New England NASCAR fans will get a peek this weekend at the future of auto racing in the post Bob Bahre era.

Speedway Motorsports Inc. will showcase its fan-friendly racing experience at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, culminating in Sunday’s running of the Sprint Cup series Lenox Industrial Tools 301 at Loudon, N.H.

This weekend is the first NASCAR event hosted by SMI in Loudon since the company purchased the track from Bahre for $340 million earlier this year.

Bahre, of Paris Hill and the former owner of Oxford Plains Speedway, built the superspeedway in Loudon and brought Cup racing to the facility in 1993. The track has hosted two Cup races each year since 1997.

The new ownership group, which owns seven tracks across the country, has already made a few changes to NHMS. New signs and electronic message boards will help direct traffic. Nearly a dozen Disney-like trams will run between the parking lots and the grandstands. More than 200 portable toilets have been added. New lights have been added to the parking lots.

While not all details have been released, pre-race festivities Sunday include elephants from All Star Animals, who will perform a circus-style show and also compete in a short race. The rock band Kansas will perform a 50-minute concert on the front stretch. Also scheduled are motorcycle stunts by riders from the Freestyle MX tour.

Racing gets under way Friday with Sprint Cup qualifying at 3:10 p.m., followed by the Camping World East Series race two hours later. Saturday will feature the Whalen Modified Tour at 1 p.m. and Nationwide Series race at 3 p.m.

The Lenox 301 is scheduled to start at 2 p.m. Sunday. It will be televised by TNT.

Waltrip to honor Bahre

Michael Waltrip will honor the Bahre family Sunday with special decals on his No. 55 car and that of teammate Michael McDowell’s No. 00.

The decal will read, “Thank you Bahre family.”

Waltrip credits the Bahres with giving him his start in NASCAR. Bob Bahre’s brother, Dick, gave Waltrip his first Cup ride in 1985. Waltrip went on to win two Daytona 500s and become a car owner

“The whole Bahre family has played an important part in my history,” Waltrip said in a statement. “The Bahre family brought racing back to the Northeast. We needed a race in Boston, and the Bahre family made sure it happened. They were not guaranteed a NASCAR race. They built a track to satisfy the fans up in the Northeast. I am real proud of the Bahre family.”