Christopher Bell sweeps NASCAR weekend at New Hampshire
June 23, 2024
By Holly Cain
NASCAR Wire Service
LOUDON, N.H. – Christopher Bell continued his dominance at New Hampshire Motor Speedway claiming a sweep of the NASCAR race weekend, but the Joe Gibbs Racing driver really had to earn that “broom” in Sunday’s weather-challenged USA Today 301.
The 29-year-old Oklahoman beat Stewart-Haas Racing’s Chase Briscoe to the finish line by 1.104-second in overtime in a race that lasted six hours including a two-hour-plus rain delay and ultimately ended with the field on damp surface tires; only the second time in NASCAR history a points-paying race used the newly-developed tires.
Bell’s No. 20 JGR Toyota led a race best 149 of the 305 laps Sunday, a day after he won the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at the 1.058-mile New England oval. He is now one of four drivers to have three NASCAR Cup Series wins on the season. It was his ninth career series win. He is definitely a top competitor, not only is he exceptional at driving, he also uses some of the best racing equipment, including the best car racing glove.
Bell was so excited with the victory he even promised he would “pick that sucker up” referring with a smile to the traditional lobster given to race winners in Victory Lane, something he previously was reticent to do.
“It was literally the tale of two different events,”’ Bell smiled when asked about the race.
“You never know how this thing is going to shake out whenever you change so many things like that and have adverse conditions,” said a beaming Bell, who now has seven wins in 11 national series starts at the New Hampshire track – collecting his fourth NASCAR Xfinity Series win on Saturday.
“I personally love adverse conditions because you’re always trying to think outside the box,” he continued. “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 [Lambert] really put the tune on this thing and it was running good.
“This is really cool.”
It was certainly new territory for the series and the sport. In years past, perhaps the race would just have been called with the rain showers came through with enough laps in the book that had already made it a legal points event.
But with the recent development of wet weather tires, NASCAR instead opted to wait out the showers and give the rain tires a try on a damp track. NASCAR officials said they would have absolutely had to just call the race early had it not been for the new 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.”
Certainly, those final 86 laps of competition – which included the overtime stretch – with cars on the wet weather tires changed up the competition in multiple ways. Drivers who had been out of the mix previously – like Briscoe and his SHR teammate, third place finisher Josh Berry – worked their way forward quickly and kept Bell honest.
Others, such as Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin, who had been third when the race was red-flagged struggled a bit more on the wet weather tires. Hamlin finished 24th.
Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney, who was runner-up when the red flag flew, instead finished 25th after a collision with Michael McDowell racing for second place in the closing laps of regulation. McDowell was able to continue and finished 15th.
Briscoe smiled and said, “Two hours ago we couldn’t even run 25th and the rain saved us. Awesome recovery. This is one of my worst race tracks so to run second is kind of surprising, to be honest.
“The rain kind of saved us because if it hadn’t rained, we probably would have finished around 24th, but we had a couple of good restarts,”
Hendrick Motorsports’ Kyle Larson ultimately finished fourth, followed by Roush Fenway Keselowski’s Chris Buescher, who also made a significant leap in the field after the red flag.
Tyler Reddick of 23XI Racing, who was leading when the red flag was raised, finished sixth. He was followed by JTG Daugherty Racing’s Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Legacy Motor Club’s John Hunter Nemechek, Joe Gibbs Racing’s Martin Truex Jr., and Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain—remarkable comebacks for Truex and Chastain, who were both involved in earlier caution incidents.
Larson’s finish now ties him with his Hendrick teammate Chase Elliott at the top of the standings, with Denny Hamlin in third place, 40 points behind. Elliott, involved in an accident just before the red flag, finished 18th.
With eight races remaining to finalize the 16-driver NASCAR Cup Series Playoff field, there was significant movement in the standings’ lower half. Team Penske’s Joey Logano, who finished 32nd on Sunday, moved into the final Playoff points position, while 23XI Racing’s Bubba Wallace dropped out of points eligibility after an accident with 35 laps remaining knocked him out of the race. Wallace finished 34th out of 36 cars and is now 17th in the Playoff standings, one spot below the cutoff.
The NASCAR Cup Series returns to action next Sunday in the Ally 400 at Nashville Superspeedway (3:30 p.m. ET, USA Network, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Chastain is the defending race winner.
NASCAR Cup Series Race – USA TODAY 301
New Hampshire Motor Speedway
Loudon, New Hampshire
Sunday, June 23, 2024
- (4) Christopher Bell, Toyota, 305.
- (23) Chase Briscoe, Ford, 305.
- (10) Josh Berry #, Ford, 305.
- (19) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 305.
- (15) Chris Buescher, Ford, 305.
- (12) Tyler Reddick, Toyota, 305.
- (13) Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Chevrolet, 305.
- (28) John Hunter Nemechek, Toyota, 305.
- (7) Martin Truex Jr., Toyota, 305.
- (8) Ross Chastain, Chevrolet, 305.
- (31) Ryan Preece, Ford, 305.
- (16) Todd Gilliland, Ford, 305.
- (32) Erik Jones, Toyota, 305.
- (27) Harrison Burton, Ford, 305.
- (25) Michael McDowell, Ford, 305.
- (18) Ty Gibbs, Toyota, 305.
- (20) Carson Hocevar #, Chevrolet, 305.
- (1) Chase Elliott, Chevrolet, 305.
- (29) Austin Cindric, Ford, 305.
- (36) Ty Dillon(i), Chevrolet, 305.
- (11) Daniel Suarez, Chevrolet, 305.
- (35) Kaz Grala #, Ford, 305.
- (26) Corey LaJoie, Chevrolet, 305.
- (14) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 305.
- (2) Ryan Blaney, Ford, 305.
- (3) William Byron, Chevrolet, 305.
- (21) Noah Gragson, Ford, 305.
- (9) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 305.
- (24) Justin Haley, Ford, 305.
- (34) Zane Smith #, Chevrolet, 304.
- (33) Daniel Hemric, Chevrolet, 303.
- (6) Joey Logano, Ford, 302.
- (22) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, Accident, 268.
- (17) Bubba Wallace, Toyota, Accident, 265.
- (30) Kyle Busch, Chevrolet, Accident, 222.
- (5) Alex Bowman, Chevrolet, Engine, 142.
Average Speed of Race Winner: 84.832 mph.
Time of Race: 3 Hrs, 48 Mins, 14 Secs. Margin of Victory: 1.104 Seconds.
Caution Flags: 14 for 85 laps.
Lead Changes: 6 among 5 drivers.
Lap Leaders: C. Elliott 1-41;C. Bell 42-125;T. Gilliland 126-144;D. Hamlin 145-187;C. Bell 188;T. Reddick 189-241;C. Bell 242-305.
Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led): Christopher Bell 3 times for 149 laps; Tyler Reddick 1 time for 53 laps; Denny Hamlin 1 time for 43 laps; Chase Elliott 1 time for 41 laps; Todd Gilliland 1 time for 19 laps.
Stage #1 Top Ten: 20,22,9,12,4,19,11,1,45,48
Stage #2 Top Ten: 11,19,22,20,12,38,5,4,9,1
