After six hours and a long rain delay that forced the race to finish on a wet racetrack in near darkness, Christopher Bell won the USA Today 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway to earn his third win of the 2024 season and his second in the last three Loudon races. Bell took command of the race in wet conditions, withstanding a series of late-race restarts that sent the race to overtime before pulling away from the Stewart-Haas Racing teammates of Chase Briscoe in second and Josh Berry in third.
Although storms in the New England area threatened to end Sunday's race on lap 219, the rain eventually cleared to give NASCAR the opportunity to finish the race on wet weather tires, making for an especially dynamic run to the finish as the field was forced to figure out the damp condition and how it changed as the track dried out. Bell had little problem, rain or shine, as he took firm command of the race on his way to becoming the fourth driver this season to have won three races.
USA Today 301 unofficial results
- #20 - Christopher Bell
- #14 - Chase Briscoe
- #4 - Josh Berry (R)
- #5 - Kyle Larson
- #17 - Chris Buescher
- #45 - Tyler Reddick
- #47 - Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
- #42 - John Hunter Nemechek
- #19 - Martin Truex Jr.
- #1 - Ross Chastain
Three years ago, Bell had been in a similar situation -- at the front of the field after a day of rain delays, running Aric Almirola down for the lead and the win as the sun went down -- when NASCAR had elected to shorten the race by eight laps due to impending darkness, meaning Bell ran out of time and finished second.
This time, Bell was able to complete the extra mile -- and a little more -- to put the finishing touch on a day that marked a significant step for NASCAR's efforts to create solutions to get back to racing in inclement conditions.
"You never know how this thing's gonna shake out whenever you change so many things like that. The adverse conditions -- I personally love adverse conditions, because you're always trying to think outside the box," Bell told NBC Sports. "Whenever we went back out, I was feeling around and it felt like that the normal Loudon groove was really, really slippery. So I tried to just run down or run up, and [crew chief Adam Stevens] put the tune on this thing and it was turning really good …. Guys, this one didn't get shortened!"
Coupled with his wins at Phoenix and in the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte, Bell continues to stand in distinct company as one of just four drivers to have won multiple races in 2024, all of whom -- Bell, Denny Hamlin, William Byron and Kyle Larson -- hold three apiece. Bell's ninth career Cup win also comes at the end of a weekend sweep, as he won New Hampshire's Xfinity Series race on Saturday.
Wet-dry world
With inclement weather an issue throughout the weekend in New Hampshire, the expectation once the race passed the halfway point was that the field was racing the rain and likely racing to the finish: After coming to pit road at lap 156, Tyler Reddick was among a number of cars who employed alternate strategies following the end of stage two, staying out as the leaders came to pit road in an effort to get and hold the lead before the rains came.
When the race was red flagged on lap 219 for rain, it looked as though Reddick's strategy had worked, and that the race would be called in short order to give him his second win of the year. And in past years, that likely would have been the end of the race. But thanks to the wet weather rules package that has been developed and implemented in recent years by NASCAR, it was not.
After the rain passed through and the track was dried of standing water, NASCAR lifted the red flag and declared a wet racetrack for the run to the finish, putting the field on a damp racetrack with some alterations to normal race procedures: For instance, pit stops were non-competitive, with NASCAR dictating when teams could and could not put on new sets of wet weather tires.
Ultimately, the conditions would greatly alter how each driver attacked the racetrack, with the pace gradually picking back up as drivers became more emboldened and the track began to dry out. It also marked perhaps the most significant data set for Cup cars in wet conditions on an oval to date, building on some of what was learned earlier this year at Richmond when the race was started in the damp.
"It was fun racing up there at the end and slipping and sliding around," Briscoe told NBC Sports. "The track was changing a lot. It was a lot like sprint car racing -- the groove was literally changing lap-in and lap-out ... Truthfully, I think we could've probably started with the track a little bit wetter. The beginning was pretty fun. We were all over the place, five-wide at times and slipping and sliding around.
"It's been really encouraging," he continued, "I think, to see kind of the wet weather progression of how aggressive we've been with it, and I think we can continue to do that."
"It's definitely a challenge, it's intense, but it's so much fun," Berry said. "I find myself riding around under caution just trying to figure out where the grip's at, what pavement has grip, whether the paint has grip ... Then you see us running through the water on the frontstretch, I mean, I've never done anything like that in my life. But, man, it was so much fun."
