As the rain came down steadily over the line of cars stopped in pit lane at The New Hampshire Motor Speedway late Sunday afternoon Kurt Busch stood next to his car looking pleased but a bit uncomfortable. The NASCAR officials surveyed the skies one last time before calling the LENOX Industrial Tools 301 on account of precipitation; it was official - Kurt Busch had won the race on a strategy of “whaddaya got to lose”. Kurt was politely responding to questions from the media when Michael Waltrip came over carrying an umbrella to congratulate him. Waltrip had finished second and both drivers seemed bemused with this unexpected result.

Qualifying had to deal with typical summer weather at Loudon earlier in the week so it came as no surprise when the forecast for rain during Sunday’s race was put at 60 percent. The first 80 laps were amazingly uneventful, especially if you compared it with the IRL race on Saturday. Patrick Carpentier led from the line but Kevin Harvick worked his way by on lap 5 and stayed there until Dale Earnhardt Jr. got past him on lap 45. The first caution was indicative of the tempo to be expected this day, David Reutimann eased the back of Dario Franchitti’s #40 out to the right and sent him off to tap the wall. On the lap 90 restart Casey Mears found himself out front, followed by Brian Vickers, Kevin Harvick, Tony Stewart, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Denny Hamlin, Clint Bowyer, Martin Truex Jr., Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson. The second and third caution flags were also minimal trauma. Weather was rumored to be thirty minutes out. Should teams plan to run all 301 laps? 200 Laps? 250?

A bit over halfway, Tony Stewart led the pack with Jeff Gordon a couple seconds back and Mears in third. Come lap 203 A.J. Allmendinger livened things up by exploding his engine as he crossed the start finish. Trailing a beautiful ball of flames he headed for the nearest fire station. Another yellow flag celebrated McMurray ramming Earnhardt Jr. as Dale attempted to enter the pits. McMurray went on down the track to clobber David Ragan as well. Most amusing was Juan Montoya’s apparent dissatisfaction with Kyle Busch’s driving abilities with only 22 laps to go. After being rubbed by Kyle, Montoya turned firmly into the #18, spinning both of them. Mr. Montoya was handed a two lap penalty for “rough driving”, also known as emotional instability.

“The Extra Mile at the Magic Mile." never happened and what did happen was far short of magical, except maybe for the teams which chose the “whaddaya got to lose” strategy and stayed on the track through the last two cautions while the leaders pitted. Kyle Busch was declared the winner, Michael Waltrip gratefully accepted second place, J.J. Yeley third, Marin Truex Jr. fourth and Elliott Sadler fifth. With the exception of Truex, all the fast guys were back below tenth place.  Maybe we’ll see a better effort at Daytona.