As one of the more consistent winless drivers in the Cup Series this season, Christopher Bell had entered Sunday’s race at New Hampshire with the final spot on the playoff grid via points and fighting to keep it. And thanks to the fight he showed, Bell doesn’t need to worry about points anymore.
After taking the lead from Chase Elliott with 42 laps to go, Bell drove away over the final green flag run to win the Ambetter 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, scoring his first win of 2022 and the second win of his career. Bell’s only other win was the second race of the 2021 season at the Daytona International Speedway Road Course.
Bell now becomes the 14th different driver to win a race in the first 20 races of the season, leaving now just two spots available in the NASCAR playoffs on points.
Ambetter 301 results
- #20 – Christopher Bell
- #9 – Chase Elliott
- #23 – Bubba Wallace
- #19 – Martin Truex Jr.
- #4 – Kevin Harvick
- #11 – Denny Hamlin
- #6 – Brad Keselowski
- #1 – Ross Chastain
- #99 – Daniel Suarez
- #45 – Kurt Busch
“That one was much needed right there. I’ll tell you, that was a hell of a race from my viewpoint,” Bell told NBC Sports. “… Winning Cup races is hard … It just seems like we’ve been so close, and then we’d fallen off a little bit last week. I was talking to my best friend and I told him early in the year, I felt like we were right on the verge of winning. And then the last couple weeks, I felt like we were pretty far away. But here we are today.”
Here’s more on the fallout from New Hampshire and a Christopher Bell victory with massive playoff implications.
For Whom the Bell Tolls
Entering New Hampshire, Christopher Bell’s advantage over Kevin Harvick for the final spot in the playoffs on points had stood at 19 points, making it perfectly possible for Harvick to make that gap up and for Bell to potentially lose ground quickly. But the complexion of the last 100 laps of Sunday’s race changed things entirely.
Through the first two stages, it had looked that Martin Truex Jr. was the class of the field and that Harvick may have had the only car capable of challenging him for the win. But the final caution of the day for a spin by Todd Gilliland — which set up a 93-lap green flag run to the finish — completely changed things.
Strategies were split throughout cars on the lead lap, and Truex and Harvick were among the drivers to take just two tires on pit road. That proved to be the wrong call, as neither Truex nor Harvick were able to make their way through traffic on two tires early in the run. The cars that took four tires, meanwhile — Chase Elliott, Christopher Bell, Bubba Wallace and others — were able to make their way through the field and toward the front effectively.
Elliott looked as though he may have been in the best position to take the win once he got around Kurt Busch, Joey Logano and Cole Custer — none of whom elected to pit — but Bell’s car came to life over the final 50 laps, running Elliott down and then driving away for good once Bell took the lead with 42 to go.
As a result of Bell’s win, only two spots now remain for drivers to make the playoffs on points. Ryan Blaney holds a 105-point advantage over the cutoff line, and maximum stage points throughout the day have given Truex a 68-point advantage over the cut line. Kevin Harvick now trails Truex for the final spot in the playoffs by 68 points, and he’s the only driver within 100 points of the cutoff line after Aric Almirola suffered a transmission failure and lost many laps during Sunday’s race.
The way things have shaken out have put many drivers in must-win territory to make the playoffs. It’s also created a scenario in which two drivers in the top five in points — