It's Race Day in New Hampshire!

LOUDON, N.H. -- Good morning from New Hampshire Motor Speedway! The race to the Chase begins today for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series stars as they tackle the Magic Mile in today's Lenox Industrial Tools 301.

Right now, gray and gloomy skies are blanketing the area and the chance for rain will increase gradually as the day wears on. But for the moment, we're dry here in Loudon.

Only ten races remain before the cutoff point for the 12-man Chase for the Sprint Cup at Richmond International Raceway in September. As we head into today's race, the man with the momentum is Kyle Busch, who scored his fifth victory of 2008 last week on the demanding road course at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, California. He holds a 103-point lead over Jeff Burton in second place and a 152-point lead over third-place Dale Earnhardt Jr. Roush Fenway Racing pilot Carl Edwards is in fourth at 258 markers off the pace and two-time defending Sprint Cup king Jimmie Johnson is fifth, 326 points back.

While we expect several of the current Chasers-to-be to play a factor in today's event, we may also get to see an upset. Track position is critical here at Loudon and we have a couple of surprises on the front row in former Champ Car star and today's polesitter Patrick Carpentier (car-PAHN-tee-ay) and 2000 NASCAR Cup champion Bobby Labonte.

Other front-runners that put up unexpectedly good results in qualifying were Scott Riggs (fourth, alongside Kevin Harvick in Row 2), Reed Sorenson (sixth, Row 3 with Dale Earnhardt Jr.), '07 Indy 500 winner Dario Franchitti (seventh, Row 4 with Martin Truex Jr.), and another Champ Car alum in A.J. Allmendinger (tenth, Row 5 with Matt Kenseth).

In summary, NHMS has been a track that gives rise to different winners. Only in 2003 and 2004 have we seen season sweeps at the Magic Mile -- Johnson won both Loudon races in '03, and Kurt Busch did the same in '04 en route to the first title of the Nextel/Sprint Cup era.

We'll be posting updates throughout the day here on Boston.com. Remember to follow along with us while you watch or listen to the race (2 p.m. on TNT, WWZN 1510). Today should see a good race -- if Mother Nature doesn't whack us first.