NASCAR driver Christopher Bell dominates on rain tires after rain in New Hampshire – The Virginian-Pilot

LOUDON, NH — Christopher Bell mastered the first-ever NASCAR Cup Series race to finish with cars on rain tires, pulling away from a weather-related 2-hour, 15-minute delay before dark to win Sunday night at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

Bell won his third Cup race of the season and swept the weekend in New Hampshire after his victory on Saturday in the Xfinity Series.

On Friday, Bell revealed that Chase Briscoe will join him at Joe Gibbs Racing in 2025. He then thwarted Briscoe’s best chance at his first win of the season by holding him off in the final two laps of overtime.

As darkness fell, Bell passed Josh Berry and Briscoe to remain the driver to beat in New Hampshire. He has four Xfinity Series victories at Loudon and won a Cup race at the track for the second time.

“I love adverse conditions,” Bell said. “It felt like the normal Loudon groove was really, really slippery.”

Bell was used to rain – he won the rain-shortened Coca-Cola 600 last month with 151 laps left to go.

However, four additional laps were required for the race on Sunday.

Despite the race’s start being moved up by half an hour, chaos reigned from the start in New Hampshire. The race was marred by accidents that knocked out some of NASCAR’s biggest stars – while the rest of the field tried to stay in the race and avoid the threat of rain that lingered throughout the weekend.

Tyler Reddick, who won at Talladega this season, was in the lead when the race was red-flagged due to rain with 82 laps to go in the scheduled 301-lap race.

Fans left the stands and drivers returned to their RVs, seemingly with no prospect of returning as the gloomy weather worsened. New Hampshire and NASCAR waited out a tornado warning, nearby lightning strikes and a severe weather warning before resuming the race after a delay of more than two hours — and after crew members swept standing water from pit road — and all cars took to the 1.058-mile track with new tires.

NASCAR allowed teams to use rain tires in a points race for the first time this season. Teams had a maximum of four sets of rain tires to run on the wet oval track. Teams had to use rain tires during pit stops and their position could not be affected.

They also had no choice about the tires.

They were also no match for Bell in his No. 20 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing.

Bell stood on top of his car and raised a broom over his head in honor of the weekend’s victory before grabbing the Hummer that is traditionally awarded to the winner in New Hampshire in Victory Lane.

Briscoe finished second and Berry third. Kyle Larson and Chris Buescher rounded out the top five.

Busch’s problems

Kyle Busch’s dismal day ended with his Chevy being towed from the track.

Busch hit the wall during the caution laps, ending what is shaping up to be the worst season of his Cup career. Busch had already hit the wall just past the halfway point and was running 24th late in the race when he was involved in another accident. He finished 35th for Richard Childress Racing that season.

Busch, a two-time Cup champion with 231 NASCAR victories, has yet to win a race this season as a driver for RCR. Busch caused a stir last week when he suggested he was open to returning to two of his former Cup teams, but said he is staying with RCR next season.

Busch, who fell two laps behind Bell less than 50 laps into the race, needs a win in the No. 8 Chevrolet to make the playoffs and extend his streak of 20 consecutive seasons with at least one Cup Series victory. After scoring three early wins last season in his debut year with RCR, the 39-year-old Busch is now on a 39-race winless streak, the worst winless streak of his career.

Corrupted races

Alex Bowman, who was winless this season for Hendrick Motorsports, ran into trouble when his No. 48 Chevrolet started smoking. The hood blew up on pit road and the car was soon pushed into the garage for repairs. He finished 36th.

Joey Logano locked the left front tire of the No. 22 Ford on a lap 194 restart and collided with Chase Elliott. Martin Truex Jr., last year’s New Hampshire winner, spun and hit the wall after colliding with Brad Keselowski with 91 laps to go.

Bubba Wallace was thrown out of the race by Noah Gragson after the rain delay and briefly parked his car in front of Gragson’s car on pit road.

Proud to be an American

Daniel Suarez put an American flag sticker on his Chevrolet just days after becoming a U.S. citizen. Suarez, a native of Monterrey, Mexico, was one of 48 people from 28 countries who were sworn in at a ceremony in North Carolina this week.

Next

NASCAR heads to Nashville Superspeedway next weekend. Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain edged out Truex in last season’s race to win.