The race was won by Robby Gordon, driving the #31 Lowe's Chevrolet for Richard Childress Racing. It was his first of three victories in the Cup Series and was the only one of the three that did not take place on a road course.
Background
NASCAR did not want to cancel the New Hampshire 300 outright, but this created a logistical issue as there were no scheduled off weeks for the Cup Series cars for the remainder of the season. This left Thanksgiving weekend as the only remaining option, which NASCAR decided to take. The problem this presented was that the weather conditions in New England during November were significantly different than those in September, with snow potentially being a factor if temperatures were cold enough. The series' tire supplier, Goodyear, were tasked with coming up with a racing tire that could hold up against the potentially adverse conditions. NASCAR decided to schedule the New Hampshire 300 for Black Friday, November 23, to allow for two potential weather postponement dates. The race went off as scheduled, however, with no weather delays.
NASCAR did not conduct qualifying for the race. Instead, the field was set by the points standings following the Chevrolet Monte Carlo 400 at Richmond, which was the race run the week before the originally scheduled New Hampshire 300.
Thus, the front row was occupied by Jeff Gordon in the #24 DuPont Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports, the pole sitter due to his having led the points following the race, and Ricky Rudd in the #28 Havoline Ford for Robert Yates Racing, who had won the Richmond race and who had been sitting second in the points race afterward.
There were originally 46 entries slated for the race, but after NASCAR elected to set the field by the points following Richmond this resulted in Morgan Shepherd's #89 Racing for Jesus Ford and Hermie Sadler's #13 Little Trees Chevrolet being withdrawn. The 43rd place team in the points after Richmond, the #27 Pontiac from Eel River Racing, had shut down in October after losing both its driver, Rick Mast, and its sponsor, Duke's Mayonnaise, to Donlavey Racing. The other team on the original entry list, the #96 Ford from PPI Motorsports that had been driven by Andy Houston earlier in 2001, had also shut down in the fall after its sponsor McDonald's left the team due to Houston's lack of results.
However, it was a controversial win, as he and Jeff Gordon, who had been up front all day, were facing each other, made contact with 16 laps to go. This would put Robby in the lead during the final caution of the race. Jeff would retaliate under yellow and be black flagged. This did not affect Jeff's title hopes, as he had already clinched the title at Atlanta Motor Speedway the week before.
