LOUDON, N.H. — Christopher Bell continued his dominance at New Hampshire Motor Speedway claiming a sweep of the NASCAR race weekend, but the Joe Gibbs Racing driver really had to earn that broom in Sunday’s weather-challenged USA Today 301.
The 29-year-old Oklahoman beat Stewart-Haas Racing’s Chase Briscoe to the finish line by 1.104-seconds in overtime in a race that lasted six hours — including a two-hour-plus rain delay — and ultimately ended with the field on damp surface tires; only the second time in NASCAR history a points-paying race used the newly-developed tires.
Bell’s No. 20 JGR Toyota led a race-best 149 of the 305 laps Sunday, a day after he won the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at the 1.058-mile New England oval. He is now one of four drivers to have three NASCAR Cup Series wins on the season. It was his ninth career series win.
Bell was so excited with the victory he even promised he would “pick that sucker up” referring with a smile to the traditional lobster given to race winners in victory lane, something he previously was reticent to do.
“It was literally the tale of two different events,”’ Bell smiled when asked about the race.
“You never know how this thing is going to shake out whenever you change so many things like that and have adverse conditions,” said a beaming Bell, who now has seven wins in 11 national series starts at the New Hampshire track – collecting his fourth NASCAR Xfinity Series win on Saturday.
“I personally love adverse conditions because you’re always trying to think outside the box,” he continued. “When we went back out [on wet weather tires after the red flag delay] I was feeling around and it felt like the normal Loudon groove was really really slippery so I tried to just run down or up, but [crew chief] Adam [Stevens] really put the tune on this thing and it was running good.
“This is really cool.”
It was certainly new territory for the series and the sport. In years past, perhaps the race would just have been called with the rain showers came through with enough laps in the book that had already made it a legal points event.
But with the recent development of wet weather tires, NASCAR instead opted to wait out the showers and give the rain tires a try on a damp track. NASCAR officials said they would have absolutely had to just call the race early had it not been for the new tires.
“We’d have been done with 82 laps to go, and instead, it gave us a chance to go back to green,” NASCAR’s Senior Vice President of Competition Elton Sawyer told reporters after the race. “Kudos to our drivers, our owners and especially [NASCAR CEO] Jim France for his vision.”
Certainly, those final 86 laps of competition — which included the overtime stretch with cars on the wet weather tires — changed up the competition in multiple ways. Drivers who had been out of the mix previously — like Briscoe and his SHR teammate, third-place finisher Josh Berry — worked their way forward quickly and kept Bell honest.
Others, such as Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin, who had been third when the race was red-flagged, struggled a bit more on the wet weather tires. Hamlin finished 24th.
Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney, who was runner-up when the red flag flew, instead finished 25th after a collision with Michael McDowell racing for second place in the closing laps of regulation. McDowell was able to continue and finished 15th.
Briscoe smiled and said, “Two hours ago we couldn’t even run 25th and the rain saved us. Awesome recovery. This is one of my worst race tracks so to run second is kind of surprising, to be honest.
“The rain kind of saved us because if it wasn’t rain, we would have probably run maybe 24th but had a couple good restarts.”
Hendrick Motorsports’ Larson finished fourth followed by RFK Racing’s Chris Buescher – another driver who dramatically moved up in the field following the red flag.
23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick, who was leading the race when the red flag came out, finished sixth, followed by JGR Daugherty Racing’s Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Legacy Motor Club’s John Hunter Nemechek, JGR’s Martin Truex Jr. and Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain – notable comebacks for Truex and Chastain, who were both involved in earlier caution periods.
The finish for Larson now brings him into a tie with Hendrick teammate Chase Elliott on top of the standings with Hamlin in third place, 40 points back. Elliott was involved in an accident just before the red flag and finished 18th.
With eight races remaining to set the 16-driver NASCAR Cup Series playoff field, there was substantial movement in the bottom half of the standings with drivers currently in playoff position based on points not having scored a win yet.
Team Penske’s Joey Logano, who finished 32nd Sunday, moved into the final playoff points position and 23XI Racing’s Bubba Wallace dropped out after an accident with 35 laps left in regulation eliminated him from the race. He finished 34th out of the 36 cars and is now 17th in the playoff standings, one position below the cutoff.