NASCAR Visits Daytona, Indianapolis and New Hampshire In July

The NASCAR Sprint Cup series visits the two most famous racetracks in the United States in July, with a stop in New England in between.  After 17 races Matt Kenseth is the current points leader in the Cup standings with Dale Earnhardt, Jr. close behind in second place.

On July 7th the series makes its second visit of the year at Daytona International Speedway.  It’ll probably be a bit warmer down in Daytona Beach than it was in February, so drivers may appreciate the fact that the race is 20% shorter – the Coke Zero 400 Powered by Coca-Cola.  David Ragan won his first Sprint Cup race at last year’s event.  The Nationwide Series comes to Daytona the same weekend for the Subway Jalapeno 250 Powered by Coca-Cola.  (We assume that the “powered by” refers to some kind of sponsorship, rather than a new type of fuel for the cars.)

The second Cup race of July will be the Lenox Industrial Tools 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon, New Hampshire.  Loudon is one of the more remote NASCAR track locations, in the woodlands of New Hampshire about 75 miles north of Boston and 25 miles north of Manchester, NH.  The race is scheduled to start at noon on July 15th.  Ryan Newman won last year.

Sprint Cup drivers get a rare week off the third weekend in July before heading to Indianapolis.  While everybody knows the annual NASCAR race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway as the “Brickyard 400”, this year the ridiculous official name is “Crown Royal Presents The ‘Your Hero’s Name Here’ 400 at the Brickyard“.  (Okay, we’ll call it the “Brooks Robinson 400 at the Brickyard”.)  Paul Menard was more than a little bit excited when he won his first Sprint Cup race at Indy last year.  The lady and gentlemen will be starting their engines at noon on July 29th.  Nationwide Series drivers get the track on July 28th.

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