Randy Bernard, the IRL’s new chief executive officer, could not be reached for comment yesterday, but a league source indicated an announcement would be made Sunday in conjunction with the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at NHMS, the Lenox Industrial Tools 301. The IRL will be adding another major market to its 17-race schedule; it announced earlier this year a race in Baltimore in 2011.

Jerry Gappens, NHMS executive vice president and general manager, said yesterday he and track owner Bruton Smith, chairman of Speedway Motorsports Inc., had talked with Bernard about bringing the open-wheel series back to New Hampshire for the first time since 1998.

“I’m pleased through the new leadership that Randy’s providing he’s opened the dialogue, and I think we’re going to bring it home,’’ Gappens said. “Right now, we’re trying to cross the t’s and dot the i’s, but we feel really positive about it. It should add a third major weekend of racing to our schedule.’’

The IRL parted ways with New Hampshire following the ’98 season after then track owner Bob Bahre, who was the first to align himself with the fledgling league Tony George founded in 1995, became increasingly disenchanted with declining revenue and attendance of the four IRL events he hosted at his 1.058-mile oval from 1996-98.

Bahre wound up replacing the IRL date with a second, more lucrative NASCAR date after he acquired half of North Wilkesboro Speedway and split its two NASCAR dates with Smith (who eventually bought NHMS from Bahre in 2007).

At the heart of the split between Bahre and the IRL was the lack of promotion — by either party — of open-wheel racing at New Hampshire. At the time, the IRL was in the midst of a major struggle to gain market share following its nasty split from Championship Auto Racing Teams, the first series to sanction a major event at NHMS in 1992.

“Bob just got frustrated with it,’’ Gappens said about the CART-IRL split. “It was right about the time he got his second NASCAR date and he was happy to focus on the two Cup events and the revenue it brought.’’

When Gappens was installed as the track’s vice president and general manager, the native of Indiana who had a great appreciation for open-wheel racing and IndyCar racing, in particular, approached the IRL three years ago about adding NHMS to the schedule after IRL’s reunification with CART, but he was turned down.

“They were still putting a lot of the pieces of the puzzle together after reunification,’’ Gappens said. “In fairness to them, they were trying to take two schedules and merge them into one, so I better understood what they were trying to do.’’

When Bernard, the former CEO of Professional Bull Riders Inc., was hired March 1 as the IRL’s CEO, it was his mission to help grow the sport through better marketing and promotion.

“Randy is trying to balance the schedule with ovals and road courses,’’ Gappens said. “He wants to have a good bond with the [Speedway Motorsports Inc.] facilities and he appreciates how we promote [races] in the SMI family.

“Our livelihood depends on promoting auto racing, and he realizes he needs the same type of attention we give NASCAR. If we can do that, I think we’ll have a great chance to succeed.’’

Michael Vega can be reached at vega@globe.com.