Christopher Bell won the NASCAR Marathon Cup Series race in New Hampshire on Sunday.
In the rain-delayed race, with all competitors using rain tires, Bell won over Chase Briscoe and Josh Berry. After a two-hour rain delay, the final segment of the race was run on rain tires because NASCAR wanted to restart the race as quickly as possible after the rain red flag.
Bell took the lead on lap 242 of the scheduled 301-lap race and continued to lead for the remainder of the race, and after two cautions were issued for a spin with 10 laps remaining, Bell maintained the lead for the remaining 64 laps.
The race ultimately took more than six hours and 305 laps after Brad Keselowski spun with less than three laps remaining. Keselowski’s spin came after the penultimate caution of the race, when Michael McDowell had beaten Ryan Blaney with nine laps to go and was battling for second place behind Bell.
Bell’s car was also running great before the rain started, starting second and leading a race-high 149 laps, no other driver led more than 53. It was Bell’s third win of the season, following his win in Phoenix this spring and the rain-shortened Coca-Cola 600.
NASCAR waits for the rain to stop
This is the second time this season that a Cup Series race has been run partially on rain tires, with teams starting the race at Richmond this spring on rain tires before NASCAR stopped the race to allow the teams to run slicks.
And just like Richmond, NASCAR was strict on rain tires: teams were not allowed to switch to slicks if they felt the track was dry enough, and could only switch to a set of rain tires if NASCAR allowed it.
NASCAR’s tire protocols led to a confusing ending to the race: When Ross Chastain brought out the first caution after the red flag, some teams wanted to switch to new rain tires, and after making pit stops, NASCAR demanded that the previous set of rain tires be put back on.
NASCAR then allowed teams to change to rain tires twice before the end of the race because the track dried and tire tread became shallow, but the pit stops were non-competitive and drivers returned to the track in the same position they were in when the caution flag was waved.
If the race had been stopped on lap 219, Tyler Reddick would have won his second race of the season. Reddick pitted on lap 156 and inherited the lead after not pitting at the end of Stage 2. Back-to-back cautions came out at the start of Stage 3, and Reddick held the lead until rain began to fall.
The series of cautions was a sign of things to come. After the race resumed on a wet track, six accident cautions came out over the final 70 laps, and 14 cautions overall, the most in a New Hampshire race since 2002.
Kyle Busch’s Tough Day
Kyle Busch started 30th and was quickly lapped early in the race, and things didn’t get much better from there. Busch was officially involved in two cautions, but was also involved in three spins and crashes before ending his day’s race shortly after the red flag.
The first crash occurred on lap 155, when Busch crashed into the wall after contact with Noah Gragson, and on lap 217, Busch spun on the backstretch just before the race was stopped due to rain.
Busch’s team attempted to repair his car after the second spin and he was still on the lead lap, but his car suffered an apparent parts failure and crashed into the wall before the race resumed after a rain delay.
Busch finished 35th for the second straight week and third time in the past four races. Busch has finished outside the top 20 in eight of the 18 races this season and is 17th in the points standings.
Race Results
1. Christopher Bell
2. Chase Briscoe
3. Josh Berry
4. Kyle Larson
5. Chris Buescher
6. Tyler Reddick
7. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
8. John Hunter Nemechek
9. Martin Truex Jr.
10. Ross Chastain
11. Ryan Preece
12. Todd Gilliland
13. Eric Jones
14. Harrison Burton
15. Michael McDowell
16. Ty Gibbs
17. Carson But
18. Chase Elliott
19. Austin Cindric
20. Ty Dillon
21. Daniel Suarez
22. Kazu Grala
23. Corey LaJoie
24. Denny Hamlin
25. Ryan Blaney
26. William Byron
27. Noah Gragson
28. Brad Keselowski
29. Justin Haley
30. Zane Smith
31. Daniel Hemric
32. Joey Logano
33. Austin Dillon
34. Bubba Wallace
35. Kyle Busch
36. Alex Bowman
