This week's race came from Loudon, New Hampshire. This is a very flat but very fast 1 mile oval track. NASCAR made a mid-season rules change before this week's race. From now on, races will not end under yellow as they have so often this season. Instead, NASCAR will end races by dropping the green flag, followed by the white flag on the next lap, followed by the checkers. Although there were a multitude of cautions today, none of them came at the end of the race, so the new rules were not a factor.
Dale Earnhardt, Jr., still recovering from burns, started the race. This allowed Junior to collect the championship points earned by the Budweiser team on the day. Junior then gave way to rookie Martin Truex, Jr. at the first caution. It was all for naught, though. The #8 Chevy finished thirty-first. Points leader Jimmy Johnson also had a rough day and finished way back in the pack. Jeff Gordon ran well, but it was Kurt Busch who took home the checkered flag. That victory secured Busch's position in the top ten in the points standings. The top positions remained unchanged.
