LOUDON, NH :: New Hampshire Motor Speedway General Manager Jerry Gappens said that the inaugural Whelen All-Star Shootout for the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour was “awesome” when he got the chance to reflect on the event two days later.

“I joke that I wish we could just rename the Whelen Modified Series the Sprint Cup Series and have that kind of action and those kinds of finishes week in and week out,” said Gappens. “I know Whelen was very pleased with it (and) from a track standpoint I know we were.”

He said that he is hoping it can become an annual event, but that is a discussion they’re going to have once the weekend is complete.

But Gappens did acknowledge that quite a few fans were upset for multiple reasons at the end of the race.

“I think the crowd didn’t like Ryan (Newman) taking the local guys’ money there a little bit,” said Gappens. “But he qualified for the event by winning races.”

Fans were also displeased by the race ending three laps short thanks to a hard 30-minute time limit. The race was sandwiched in between practice sessions for the Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series. Sprint Cup qualifying and a 100-lap NASCAR K&N East Series race took place later in the day as well.

“We have to work with NASCAR and the television partners too,” said Gappens. “We missed two laps, but yeah, you’d like to see them finish. And Saturday’s race was a great example. I love the green-white-checkered. That gave us one of the greatest finishes in racing yesterday.”

One other issue with the race was the lack of cars from the Southern Modified Tour. Many drivers in that series, like Burt Myers, also run for points at Winston-Salem’s Bowman Gray Stadium.

“It’s just hard with their schedule,” said Gappens. “It’s a matter of working with their schedule. I thought we would have had a little higher car count.”

But overall Gappens was very happy. He said that attendance at the track was up almost 25% from their Friday attendance from one year ago.

“It was a quality field, it was good racing.” said Gappens. “I hope everybody especially on the competitors side enjoyed it.”