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
The 9/11 attacks left the sports world in somewhat of disarray and NASCAR was no exception. The major issue that the Winston Cup Series had was that their last scheduled off week had been the week between the Dodge/Save Mart 350 at Sears Point at the end of June at the Pepsi 400 at Daytona in early July. There were no other open dates scheduled between then and the final race, the NAPA 500 in Atlanta, so NASCAR had two options: either cancel the New Hampshire 300 outright, or extend the season by one week and finish the season at Loudon instead of Atlanta.
NASCAR opted for the latter and rescheduled the New Hampshire 300 for the week after the NAPA 500, which resulted in the race being held on Thanksgiving weekend. The series' tire supplier, Goodyear, were tasked with coming up with a racing tire that could hold up against potentially hazardous conditions; the weather in New England, especially in New Hampshire, is significantly different in autumn than it is during the summer months when NASCAR typically visits Loudon and the possibility of the race being disrupted by wintry conditions and snow would have to be considered.
With this in mind, NASCAR tenatively scheduled the New Hampshire 300 for Black Friday, November 23, 2001, the day after Thanksgiving; this allowed for two days of leeway in case the weather would cause a postponement. In the end, weather did not play a factor—in fact, the conditions at Loudon that day were unseasonably mild and the race went off as planned. Still, this was the latest date that a Cup Series season had ended since 1974, when the final points race was run on November 24 of that year.
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; this meant that the top 43 teams in the standings would receive spots in the race.
Jeff Gordon, driving the #24 DuPont Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports, was set as the pole sitter as he had been leading the points following the Richmond race and would eventually win the Winston Cup. Ricky Rudd, driving the #28 Havoline Ford for Robert Yates Racing and having won the Richmond event, was on the outside of the front row as he had been second in the points behind Gordon at the time. 42 drivers would start the race, with the last row occupied by Kyle Petty in the #45 Sprint Dodge and Buckshot Jones in the #44 Georgia-Pacific Dodge, both driving for Petty Enterprises.
Four additional cars were originally entered for the race when it was originally scheduled for September, but since qualifying was not run, Morgan Shepherd's #89 Racing for Jesus Ford and Hermie Sadler's #13 Little Trees Chevrolet did not return to London for the fall race. The 43rd place team in the standings had been Eel River Racing, which at the time fielded the #27 Duke's Mayonnaise Pontiac with driver Rick Mast; the team folded after losing its sponsorship to Donlavey Racing, for whom Mast started this race. The fourth team that had been entered was the #96 McDonald's Ford driven by Andy Houston for PPI Motorsports; the team had shut down after the inaugural race at Kansas Speedway due to losing its sponsorship after Houston finished 40th or worse seven times and failed to qualify for an additional eight races.
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.
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