While all eyes are focused on Sunday’s first race in the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, three other divisions will be competing on race weekend in Loudon.

Along with Sunday’s Sylvania 300 for Sprint Cup teams and Saturday’s 200-mile battle for the Craftsman Truck Series, NASCAR’s Camping World Series East and Whelen Modified Tour cars are also on the card.

When the green flag waves over Friday’s Heluva Good 125 East series race, one Maine-based team and one with strong Maine ties will be on the track.

Maine native and North Carolina resident Dave Davis has a reputation for excellence in race car fabrication, but his Camping World Series team is also starting to gain some recognition. Davis is putting New Hampshire native Joey Polewarczyk, 19, behind the wheel of his No. 03 Chevrolet. It’s the same team former driver Rogelio Lopez won for last year in Nashville, earned the pole at NHMS in September and eventually finished third. The team posted two top-10 finishes in eight starts this season before Davis released Lopez and began looking for another driver.

Polewarczyk made an impressive debut earlier this year in his first TD Banknorth 250 at Oxford Plains Speedway. A regular on the American-Canadian Tour, he led the 250 briefly before finishing third.

The teen made his NASCAR debut at Thompson Speedway for another team on July 12. Polewarczyk rallied to finish 16th after pitting to replace a flat tire midway through the race.

“After the recent test session we had in Loudon, I’m very excited about driving Dave’s car there,” Polewarczyk said via telephone last week. “This is an experienced team with great equipment. I’m hoping a strong run this week will open more doors for me.

“NASCAR’s Camping World Series is the next step in my career. I’m thrilled to have this opportunity and will be focused on getting the best finish possible for myself, Dave and the entire team.”

Polewarczyk’s family-backed team has run the ACT tour for a couple of seasons, winning twice this year at Lee USA in April and Oxford on June 21. He is cautiously optimistic he can have success on New Hampshire’s 1.058-mile oval.

“Tom Carey is the crew chief for Dave’s team, he’s got years of experience driving that type of car, and we hit it off immediately,” he said. “We made quite a few changes to the car during the test session and gained speed each time. If I could post a top-10 finish in my first race at NHMS, that would be huge.”

The other Maine connection has North Carolina native Jody Lavender driving for Biddeford-based JBR Motorsports, owned by Jim Burgess and led by veteran crew chief Todd Graffam.

“We’re taking a new car to New Hampshire,” Lavender said in a recent telephone interview. “It came from DEI, and I had a chance to spend a few days up in the shop in Biddeford to tweak it a bit before our recent test. The car went very well during the test, so I think we’ll be able to run with the higher-financed teams.

Lavender has been pretty competitive in his first season on the Camping World Series. In nine starts, he has two top-10 finishes, highlighted by a sixth-place run at Greenville-Pickens on April 19.

He knows it’s tough to run up front against those Cup-affiliated teams, yet his goal to succeed at this level keeps his head up and focus on improving each race.

“We may have a smaller budget than the big teams with Cup affiliation, but I’ve never worked with a group of guys with more heart and determination,” Lavender said. “They sure have to travel more than most teams being based up there in Maine, but Jim loves this sport and is serious about running up front.

“He and Todd do their best to put a strong car under me for every race. I’m hoping to reward them with a good finish in Loudon.”