LOUDON, N.H. — Pouring rain, lightning, and tire experiments created unpredictability during the NASCAR Cup Series race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Still, one constant remained the same: Christopher Bell is really good at New Hampshire.
Bell led 148 of the race's 305 laps to win at New Hampshire in dominant fashion. It's his second win at New Hampshire in the Cup Series in a weekend where he won for the fourth time at the track in the NASCAR Xfinity Series.
"You never know how this thing is going to shake out when you change things so many things like that," Bell said. "I love adverse conditions because you're always thinking outside the box."
The race restarted at lap 229 after a two-hour rain delay. Teams put wet weather tires on the cars, creating an unprecedented situation at the 1-mile track. When racing resumed, drivers raced in different grooves on the surface that aren't normally used, creating much wider racing than New Hampshire is used to. NASCAR ruled back and forth on whether or not to let teams change tires during late caution periods, creating frustration for some drivers.
Tyler Reddick was out front when the rain delay began as his team anticipated the race would be called off. Bell quickly charged back to the lead when racing resumed and saw few drivers challenge him for the top spot. Chase Briscoe finished in second over one second behind Bell after a two-lap overtime restart.
The race saw 14 caution periods that scrambled the field and left many drivers without a chance to get a good finish.
NASCAR started Sunday's race 30 minutes ahead of originally scheduled in anticipation of inclement weather late in the day. New Hampshire does not have lights, eliminating the chance for the race to be finished when the sun goes down.
Chase Elliott started on the pole and held the lead early before being passed by Christopher Bell, who easily won the caution-free first stage.
Bell continued to lead in stage two but was later passed by Martin Truex Jr. Daniel Hemric brought out the first caution for an incident when he spun by himself on lap 142.
That caution set the field on varying strategies as drivers prioritized track position with rain expected to hit the track. Denny Hamlin stayed off pit road and held on to win stage two. Truex suffered a slow stop on pit road at this time, crushing his chances at a win.
Rain didn't hit the track for another 30 laps but cautions began pouring on the field as the pressure built up.
Reddick stayed out under the stage two caution to grab the lead. He held on to the top spot despite challenges from Hamlin and Kyle Larson but mostly benefited from an abundance of cautions.
Elliott and Joey Logano wrecked into each other on the first restart in the final stage. Logano suffered the worst of it and finished 35th.
Corey LaJoie wrecked after contact with Ryan Preece during the next restart, Truex wrecked after contact with Brad Keselowski during the restart after that, and Kyle Busch wrecked on the restart after that for the second time in the race.
After Busch's spin, NASCAR called the cars on pit road for rain on the track with Reddick out front. With New Hampshire having no lights, it seemed evident that the race would be called. But the modern NASCAR development of wet weather tires gave hope for the race to resume without the track being completely dry.
Two hours later, the cars were back on the track. Busch wrecked out of the race under caution, continuing one of the worst stretches in his career. Busch has finished worse than 30th in three of the last four races.
Bell races his way back to the front within 30 laps and would have likely cruised to the win by several seconds if not for cautions continuing to happen.
LaJoie, Ross Chastain, and Carson Hocevar caused cautions for single-car spins in the closing stage. The biggest crash of the day came on lap 265 when Noah Gragson spun out and collected Bubba Wallace, Austin Dillon, Austin Cindric, John Hunter Nemechek, and Erik Jones.
During a restart with under 10 laps to go, Michael McDowell wrecked into Ryan Blaney while battling for second.
All of these caution laps did little more than delay Bell's inevitable win. It's the third win of 2024 for Bell. Briscoe, Josh Berry, Larson, and Chris Buescher rounded out the top five.
The NASCAR Cup Series is next in action at Nashville Superspeedway on June 30.