NASCAR Cup NHMS: Bell wins on rain tires in weekend sweep

Bell, who won Saturday’s Xfinity Series race, got a big jump on the field on an overtime restart and cruised to a 1.104-second win over a surprising Chase Briscoe.

The final 77 laps of the race were run on wet weather tires – the longest stint since NASCAR implemented their use on some oval tracks.

Bell moved into the lead for the final time on lap 242 and held on to the top spot through five agonizing restarts. The victory is Bell’s third of the 2024 season – tied for the most of any driver – and ninth of his Cup career.

Bell was already well versed on wet weather tires at New Hampshire as they were utilized at the start of Saturday’s Xfinity race, which was his fourth at the track in that series.

Watch: Christopher Bell recaps weekend sweep at Loudon

Josh Berry ended up third, Kyle Larson fourth and Chris Buescher rounded out the top five.

Completing the top 10 were Tyler Reddick, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., John Hunter Nemechek, Martin Truex Jr. and Ross Chastain.

Reddick appeared to have victory in hand thanks to staying out after the end of Stage 2 and gambling the bad weather would reach the track before the end of the race. It did, but NASCAR waited out a two-hour, 15-minute rain delay to dry the track enough to utilize the wet weather tires.

Stage 1

Bell ran down and passed Chase Elliott with 28 laps to go and held Joey Logano off by 1.886 seconds to take the Stage 1 win, his seventh of the 2024 season. Elliott ended up third, Ryan Blaney fourth and Berry rounded out the top five.

Stage 2

Denny Hamlin stayed out when most others pit and held on to take the Stage 2 win by 0.760 seconds over Truex. Logano was third, Bell fourth and Blaney ended up fifth.

Stage 3

Following the break between Stages 2 and 3, most of the lead lap cars pit with Larson first off pit road. Truex, who entered running second, had trouble during his right-rear tire change and had a prolonged stop.

With rain headed toward the track, Reddick and Michael McDowell stayed on the track and led the way with 108 laps remaining.

In Turn 2 on the restart, Logano pushed up the track and into Elliott, sending the regular season points leader spinning.. Both cars suffered damage, but were able to return to the track after repairs.

Reddick led McDowell and Larson when the green flag returned on lap 200 and rain about 20 minutes out from the track.

Truex, who had was fighting through the field after a bad pit stop during the stage break, came down the track and into Brad Keselowski on lap 210, which sent Truex’s No. 19 Toyota into the wall and brought an early end to his race.

On Lap 216, Kyle Busch spun around off Turn 4 and slammed into the inside retaining wall to bring out a caution with Reddick still in the lead.

During the caution it began to rain, and NASCAR displayed the red flag after lap 219. After a nearly a two-hour, 15-minute delay, the weather cleared, and NASCAR had teams change to wet weather tires before it restarted with 74 laps remaining.

On lap 235, Chastain looped it around off Turn 4 after contact with Justin Haley to bring out a caution. Reddick remained the leader on the restart with 60 laps to go. Bell went to the apron and powered around Reddick for the lead shortly after the restart.

Gragson spun around on the apron on lap 265 and drifted up the track and into Austin Dillon and Bubba Wallace in an incident that ended up collecting five cars. Bell continued to lead on the restart with 27 laps to go.

Carson Hocevar looped it around off Turn 2 which brought out caution. Bell remained out front when the race returned to green with nine laps remaining.

Blaney and McDowell wrecked to set up another restart with four laps to go and Bell ahead of Berry, Larson and Briscoe. Keselowski spun around with two laps remaining to send the race into a two-lap overtime.