What Happened?
You might as well call Christopher Bell Houdini, because he owns The Magic Mile. Bell got to the front early and remained a player all race, even after the red flag and rain passed through.
The first wet restart provided a huge opportunity, and Bell took advantage by driving more aggressively around the outside, passing a group of cars and getting to third. From there, he held off a number of challenges and cautions, winning his second New Hampshire Motor Speedway Cup race and sweeping the weekend.
Behind Bell, Chase Briscoe and Josh Berry finished side-by-side in second and third. Joe Gibbs Racing remains undefeated at New Hampshire with the Next Gen car.
What Really Happened?
A fairly straightforward New Hampshire race quickly became muddled with rain, rubber and race management throwing caution to the wind. Despite the frustrating chaos, the wet-weather tires proved they do have a place in the future of NASCAR.
The first two stages played out a lot like the past three races. A ho-hum first stage led to a second stage where cautions mixed up the race strategies. After that, things got ugly.
We talk about intensity picking up when rain threatens, but here, intensity turned into stupidity. From the restart in the final stage until the rain came, four cautions flew in just 23 laps. Of those laps, only 10 were under green. Then the rain came, and the mess on the track grew into a mess of a race.
All weekend, rain and darkness swirled as topics of conversation. While NASCAR clarified a darkness plan, they never truly clarified a rain plan. This lack of communication led to a really confusing and frustrating final stage.
For starters, NASCAR pre-emptively parked the cars on pit road for a quick shower ahead of the larger storm system. With limited communication, this seemed like a perfect opportunity to take advantage of wet tires and race until the big storms arrived.
Fan safety likely played a role in this decision, but a lack of communication left most people guessing.
To give credit, NASCAR showed a ton of patience to wait out the storm and bolt on the wet-weather tires. Once the weather lifted, the first few restarts on the wets provided some great racing action, also lifting…
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