Christopher Bell Sweeps the Weekend at New Hampshire

Christopher Bell over the years has shown that New Hampshire has become one of his favorite tracks. Even with some adversity and venturing into the unknown with wet-weather tires, Bell was able to hold off the field to win the USA Today 301.

The Norman, Oklahoma native held off the Stewart Haas drivers of Chase Briscoe and Josh Berry in the closing laps, as Briscoe barely beat his teammate to claim second. Bell also dominated, as he led 149 of the 305 laps. This marked the second time that a points-paying race has used wet-weather tires for damp conditions. This all came after a two-hour delay and with the usage of those tires, it provided a unique and different kind of challenge to the drivers.

While Bell was hesitant to pick the giant lobster up in victory lane (what a driver wins when they win at New Hampshire), he promised that he was going to “pick that sucker up.”

“It was literally the tale of two different events. You never know how this thing is going to shake out whenever you change so many things like that and have adverse conditions,” said Bell, who also won the Xfinity race on Saturday. “I personally love adverse conditions because you’re always trying to think outside the box.”

“When we went back out [on wet-weather tires after the red-flag delay], I was feeling around and it felt like the normal Loudon groove was really really slippery so I tried to just run down or up, but [crew chief] Adam [Stevens] really put the tune on this thing, and it was running good. This is really cool.”

In recent years, NASCAR would usually postpone or call the race, depending on whether the race was deemed official. But with the innovation and development of wet-weather tires, NASCAR wanted to give them a chance to see what the racing would be like. 

NASCAR officials said they would have absolutely had to just call the race early had it not been for the tires.

“We’d have been done with 82 laps to go and instead it gave us a chance to go back to green,” NASCAR’s Senior Vice President of Competition Elton Sawyer told reporters after the race. “Kudos to our drivers, our owners, and especially [NASCAR CEO] Jim France for his vision.”

The wet tires definitely mixed things up on the track, as some drivers such as Josh Berry and Chase Briscoe benefited from it, while others like Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch struggled. Hamlin was third during the red flag but fell back to finish 24th. 

Ryan Blaney was also in the mix during the red flag as he was in second. However, a late collision with Michael McDowell would cause him to finish 24th. Kyle Larson and Chris Buescher would finish fourth and fifth place, while Tyler Reddick, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., John Hunter Nemechek, Martin Truex Jr., and Ross Chastain rounded out the top ten. For Truex and Chastain, it was a great comeback for them after they got involved in a spin earlier on. With Larson’s top-five finish, this puts him in a tie for the points lead with eight races remaining in the regular season. 

Notable drivers with major struggles included Alex Bowman finishing last after having engine troubles. Kyle Busch was also involved in three separate incidents that led him to a 35th-place finish. Bubba Wallace finished 34^th after being in a wreck after the red flag.

The Cup Series heads next to Nashville Superspeedway for the Ally 400 next Sunday at 3:30 pm EST.

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