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New Hampshire trend: win one, you're done

In last four years of Sprint Cup at Loudon, there's been no repeat champions

08:18 PM CDT on Sunday, June 28, 2009

Associated Press

LOUDON, N.H. – Blame the tough racetrack, the Car of Tomorrow or simply circumstance. Whatever the reason, there have been no repeat winners in the last four years of Sprint Cup racing at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

If that trend holds, Greg Biffle, who won here in September, won't be in Victory Lane today.

Nor will Kurt Busch, Clint Bowyer, Denny Hamlin, Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch, Ryan Newman or Tony Stewart.

That impressive group of drivers includes the last eight Cup winners on the 1.058-mile New Hampshire oval.

No repeats.

The trend is even more extensive in the Nationwide Series, which has 23 different winners in 23 races after Saturday's Camping World 200.

"Certainly, this racetrack is one of the harder flat tracks that we go to," Biffle said. "It's really, really flat, and I think that it changes a lot, and the guy that hits it just right that weekend is why you see different winners all the time with no repeat winners.

"Hopefully, we'll break that trend this weekend. We'll just have to wait and see."

Stewart started the Cup string when he won the summer race in July 2005.

Jeff Gordon, Jeff Burton, Jimmie Johnson and Busch all won multiple races here before that, including season sweeps by Johnson in 2003 and Busch in 2004.

Since then, though, no repeaters.

Kurt Busch said at least part of the explanation is the Car of Tomorrow, which began competing on NASCAR's shorter tracks in 2007.

"You can say that the new car has added a different twist because we continually come back to the racetracks that we've seen before with completely different setups and that will create different winners and a trend such as that," Busch said.

"This racetrack has a lot to do with pit strategy," added Busch, who won a rain-shortened race here last June.

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