​New Hampshire Motor Speedway does not look especially intimidating on paper.It is not a superspeedway. It does not have towering banking. It does not stretch two miles around. Yet the 1.058-mile oval in Loudon has spent more than three decades building a reputation as one of the more distinctive stops on the NASCAR schedule.There is a reason drivers treat the so-called “Magic Mile” with respect. Its relatively flat corners leave little margin for error, track position can become enormously important and a car that misses the setup by even a little can make for a very long afternoon.NASCAR returns to New Hampshire this weekend, with the Cup Series scheduled to run the Dollar Tree 301 at 3 p.m. ET Sunday, Aug. 23, on USA Network. The race is the penultimate event of the 2026 regular season before the field heads to Daytona for the finale.Before the green flag, here are 10 things every NASCAR fan should know about New Hampshire Motor Speedway.1. The ‘Magic Mile’ is actually 1.058 miles longNew Hampshire’s nickname rounds things down a bit.The main oval measures 1.058 miles, with 1,500-foot straightaways banked at just one degree. The corners feature variable banking ranging from two to seven degrees.Those numbers help explain much of the track’s personality. New Hampshire lacks the banking that helps drivers carry speed through the corners at many other NASCAR ovals, placing a premium on braking, mechanical grip and getting a car to rotate without abusing the tires.That combination has made Loudon a track where precision matters as much as outright speed.2. New Hampshire Motor Speedway opened in 1990The facility’s history is relatively young compared with NASCAR staples such as Martinsville, Darlington and Daytona.Ground was broken on Aug. 13, 1989, and the track officially opened as New Hampshire International Speedway on June 5, 1990.Its first professional event, the 67th annual Loudon Classic, followed on June 17.The facility was built on the former site of Bryar Motorsports Park, with Bob Bahre developing the new speedway into what became one of the Northeast’s most important racing venues.3. NASCAR arrived during the track’s first seasonNew Hampshire did not have to wait long for NASCAR.The track hosted its first NASCAR race on July 15, 1990, little more than a month after officially opening. The Budweiser 300 was part of what is now the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series.The Cup Series followed three years later.On July 11, 1993, NASCAR’s premier series made its first trip to Loudon for the Slick 50 300.That race marked the beginning of a Cup history at New Hampshire that now stretches across more than three decades.4. The speedway sits on roughly 1,200 acresThe Cup oval is only one piece of a considerably larger motorsports complex.New Hampshire Motor Speedway encompasses approximately 1,200 acres and bills itself as the largest sports and entertainment facility in New England.Beyond the 1.058-mile oval, the property incl