television in the United States
Network	NBC
Announcers	Allen Bestwick Benny Parsons Wally Dallenbach

The2001 New Hampshire 300 was aNASCARWinston Cup race held atNew Hampshire Motor Speedway. Originally scheduled to be run on September 16, 2001, theSeptember 11 attacks forced a postponement of the race until November 23, 2001. Thus, the race served as the final event of the2001 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season.

The race was won byRobby Gordon, driving the #31Lowe's Chevrolet forRichard Childress Racing. 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.

The 9/11 attacks left the sports world in somewhat of disarray and NASCAR was no exception. The major issue that the Winston Cup Series had was that their last scheduled off week had been the week between theDodge/Save Mart 350 atSears Point at the end of June at thePepsi 400 atDaytona in early July. There were no other open dates scheduled between then and the final race, theNAPA 500 inAtlanta, so NASCAR had two options: either cancel the New Hampshire 300 outright, or extend the season by one week and finish the season at Loudon instead of Atlanta.

NASCAR opted for the latter and rescheduled the New Hampshire 300 for the week after the NAPA 500, which resulted in the race being held on Thanksgiving weekend. The series' tire supplier,Goodyear, were tasked with coming up with a racing tire that could hold up against potentially hazardous conditions; the weather in New England, especially in New Hampshire, is significantly different in autumn than it is during the summer months when NASCAR typically visits Loudon and the possibility of the race being disrupted by wintry conditions and snow would have to be considered.

With this in mind, NASCAR tenatively scheduled the New Hampshire 300 for Black Friday, November 23, 2001, the day after Thanksgiving; this allowed for two days of leeway in case the weather would cause a postponement. In the end, weather did not play a factor—in fact, the conditions at Loudon that day were unseasonably mild and the race went off as planned. Still, this was the latest date that a Cup Series season had ended since 1974, when the final points race was run on November 24 of that year.

NASCAR did not conduct qualifying for the race. Instead, the field was set by the points standings following theChevrolet Monte Carlo 400 atRichmond, which was the race run the week before the originally scheduled New Hampshire 300.

Thus, the front row was occupied byJeff Gordon in the #24DuPont Chevrolet forHendrick Motorsports, the pole sitter due to his having led the points following the race, andRicky Rudd in the #28Havoline Ford forRobert Yates Racing, 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 inMorgan Shepherd's #89Racing for Jesus Ford andHermie Sadler's #13Little Trees Chevrolet being withdrawn. The 43rd place team in the points after Richmond, the #27 Pontiac fromEel River Racing, had shut down in October after losing both its driver,Rick Mast, and its sponsor,Duke's Mayonnaise, toDonlavey Racing. The other team on the original entry list, the #96 Ford fromPPI Motorsports that had been driven byAndy Houston earlier in 2001, had also shut down in the fall after its sponsorMcDonald's left the team due to Houston's lack of results.

The race sawRobby Gordon, driving the No. 31Chevrolet forRichard Childress Racing, pick up his first career win.^[2][3]

However, it was a controversial win, as he andJeff Gordon, 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 atAtlanta Motor Speedway the week before.

• 2001 in sports in New Hampshire
• 2001 NASCAR Winston Cup Series
• NASCAR races at New Hampshire Motor Speedway
• Sports events affected by the September 11 attacks

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use mdy dates from February 2025