Who… should you be talking about after the race?
He said on Saturday (June 22) that the credit for his success at Loudon goes to his team, but Christopher Bell is a threat to win every time he races at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. On Sunday (June 23), Bell sat out a rain delay of more than two hours to win the USA TODAY 301 over Chase Briscoe to complete the weekend sweep after taking Saturday’s Xfinity Series race as well.
The win is Bell’s third of 2024, tying him for the playoff lead with eight races remaining to set the field.
Loudon has become Bell’s playground in recent years. He’s four-for-four in the Xfinity Series and has a pair of Cup wins that could easily be three or four with a little luck. New Hampshire is the last flat mile on the schedule before the title race at Phoenix Raceway, so it could bode well for Bell that he ran so well on Sunday, rain or no rain.
And don’t forget Josh Berry. Berry has been on a hot streak of late. Crew chief Rodney Childers said before the race that Berry has studied Kevin Harvick’s driving style at The Magic Mile, and that paid off in dividends on Sunday as Berry battled with Bell and Briscoe for the win before settling for a well-deserved third-place finish, putting two Stewart-Haas Racing cars inside the top three on Sunday.
What… is the big question leaving this race in the rearview?
The struggles began almost at the drop of the flag on Sunday. Kyle Busch was a lap down by lap 40, Austin Dillon soon after.
A hard crash just shy of halfway for Busch made his day go from bad to worse, although he was able to continue. And the hits kept on coming. Busch crashed again just before the race was red-flagged for rain, and was able to get back on track only to give up the ghost under caution as the race prepared to resume. That finally ended his day as Busch decided enough was enough.
Dillon also saw his day end in a crash.
But even before the incidents, they looked like field fillers, not drivers who were racing for wins a year ago. Busch entered the weekend 16th in driver points but 18th in playoff standings. Dillon went to Loudon just 32nd in points.
What’s going on at Richard Childress Racing?
Dillon is one thing; he’s got a handful of wins but none since 2022. But Busch had three wins in 2023. He’s ninth on the all-time win list. If anyone could carry a car, it should be him. Yet he’s struggled more than most with the shortened practice schedule, and the wins have tapered off since he tied his career-best eight wins in 2018.
Even so, a month go, Busch was turning out top 10s and looking like he might be turning a corner. But a month of bad luck has the No. 8 team off its game.Â
It’s hard to believe this is a driver issue because of the caliber of driver Busch is. So what gives — and can RCR turn things around to be more competitive in the second half of 2024?
Where… did the other key players wind up?
Polesitter Chase Elliott lined up in the top spot after qualifying was rained out. He led the first 41 laps and finished third and eighth in the first two stages. But an incident with Joey Logano at lap 195 relegated him to an 18th-place finish.
Defending race winner Martin Truex Jr. didn’t have an incident-free day either. He finished the opening stages in sixth and second, but he didn’t lead a lap in defense of his win. A botched pit stop where the jackman dropped the car before the right rear wheel was tight, combined with a spin on lap 210, put Truex in recovery mode. He did recover to a ninth-place finish.
When… was the moment of truth?
Considering the forecast, an official race was a stroke of luck, but when the rains came after 219 laps completed, the cars rolled into the pits, and there they stayed. At first the precipitation was light, and some wondered why NASCAR didn’t have teams put wet-weather tires on the cars and keep racing. But even in light rain, without windshield wipers and rain flaps, racing in actively falling rain is a no-go.Â
Once the heavy lightning began, it became a waiting game for the safety of fans and crews. Drivers may be inside a Faraday cage in a storm, but fans and pit crews are exposed on top of tall metal things. But the line of storms was fast-moving, and NASCAR made the decision to wait it out.
The waiting game was the right call this time.
Should NASCAR make teams put wipers and flaps on the cars at tracks where wet-weather tires are an option? While some would relish the chaos, visibility becomes an issue. And for the most part, in races where the tires have been used, the racing hasn’t lived up to the hype.
NASCAR played it exactly right, though. While they might have gotten a few laps in before the red flag, getting the track just dry enough after the storm to put the wet-weather tires on to run the race to completion worked perfectly. Fans saw the entire race, which should always be the goal.
Why… should you be paying attention this week?
The Cup Series rolls on to Nashville Superspeedway for the Ally 400. The 1.333-mile concrete oval has hosted the series three times heading into the 2024 event, and all three have seen different winners: Kyle Larson, Elliott and Ross Chastain. Chastain has the best overall average finish of 2.7. Chastain, Larson and Bell are the only drivers to finish in the top 10 in all three visits.
Larson and Elliott are already in the playoffs with wins, but Chastain doesn’t have a victory yet in 2024. He’s currently 12th in the playoff standings; while it is a decent standing, he likely has this one circled on his calendar as playoff competition has been stiff this year.
How… is that playoff picture looking these days?
Just like that, there are only eight races remaining in the regular season and the field is anything but set.
Logano squeezes above the cut line, at least for now, as Bubba Wallace fell out after a crash ended his day. Briscoe moves within 25 points of a playoff run, while Busch’s woes saw the two-time champion fall 45 points below the cutoff. For him, it’s rapidly becoming a must-win situation.
Also hovering above the line this week are Alex Bowman and Chris Buescher. Bowman had a rare engine failure on Sunday and will need to staunch the bleeding a bit to stay safe. Buescher worked his way to a top-five at Loudon but needs to maintain his momentum.
There’s also plenty of room for new winners as the series finishes out June at Nashville before hitting the streets of Chicago to kick off the summer stretch.
About the author
Amy is an 20-year veteran NASCAR writer and a six-time National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) writing award winner, including first place awards for both columns and race coverage. As well as serving as Photo Editor, Amy writes The Big 6 (Mondays) after every NASCAR Cup Series race. She can also be found working on her bi-weekly columns Holding A Pretty Wheel (Tuesdays) and Only Yesterday (Wednesdays). A New Hampshire native whose heart is in North Carolina, Amy’s work credits have extended everywhere from driver Kenny Wallace’s website to Athlon Sports. She can also be heard weekly as a panelist on the Hard Left Turn podcast that can be found on AccessWDUN.com's Around the Track page.
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And look who is leading the regular season points again, despite missing a whole race. And Hamlin is trailing both of them by 40 points with 8 races to go.