LOUDON – Patrick Chung became the fifth New England Patriot to drive the pace car at a NASCAR race in Loudon. The two-time Super Bowl champion led the field to green in Sunday’s Foxwoods 301.
He took the Toyota Camry out for a morning test drive and then explored the garage area for an up-close look at the Cup machines.
“I have nothing but respect for these guys,” he said. “They’re pretty much risking their lives out there just racing. It’s fun, it’s exhilarating, it’s cool man.”
Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels drove the pace car last July. Rob Ninkovich, Matt Light and Julian Edelman have also filled the seat in past years.
Chung joked that he’d like to get his hands on the wheel of a Cup car.
“Hopefully someone has to use the bathroom and we can switch,” he riffed.
He added that he recognizes the skill it takes to pilot the heavy machines at high speeds in tight spaces.
“It’s definitely a skill because that is scary to be driving that fast and have people bumping you and they’re right next to you and you can’t really turn to look and see (where they are),” he said. “Hats off to them, more respect. It’s definitely nerve-racking just to see that.”
The Patriots head into training camp starting Thursday in Foxborough, Mass.
Last season ended in 41-33 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl LII. Five months later, Chung said the team has moved on.
“It’s in the past,” he said. “If we keep dwelling on the past, it’s only going to hurt your future. The game sucked, it is what it is. You’ve just got to move on and the faster you can move on the better it will be going forward. That’s how I am about, that’s how the team is about it. It’s a new season, new players, new coaches, so we’re going to go out and see what we can do this year.”
Nothing new at NHMS, the caution flags nevertheless tend to wait until the second half of the track’s Cup races before they start waving.
On Sunday, however, the yellow came early.
Drivers who waited more than three hours to hit the track due to lingering rain had to then endure one slowdown after another. It took only 14 laps for the first flag to come out, there were two by the 20th, and the number was up to four – including one for a competition caution – by the 52nd.
The early commotion was out of character for the mile-long oval, where tight turns make passing difficult and often herd the drivers into single-file lines until the time to get aggressive and make a move arrives later on. The first caution matched the earliest at the track since the 2013 July race, when the flag came out on the fourth lap. That race was also the last Loudon race to get to two cautions faster than Sunday’s, needing only 14 go-rounds.
The first caution came out when Landon Cassill hit a wall between turns 3 and 4, and took up three laps. Only one lap after the restart had been finished when A.J. Allmendinger blew a left rear tire and ran up into the wall between turns 1 and 2.
Allmendinger said contact with Ryan Newman prompted the blowout.
“Down the front straightaway I felt it really go,” he said. “Once you get high up there, you can’t save it.”
After a competition caution on lap 36, the fourth slowdown came due to a piece of debris near the finish line on the 52nd lap.
(Kennebec Journal’s Drew Bonifant contributed to this report)