Through aggressive racing and everchanging pit strategies — and a two-hour rain delay — Joe Gibbs Racing driver Christopher Bell held off Josh Berry in overtime to collect his ninth career NASCAR Cup Series win and third of the 2024 season.
His last trip to victory lane in New Hampshire? The day before, when he finished first in the Sci Aps 200 in the NASCAR Xfinity Series.
For most of the USA Today 301, Bell was a top 15 and top 10 competitor, battling hard against his teammate, Martin Truex Jr. That is until Mother Nature rolled into New Hampshire with threats of lightning and rain. The No. 20 team opted to pit for two fresh Goodyear tires, while other teams stayed out on old tires, losing Bell’s clean air to Tyler Reddick.
The clean air remained king, and Reddick was able to run the middle and top lines effectively, keeping Blaney and 23XI Racing co-owner Hamlin behind his SiriusXM Toyota.
Under a red flag, it looked as if Reddick would walk away with the win. However, the race wasn’t over.
The red flag would fly shortly after 4:30 p.m. E.T. and last roughly two hours. It was the belief by most, if not all, that the race would be called, crowning Reddick the winner. However, after two hours, NASCAR was successful in drying enough of the wet surface to allow the drivers to return to their cars, now sporting Goodyear’s wet weather tires instead of slicks. Bell flew through the field to the lead, where he ran essentially uncontested.
“You never know,” Bell told NBC Sports. “You never know how this thing is going to shake out whenever you change so, so many things like that, and the adverse conditions. I love, I personally love adverse conditions because you’re always trying to think outside the box.”
“I love this place,” Bell continued, speaking to PRN. “It’s been special for me ever since I came here in 2015. This one was different. It was so much fun in those adverse conditions.”
Chase Briscoe, Kyle Larson and Chris Buescher rounded out the top five, while Reddick, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., John Hunter Nemechek, Truex and Ross Chastain completed the top 10.
The race weekend in Loudon began with worries of rain and severe weather, allowing confusion to take hold of strategy before the race ever started. However, this was for the benefit of any race fans tuning into the 301-lap event. Seemingly from the drop of the green flag, the drivers of the NASCAR Cup Series battled door-to-door, three- and four-wide, in both the corners and straights as if the rain was already approaching. This intense racing allowed for multiple comers and goers.
In stage one, Bell ran down Chase Elliott, who held up to a four-second lead at one point, to muscle past the No. 9 and into the lead for the stage win over Joey Logano.
In stage two, Truex’s No. 19 Toyota came alive, moving him past Bell after green flag pit stops. A variety of pit strategies shook the field up, with Hamlin, Logano and Corey LaJoie electing to stay out of the pits. Truex and Bell opted for a two-tire pit stop, unfortunately proving limited in favor of clean air but better on corner entry. Hamlin claimed the stage two playoff point, however, with Truex roughly six car lengths behind.
Prior to the red flag flying for rain, the final stage of the race proved to be a mad dash for the lead in fear of the incoming weather. This caused four back-to-back cautions coming every two or three laps. First, Logano made contact with Elliott in turn 1, breaking his own toe link and spinning the No. 9.
Then the yellow flag flew again for a spin by LaJoie, ending with contact with the wall. Truex, who fell back to the rear of the field following a slow pit stop, also spun after a three-wide pass in turn 4 ended with contact with Brad Keselowski.
Finally, the yellow flew one last time before the red flag after Ryan Preece made contact with Kyle Busch, who then made further contact with Stenhouse. This was not only the second incident involving the No. 8 Chevrolet this afternoon, but sadly a continuation of bad luck for Busch, further distancing the veteran driver from playoff eligibility.
Busch’s day ended after the red flag was lifted but before the green flag waived, following contact with the outside wall under caution. Under the green, and although the lap times were slower, the field spread four-wide on wet weather tires, racing each other extremely hard.
Reddick and others went to the high lane, while Bell and others ran below the white line on the apron. One of the drivers finding speed on the apron was Chastain. The driver of the No. 1 Chevrolet was able to find a lot of speed on the apron until he lost rear grip, sending him spinning up the track, though without further contact. The caution would fly again for a similar incident involving LaJoie.
When racing continued, Bell held off Blaney and Larson to take the lead. After a handful of green flag laps, Noah Gragson lost control on the apron, spinning up the track and collecting Bubba Wallace, Austin Dillon and Zane Smith.
With less than 10 laps to go, a fourth-place McDowell made contact with a third-place Blaney, spinning the two Fords out of contention.
Bell leaves New England with a boost of momentum headed for tracks that lean in his favor, both intermediate and road course-style racing.
USA TODAY 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway Results
Next Sunday, June 30, the NASCAR Cup Series heads to Nashville Superspeedway for the Ally 400. Coverage will be provided by NBC, PRN and SiriusXM beginning at 3:30 p.m. E.T.
Ty joined the Frontstretch team in February of 2024 as a Contributor covering Sunday news. He has two books available on Amazon: A Perfect Sundae and Chartreuse: Crime & Horror Short Stories.