Slip slidin' away
Once it became clear that the track was beginning to dry out and the grip was on the top of the racetrack, the strategy at the choose zone before restarts became explicitly clear: The leaders would take the outside for the preferred line and the right angle to get optimal drive off the corner, while the inside line was more in-play for drivers trying to gain a great reward -- the race lead -- by taking a line that came with a greater risk.
That's the chance that Michael McDowell took with nine laps to go, as he took the inside at the choose zone to line up alongside Bell on a late restart and try to get the lead amid fairly desperate odds he faces to make the playoffs. But Bell would get the launch he needed to get away from McDowell before he sailed his car into turn 1 -- where it didn't stick, taking both himself and Ryan Blaney out in the process.
After the race, McDowell came over to Blaney on pit road to try and smooth things out. But his apology didn't do much to appease the defending Cup champion, who was clearly irked by the way he felt he was raced.
"An apology is nice, but it's not gonna bring back what he did. I knew what he was trying to do it -- It was like a low-percentage move. I mean, it's wet down there and you're just gonna stove it off in there and what do you think's gonna happen? Like, you're gonna take both of us out. I know he's gotta win and all that, that's his excuse, but you have to be a little more calculated than that. It just stinks that we were at the expense of it."
While the blow of Blaney's late-race accident was softened by the blow of his win at Iowa last week that solidified his playoff spot, others were left which much less consolation to go with their frustrations. Bubba Wallace appeared set to capitalize on problems for Joey Logano and build his points cushion over the playoff cut line, but that all went awry when Noah Gragson spun and slid up into Wallace, triggering a multi-car crash that ended his day and has now dropped him to 13 points back of Logano for the final playoff spot.
For Wallace, that points deficit is at least not nearly on the scale that Kyle Busch's is after another nightmare of a race: After running off the pace and going as many as two laps down to the leaders early, Busch was involved in three separate incidents, including one under caution after the red flag was lifted that finally ended his day and has dropped him to 45 points below the cut line. Alex Bowman also lost ground to the cut line, as he is now holds just a 59-point advantage after suffering an engine failure that left him 36th.
Race results rundown
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was among the beneficiaries when it came to the way the track conditions jumbled the running order, as he was able to capitalize and earn a seventh-place finish and score back-to-back top 10 finishes for the first time this season. It's the first time that Stenhouse has earned consecutive top 10s since last fall, when he had top 10s at both Bristol and Texas.
- John Hunter Nemechek was also a major beneficiary of the wet racetrack, as he would recover from going a lap down prior to the rain delay and also from a spin to drive all the way to an eighth-place finish. It marks Nemechek's third top 10 of the season, but it's his first since he finished sixth at Bristol back in March. Legacy Motor Club teammate Erik Jones also enjoyed a solid run, coming across the line in 13th.
- Ryan Preece was best-in-class among the New England drivers in the field, as the Berlin, Connecticut, native fought through an up and down day to just miss out on a top 10 finish in 11th. Boston's Kaz Grala would bounce off the wall several times, but he would end up recovering to finish 22nd. Corey LaJoie, whose family hails from Norwalk, Connecticut, did the same and finished 23rd.
- Harrison Burton was among the drivers who used strategy to gain track position prior to the rain's arrival, and he would end up finishing 14th. After finishing in the top 20 just twice all year prior to last week, Burton now has back-to-back top 20 finishes with also three top 15s on the year.
- Ty Dillon has only made four Cup starts this season as he's made a career reset going back to full-time Craftsman Truck Series racing, but he's continued to make the most of his limited schedule for Kaulig Racing. The younger of the Dillon brothers finished 20th, marking the second time this year Dillon has had a top 20 driving the team's No. 16 Chevrolet.
- The final results are not indicative of the way Justin Haley ran: In yet another impressive showing behind the wheel of the Rick Ware Racing No. 51, Haley ran in the top 10 for much of the late portion of the race, and was even in position for a top five finish before suffering damage in the dustup between Blaney and McDowell. Haley fell through the field from there, ultimately finishing 29th.
Next race
It's off to Music City and the Nashville Superspeedway for the fourth-annual running of the Ally 400 next Sunday at 3:30 p.m. ET on NBC.
