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.
About the author
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!
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Ironically, the number 6 is retired by the Red Sox (Johnny Pesky).
The excessive caution laps didn’t help a bit. The wet tires have a limited lifespan on drying pavement. Nascar kept the cars circling the track, thus speeding up the drying process instead of letting them race. Let the teams decide about when to change to dry or wet tires! If they guess wrong, oh well. Encouraging here, but Nascar needs to get it together instead of waffling so long.
Why didn’t NA$CAR, in their infinite wisdom, use the cars with wet weather tires to dry the track. As soon as the rain stopped they could have put the cars on the track to “race” and dry it. How long does it take to dry a highway when the rain stops?
Even after they ran/raced all the laps from the red flag to the end of the race the track wasn’t 100% dry. If the sun had come out after the rain, it wouldn’t have taken long racing on the rain tires for the track to dry out, but it didn’t.
Plus the humidity also didn’t allow track to dry IMO they should have let the teams decide what tires and when to change instead of micromanaging it.
Well the race was interesting to watch in a train wreck sort of way. Though the novelty wore out after about 20 laps.I’d say they should have spent a little more time trying to dry the track and avoided using the rain tires altogether. And they definitely need to get a clue on what the procedures are with regard to rules on pit stops, they looked totally clueless and ill prepared.
But it wasn’t all bad….
If there was one driver that didn’t seem to have any luck driving with the wet package it was Denny Hamlin. In fact, that was the best part of the last stage, watching him fall back with every restart. LOL
If NASCAR is going to force the teams to use the wet tire and not allow them to make their own decision, then maybe they need a new piece of equipment. A track mister. During cautions the apparatus could circle the track and apply a fine mist to the areas that are drying. At least that would take care of the problem of the tires wearing out in 10 laps and make the track more uniform.
What a mess. Local tracks are run better than that race was. The caution that should have come out as soon as the car spun was kept green trying to get to the end of the race. If every spin is going to be a yellow, then it should be for the entire race.
Why were wet tires even there? Wet tires were to be used at road courses and the cars would have wipers. No wipers yesterday.
If it rains lightly, keep them out there to keep the track as dry as possible. If it’s a big shower, it’s a red flag and they get parked. Nascar has dealt with rain for 75 years, why was yesterday handled any differently?
It just seemed like such a disaster and I kept say ‘why?’, ‘why?’. Consistency has always been a major complaint from fans.
“ why was yesterday handled any differently?”
NASCAR, Goodyear have been working toward using wets on short ovals for more than two years and this is third such effort to have happened. None of this has been secret. The big difference was finishing a points paying race on wets. As far as the fans, the New Hampshire crowd certainly seemed to love it.
So here is an open-ended question to ponder..
Given the increased crap shoot factor that racing on a wet track in this manner creates, will or should NASCAR be willing to do this during the playoffs when so much is on the line?
The bottom line is, whether yes or no, NASCAR should announce a policy before it happens.
this would require nascar to actually made a decision and stand by it. it seems everything, lately, is on a week-to-week basis.
If NASCAR let the teams make their own tire-choice decisions, and someone spun out on slicks, then fans would blame NASCAR for not requiring the wet tires. Its a no-win situation. Then again, drivers spun out on the wet tires too, what the heck? hahaha
I applaud them for trying the wet tires, but why are they only lasting 10 laps as the track dries? Goodyear street tires last longer than that. Full-time road-course cars in other series run wet/dry tires and don’t have these issues.
Wonder how long our street tires would last it we drove 150mph and took turns as fast as we could?