Christopher Bell won the NASCAR Cup Series marathon in New Hampshire on Sunday.
Bell won the rain-delayed race ahead of Chase Briscoe and Josh Berry, as the entire field was on wet tires. After a two-hour delay due to rain, the final segment of the race was run on wet tires, as NASCAR wanted to restart the race as quickly as possible after the red flag due to rain.
Bell took the lead on lap 242 of the scheduled 301-lap race and led the rest of the way. He maintained the lead for the final 64 laps after two cautions were missed in the final 10 scheduled laps.
The race ended up taking over six hours to complete and lasted 305 laps following Brad Keselowski’s spin with less than three laps remaining. His rotation came after the penultimate caution of the race occurred when Michael McDowell defeated Ryan Blaney with nine laps to go as the two raced to second place behind Bell.
Bell also had a great car before it started raining. He led the race 149 laps after starting second, as no other driver led more than 53 laps. It’s the third win of the season for Bell, after winning at Phoenix in the spring and the rain-shortened Coca-Cola 600.
NASCAR waits for the rain to pass
It was the second time this season that part of a Cup Series race was run on wet tires. This spring’s Richmond race started with teams on wet tires before NASCAR stopped the race for teams to put on slick tires.
And like Richmond, NASCAR has been tough on its management of wet tires. Teams were not allowed to switch to slick tires if they thought the track was dry enough and could only switch sets of wet tires when NASCAR allowed it.
NASCAR tire protocols created a confusing end to the race. When Ross Chastain made the first caution after the red flag, some teams wanted to switch to new wet tires. After they made their pit stops, NASCAR had them put their previous set of wet tires back on.
NASCAR then allowed teams to change wet tires twice before the end of the race when the track dried out and destroyed the treaded tires. However, the pit stops were uncompetitive, meaning the drivers returned to the track in the same position they were in at the time of the caution flag.
Had the race been called on Lap 219, Tyler Reddick would have been poised to take his second win of the season. Reddick pitted on lap 156 and inherited the lead when he failed to pit at the end of the second stage. A flurry of cautions at the start of the third stage helped keep Reddick in the lead before it started to rain.
This wave of caution was a sign of things to come. After the race restarted on a damp track, there were six cautions for incidents in the last 70 laps. Overall, there were 14 warnings. That’s the most in any New Hampshire race since 2002.
Kyle Busch’s hard day
Kyle Busch started 30th and was quickly lapped in the opening stage of the race. Things didn’t get much better from there. Busch was officially involved in two cautions, but participated in three spins or crashes as his day ended shortly after the red flag.
The first crash occurred on lap 155, when Busch hit the wall after contact with Noah Gragson. On lap 217, Busch spun on the back straight just before the race was stopped because of rain.
Busch’s team attempted to repair the car after the second spin and it was still on the first lap. However, he had an apparent partial failure before the race returned to green after the rain delay and crashed into the wall.
Busch finished 35th for the second week in a row and the third time in the last four races. Busch has finished outside the top 20 in eight of 18 races this season and is 17th in the points standings.
Race results
1. Christopher Bell
2. Stalking Briscoe
3. Josh Berry
4.Kyle Larson
5. Chris Buescher
6.Tyler Reddick
7. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
8. John Hunter Nemechek
9. Martin Truex Jr.
10. Ross Chastain
11. Ryan Preece
12. Todd Gilliland
13. Erik Jones
14. Harrison Burton
15. Michael McDowell
16. Ty Gibbs
17. Carson, however
18. Chase Elliott
19. Austin Cindric
20. Ty Dillon
21. Daniel Suarez
22. Kaz Grala
23. Corey LaJoie
24. Denny Hamlin
25. Ryan Blaney
26. William Byron
27. Noah Gragson
28. Brad Keselowski
29. Justin Haley
30. Zane Smith
31. Daniel Hemric
32. Joey Logano
33. Austin Dillon
34. Bubba Wallace
35. Kyle Busch
36. Alex Bowman
