LOUDON — Frank Stoddard, the Woodsville High grad in his second season as a Sprint Cup owner, hopes veteran Ken Schrader can bring their Federated Auto Parts Ford home in 30th place or so in today's Lenox Industrial Tools 301 at NHMS.

“That would be a good day for us,” Stoddard said. “That's just the way it is.”

Stoddard uses a variety of drivers during the season and Schrader qualified the car 37th on Friday afternoon.

Stoddard is 34th in owner points and has an 11-point lead on 35th and 104 points on 36th.

The key is staying in the top 35, because that guarantees a spot in the field each week.

On Saturday, Stoddard, Schrader and car chief Dwayne Doucette, who grew up racing at Lee USA Speedway, sat atop the team's hauler between practice sessions and talked strategy.

“We revisited the first practice,” Stoddard said. “Things are going fast in practice. I made a change that I thought was going to be beneficial and it was beneficial, but Ken thought that it wasn't good for the car overall and we're going to change back. You just get out of practice and dissect it a little bit.”

Stoddard thinks the pressure today may be on Jeff Gordon more than anyone.

The four-time champion has moved up in the Cup point standings in recent weeks, but still is at only 17th with eight races left before the Chase to the Sprint Cup begins.

Gordon starts eighth today.

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Track officials estimated on Saturday afternoon that the day's crowd was going to be between 40-50,000.

They also said about 3,000 tickets remained for today's race and tickets would be available at the gates.

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Allen Lessels may be reached at alessels@unionleader.com.