Christopher Bell overcame every obstacle that was thrown at him Sunday. It didn’t matter if it was rain, darkness, repeated cautions or the rest of the field driving way over their heads on a damp track, he got the win in the USA TODAY 301 NASCAR Cup Series race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Bell swept the weekend as he also won the SCI Aps 200 NASCAR Xfinity Series event on Saturday. Bell led a race high 148 of the 305 laps and crossed the finish line 1.104 seconds ahead of 2nd place Chase Briscoe. The win was Bell’s second Cup series win at the track and the ninth of his Cup Series career. The victory didn’t come easy though as Bell had to endure a race that lasted more than six hours. The race was also red flagged for a rain delay that lasted 134 minutes and the event saw 14 cautions. The win vaulted Bell into second place in the regular season Cup Series points standings with only 8 races left to go in the regular season.
NASCAR restarted the race after the weather delay on rain tires which was the first time that Cup Series has ever ran the rain tire on an oval in race conditions. As the track dried, the rain tires quickly heated up and began to blister which led to several wrecks. With 16 laps to go, after a Carson Hocevar spin, NASCAR brought the entire field to pit road and mandated a 4-tire rain tire change. NASCAR returned to green flag racing with 10 laps to go and the field seemed to run the remainder of the race without any more tire incidents.
Josh Berry, who battled for the win during late race restarts finished third, Kyle Larson fourth, and Chris Buescher rounded out the top 5. The Cup Series heads to Nashville Superspeedway this coming Sunday for the Ally 400 which will air on NBC at 3:30 p.m. ET.