K&N Pro East News & Notes: NHMS

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — With 69 races having been held there since the track opened in 1990, no venue is more synonymous with the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East than New Hampshire Motor Speedway. And when the 70th race is completed at the track on Saturday afternoon, the winner of the United Site Services 70 will put their name amongst elite company in the record books.

The hub of speedway racing in New England, the 1.058-mile oval seating nearly 100,000 people is the largest sporting venue in the region and it has celebrated some of stock car racing’s biggest names in its Victory Lane. Maine native Ricky Craven, Martin Truex Jr., Daytona 500 winner Joey Logano, Jeff Burton, and multi-time series champions Jamie Aube, Brad Leighton, Mike Olsen and Andy Santerre have all won races at the track. NASCAR Sprint Cup driver Kyle Larson won the 2012 event — one of five drivers since 2007 to win at NHMS and take home the title in the same year — along with last year’s winner and current NASCAR Camping World Series championship points leader William Byron.

In fact, so significant is the list of K&N Pro Series East winners at NHMS that nine of the 10 drivers named to the series’ Top 10 Drivers of the First 25 Years of the NASCAR K&N Pro Series in 2011 all won races there.

While the series held its first races in 1987, NHMS opened just three years later and became a staple, hosting as many as four races a year through the end of the 1999 season. Events at The Magic Mile remain significant to this day with the annual series’ stop at the track coming as a companion event to the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race each summer.

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FAST FACTS:
The Race: The United Site Services 70 will be the ninth of 14 races on the 2016 NASCAR K&N Pro Series East schedule. It’s the eighth of 10 oval track events and will the series’ 70th visit to New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

The Procedure: The starting field is 36 cars, including provisionals. The first 32 cars will qualify through the group qualifying process while the remaining four spots will be awarded through the provisional process. The race will be 70 laps, spanning 74.06 miles.

The Track: This is the 70th race for the K&N Pro Series East at the 1.058-mile slightly banked oval, dating back to September 1990. This is the third straight year the series has raced on the summer stop for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, after running on the September weekend in 2012 and 2013. It’s the largest oval on the K&N Pro Series East schedule.

Race Winners: There have been 29 different winners in the 59 all-time stand-alone races at Loudon. New Hampshire native Brad Leighton has the most series wins at the “Magic Mile” with eight, while Eddie MacDonald is the active leader with three.

Pole Winners: Of the 32 different drivers to earn a pole award at New Hampshire, Kelly Moore has the most in K&N Pro Series East history with six. Ben Rhodes set a new qualifying record in 2014 with a time of 29.622 seconds (128.580 mph) for his first pole at Loudon.

United Site Services 70 Notes:
Leader Of The Pack: Justin Haley of Winamac, Indiana, padded his lead atop the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East standings with a win in the series’ most recent race at Ohio’s Columbus Motor Speedway on July 2. Haley, who also won at Greenville Pickens Speedway in South Carolina this season, leads Noah Gragson by 40 points atop the standings with six races remaining.

LaJoie Returns: Corey LaJoie of Concord, North Carolina, who has made four NASCAR Xfinity Series starts this season, returns to his roots with a start in the United Services 70 on Saturday. LaJoie won five of 14 races in the K&N Pro Series in 2012, en route to a second-place finish in the season standings behind current NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Kyle Larson. He posted his best career NHMS finish of second that season.

Gilliland Returns East: Third generation driver Todd Gilliland will be in the NHMS field. The 16-year-old from Sherrils Ford, North Carolina has five wins in 12 K&N Pro Series starts this season, including four West wins and one East win. Gilliland won the season opener at New Smyrna Speedway in February after winning the pole and leading 91 laps en route to the victory.

Austin Theriault Right At Home: The Hattori Racing Enterprises driver from Fort Kent, Maine, has as nearly as much experience at NHMS as any driver in the United Site Services 70 field. Theriault has made starts in both the XFINITY Series and K&N Pro Series at the track, as well as a number of Late Model starts. Theriault is coming of a career-best finish of second at Columbus and sits fifth in the overall standings.

Eddie Mac On The Attack: Eddie MacDonald of Rowley, Massachusetts, leads all active drivers with three career wins at NHMS, including a season sweep of the two races in 2008. He also has several Late Model and Super Late Model wins at the speedway, and he’s entered in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series New Hampshire 301 on Sunday.

Feels Like The First Time: Through the first eight races of the season, there have been seven different NASCAR K&N Pro Series East winners — and all of them first-time winners. Noah Gragson of Las Vegas, Nevada, became the seventh driver first-time winner added to the list when he won the Stafford 150 at Stafford Motor Speedway in June. Gragson used a bold three-wide move on a green-white-checkered restart to claim his first career win in his 19th career start.

NASCAR Home Tracks: NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour Part Of Tripleheader
The NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour joins the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East on a tripleheader schedule Saturday at NHMS, along with the NASCAR Xfinity Series. The Whelen Modified Tour will also be part of a special All-Star Shootout on Friday, a 35-lap non-points event.