What Happened?
You might as well call Christopher Bell Houdini, because he owns The Magic Mile. Bell got to the front early and remained a player all race, even after the red flag and rain passed through.
The first wet restart provided a huge opportunity, and Bell took advantage by driving more aggressively around the outside, passing a group of cars and getting to third. From there, he held off a number of challenges and cautions, winning his second New Hampshire Motor Speedway Cup race and sweeping the weekend.
Behind Bell, Chase Briscoe and Josh Berry finished side-by-side in second and third. Joe Gibbs Racing remains undefeated at New Hampshire with the Next Gen car.
What Really Happened?
A fairly straightforward New Hampshire race quickly became muddled with rain, rubber and race management throwing caution to the wind. Despite the frustrating chaos, the wet-weather tires proved they do have a place in the future of NASCAR.
The first two stages played out a lot like the past three races. A ho-hum first stage led to a second stage where cautions mixed up the race strategies. After that, things got ugly.
We talk about intensity picking up when rain threatens, but here, intensity turned into stupidity. From the restart in the final stage until the rain came, four cautions flew in just 23 laps. Of those laps, only 10 were under green. Then the rain came, and the mess on the track grew into a mess of a race.
All weekend, rain and darkness swirled as topics of conversation. While NASCAR clarified a darkness plan, they never truly clarified a rain plan. This lack of communication led to a really confusing and frustrating final stage.
For starters, NASCAR pre-emptively parked the cars on pit road for a quick shower ahead of the larger storm system. With limited communication, this seemed like a perfect opportunity to take advantage of wet tires and race until the big storms arrived.
Fan safety likely played a role in this decision, but a lack of communication left most people guessing.
To give credit, NASCAR showed a ton of patience to wait out the storm and bolt on the wet-weather tires. Once the weather lifted, the first few restarts on the wets provided some great racing action, also lifting the overall mood.
But sloppy driving quickly dampened the race again while the track dried, leading to even more aggravating moments from race control.
In the final stage, only 51 of the 119 laps ran green. The other 68 ran under yellow. So many yellow flag laps resulted in a lack of procedure and moments of indecisiveness.
For starters, most of the incidents that caused the cautions in the final stage required little to no cleanup, but still resulted in running what felt like way too many caution laps. Ross Chastain and Corey LaJoie both had single-car spins with minimal or no contact, but we ran six laps of yellow. Carson Hocevar’s single-car spin resulted in eight caution laps.
Most of this was because NASCAR was unclear or indecisive on its procedure. After the Chastain spin, cars in the back pitted for new wet tires, but after confusion, they had to return and put their old sets back on.
The Hocevar spin was supposed to be a “quickie yellow,” but drivers constantly complaining added some extra laps while NASCAR decided to finally tell teams to come down pit road.
Much of these unnecessary delays stemmed from NASCAR’s taking its time to tell teams what they could and couldn’t do, rather than allowing teams to decide if they wanted to pit and what type of tires they wanted to put on.
At the end of the day, NASCAR and the teams did learn a lot about how these wet-weather tires hold up, and how oval tracks progress after a shower. This race set a new benchmark for what can be achieved with these tires and conditions, and while questions still remain, it proves just how far racing in the wet has come.
Should NASCAR consider racing in the wet more often? Absolutely, especially after seeing this race.
Should NASCAR take more chances, racing with more moisture on the track and allowing teams more freedom? Sure, but it should proceed with caution, which will probably make more people upset at times.
NASCAR deserves a TON of credit for not calling the race when it clearly could have. The one thing NASCAR has to get down, though, is what procedures to take when these situations arise, no matter how rare they are.
Who Stood Out?
The wet race provided a great opportunity for Briscoe and Berry. Briscoe took full advantage, going from nearly getting lapped by Bell in the first stage to racing him for the win. He made the most of a great opportunity in a week where his name is likely to come up a little bit more.
His teammate, Berry, showed potential in his car from the start. Berry might not have had race-winning speed early on, but the experienced rookie again used veteran-like knowledge in another great run. If it’s not too late, Gene Haas should really consider keeping the Berry-Rodney Childers duo for his Cup endeavor next season.
Quite possibly the most surprising top-10 finish ended up in eighth. John Hunter Nemechek piloted his No. 42 car to its third top 10 this year. Sure, his team hasn’t been super competitive this year, but Nemechek’s statistics look even better when you take into account that the No. 42 had zero top 10s in the first two seasons in the Next Gen car.
Who Fell Flat?
What has happened to Kyle Busch?
The No. 8 team and driver cannot get out of their own way, and the car was just bad Sunday (June 23). Ironically, this rough stretch really seemed to start this weekend last year.
After winning three races early in 2023, Busch crashed at New Hampshire in qualifying and the race, and has struggled seemingly everywhere. Today, Busch crashed three separate times, including under yellow before the first wet restart.
The duo of Joey Logano and Bubba Wallace were lucky that they both got unlucky. Logano looked fast early and Bubba had a solid car, but both got collected in separate accidents that hurt their days. However, it helped keep them close to each other on the playoff cutoff line.
One surprising absence all day was Brad Keselowski. Bad Brad won back-to-back in 2020 and 2021, and he seems to always be fast at New Hampshire. While his Ford and RFK Racing teammates ran well all day, Brad drifted back into oblivion quickly, and finished back in 28th after spinning to bring out the final caution.
Better Than Last Time?
The green flag product produced some great moments today. At the start, the lack of qualifying led to some shakeups throughout the first stage. Some strategy plays in stage two kept the field split as well.
The final stage had some fun action, as drivers ran literally all over the track looking for grip in the damp conditions.
While the actual racing was good, the constant cautions and overmanaging definitely damaged the fun rating. However, it still ranks better than last year’s race.
Paint Scheme of the Race
This weekend, RFK Racing pitched a changeup for Keselowski’s Build Submarines scheme, donning the Boston Red Sox colors for the New England race (both RFK and the Red Sox are owned or co-owned by Fenway Sports Group). The scheme change included using the team’s number font for the No. 6 car.
We didn’t see too many new schemes this weekend, but this baseball crossover was a definite home run.
What’s Next?
The NASCAR Cup Series returns to Nashville Superspeedway. Coverage for the Ally 400 starts at 3:30 p.m. ET on network NBC for the first time this season.
Caleb began sports writing in 2023 with The Liberty Champion, where he officially covered his first NASCAR race at Richmond in the spring. While there, Caleb met some of the guys from Frontstretch, and he joined the video editing team after graduating from Liberty University with degrees in Strategic Communications and Sports Journalism. Caleb currently work full-time as a Multi-Media Journalist with LEX 18 News in Lexington, Kentucky and contributes to Frontstretch with writing and video editing. He's also behind-the-scenes or on camera for the Happy Hour Podcast, live every Tuesday night at 7:30!