Cars at NASCAR’s Nextel Cup race at New Hampshire International Speedway Sunday head to the pits during a caution on the track.

THE PROVIDENCE JOURNAL / STEVE SZYDLOWSKI

LOUDON, N.H. -- NASCAR is uniquely American but in at least one sense its roots go back to the chariot races of ancient Rome.

Unlike Formula One-style road racing, where spectators can see only a portion of the race track at any one time, most of the fans at an oval track can see the entire race all the time.

“You see all the track, all the action, all the accidents,” said Dan Otis, a racing fan from Brewer, Maine, who was down for Sunday’s Lenox Industrial Tools 300 at the New Hampshire International Speedway.

This was one of two stops a season the tour makes in Loudon (the other is in September), the only place that New Englanders can see NASCAR races live.

Otis, who was having dinner at Gordi’s Fish and Steak House in Lincoln, N.H., with his brother Rob the night before the race, said he was a Formula One fan but his brother was converting him to NASCAR.

“This is fun as spectacle,” he said. “A NASCAR race is like a freight train going round. One false move can lead to a pileup.

“I love Formula One for all the technology,” he added. “But NASCAR is a different kind of racing . . . . It’s more of a slugfest. I mean, they actually touch each other like they’re knocking the dents out.”

“The start of the race is a big adrenaline rush,” said Henry “Hank” Maxwell, a spokesman for the Speedway. “It’s awesome.”

Bruce Toppa of Jamestown, who likes to stand on the back stretch just eight feet from the track, agreed. “When they come round the first time, the wind and the noise just suck you right up. You have to hold onto your hat. It’s like a vacuum.”

Toppa was attending the race with his 13-year-old son Cameron who was wearing a Tony Stewart hat and shirt. He’s a fan of No. 20 not only because Stewart won the first race he attended but also acknowledged him before the race.

“Cameron was holding a sign with (Stewart’s) name on it,” said Toppa who is a fan of No.8 Dale Earnhardt Jr.

“It’s a lot of fun,” he added, noting that part of the fun were the crashes, so long as no one was seriously hurt. “It’s a big part of it, so long as your driver is not part of it,” he said.

In this sense, NASCAR is a spectacle akin to those popular Roman chariot races which were run on oval tracks, the largest being the Circus (as in circle) Maximus which could hold more than 100,000 spectators. Twelve lightweight, four-horse chariots raced seven laps, or about 3 1/2 miles, and spectacular accidents were not uncommon.

Sunday’s race, however, was accident free, with an overcast sky providing cool temperatures and only the threat of rain. The final laps were marked by an exciting late run by 4-time Nextel Cup Series champion and current leader No. 24 Jeff Gordon who moved up past No. 8 Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and No.1 Martin Truex, Jr. to take on No.11 Denny Hamlin for the lead. However, Hamlin managed to hold him off and claim the race by less than a car length, or 0.068 seconds!

Around the track, fans revealed their driver loyalties in brand clothing and in the multitude of pennants — sometimes as many as four to a flagpole — fluttering over the extensive village of RVs. Combined with the colorful vendors selling everything from hats to hotdogs and the crowds — the Speedway has a seating capacity of just over 100,000 and there was not an empty seat in the house — and the overall impression was of a medieval fairground outside a jousting tournament.

“The commercialism, the marketing, is striking,” said Dan Otis. “There’s a lot of tailgating. It’s a party, it’s a weekend.”

As race time (2:30 p.m.) approached, the air buzzed with airplanes towing ads and circling helicopters.

David Smith-Tilley of DST Racing was organizing the pit crew for No. 37 driven by Kevin Lepage who does not currently have a major sponsor.

Fielding a NASCAR team week after week is extremely expensive. One race could cost a team around $20,000 on tires alone. “On a big race, we’ll go through nine sets of tires,” said Smith-Tilley, noting that each tire costs $550. Then there are the salaries for the mechanics and “the over-the-wall pit crews,” Maxwell noted.

Smith-Tilley said a major sponsor like Home Depot spends $15-20 million a year on Stewart’s No.20 Chevrolet team.

One of the key jobs before a race is gluing the lug nuts to the wheels so they can be gunned on in less than a second. Steve Serydynski, a Providence native who moved to North Carolina, was LePage’s rear wheel changer. He said he practices changing wheels twice a week and guns all five lugs on a rear wheel in about 0.9 seconds. He takes about 1.25 seconds for the front wheels because he makes them tighter.

With around 30 minutes to go, the drivers emerged from their massive team trailers, walked to the track and were introduced one by one, with leading drivers like Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson and Tony Stewart getting the most applause. They were then taken one by one round the track in the back of a pickup truck, giving fans a chance to see their favorite drivers. NASCAR has a sophisticated marketing department and fans are given every opportunity to develop strong feelings of loyalty for individual drivers.

Once the drivers got into their cars, they were cocooned in spartan metal interiors, surrounded by instruments, metal braces and hoses. Big neck braces wrap around their helmets and temperatures can reach over 120 degrees on a hot day, despite air conditioners. Maxwell said Sunday was a good day for racing because the cool weather would keep the cabins at about 110 degrees.

In addition, the cars do not have speedometers. Instead the drivers judge their speed by tachometers which measure up to 10,000 rpm.

After the Canadian and American national anthems, an Air Force flyover and prayers, the engines were started and the cars moved out two abreast following the pace car. They completed three laps before the pace car pulled off into the pits and they exploded in a wave of raw, ear-rending noise akin to the sound of a jet engine.

It literally takes the breath away and the comparative lack of gear changing — Formula One is all about gear changing — means the noise is a constant roar, increasing in intensity as they pass close by. As the field lengthened, the roar of the pack gave way to whooshing growls as the individual cars flashed by.But again and again over the course of the 300-lap, 317.4 mile race, the full impact was felt after a cautionary delay had brought all the colorful cars together before setting them loose in a tight pack and they thundered past in a wave of noise and hot exhaust, flames spluttering out of the side exhaust pipes as they geared down for the corners.

“It’s a big show,” said Maxwell smiling, “And a good one.”