Christopher Bell, who had won the race on Saturday Xfinity Series, He gained a big lead on a restart in overtime and won by 1.104 seconds over a surprising Chase Briscoe.
The final 77 laps of the race were run on wet tires, the longest run since NASCAR implemented their use on some oval tracks.
Bell took the lead for the final time on lap 242 and held the top position for five agonizing restarts. This victory is Bell’s third of the 2024 season and the ninth of his Cup career.
Bell was already well familiar with the wet tires at New Hampshire, as they were used at the start of Saturday’s Xfinity race, which was his fourth at the track in that category.
Watch: Christopher Bell recaps weekend sweep at Loudon
“You never know how this is going to turn out when you change so many things like that and with the adverse conditions. Personally, I love the adverse conditions because you’re always trying to think outside the box,” Bell said. “You know, when we came back out, I was feeling around, and I thought the normal Loudon groove was very, very slippery.”
“So I tried to run down or up, and Adam (Stevens, crew chief) tuned that, and I was turning really well.”
Josh Berry finished third, Kyle Larson fourth and Chris Buescher rounded out the top five.
Rounding out the top 10 were Tyler Reddick, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., John Hunter Nemechek, Martin Truex Jr. and Ross Chastain.
Reddick appeared to have the win in hand thanks to sitting out after the end of Stage 2 and betting that bad weather would hit the track before the end of the race. He did, but NASCAR waited a two-hour, 15-minute delay to dry the track enough to finally have to use the wet tires.
Stage 1 of the NASCAR Cup in New Hampshire
Bell passed Chase Elliott with 28 laps remaining and held Joey Logano to 1.886 seconds to take the Stage 1 victory, his seventh of the 2024 season. Elliott finished third, Ryan Blaney fourth and Berry rounded out the top five.
Stage 2 of the NASCAR Cup in New Hampshire
Denny Hamlin stayed out as most others pitted and held on to take the Stage 2 victory by 0.760 seconds over Truex. Logano was third, Bell fourth and Blaney finished fifth.
Stage 3 of the NASCAR Cup in New Hampshire
After the break between Stages 2 and 3, most of the leading lap cars pitted, with Larson being the first to exit. Truex, who entered when he was second, had problems during his right rear tire change and had a long stop.
As rain headed toward the track, Reddick and Michael McDowell stayed on the track and led the race with 108 laps remaining.
In Turn 2 of the restart, Logano went over the top and collided with Elliott, causing the regular season points leader to spin. Both cars sustained 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 off the track.
Truex, who had been fighting through the field after a poor pit stop during the stage break, came down the track and collided with Brad Keselowski on lap 210, sending Truex’s #19 Toyota into the wall. and ended his career early.
On lap 216, Kyle Busch spun in Turn 4 and crashed into the inside retaining wall, causing a caution with Reddick still in the lead.
During caution time it began to rain, and NASCAR showed the red flag after lap 219. After a delay of nearly two hours and 15 minutes, the weather cleared, and NASCAR had the teams switch to rubber tires. rain before resuming the race with 74 laps remaining.
On lap 235, Chastain spun in Turn 4 after making contact with Justin Haley, prompting another caution. Reddick remained the leader at the restart with 60 laps to go. Bell went to the apron and passed Reddick for the lead shortly after the restart.
Gragson spun on the apron on lap 265 and went down the track and collided with Austin Dillon and Bubba Wallace in an incident that took out five cars. Bell continued to lead on the restart with 27 laps remaining.
Carson Hocevar also lost control in Turn 2, prompting another caution. Bell remained in front when the race returned to the green flag with nine laps remaining.
Blaney and McDowell collided and another restart occurred with four laps to go and Bell ahead of Berry, Larson and Briscoe. Keselowski spun with two laps remaining, sending the race into an overtime of two more laps.
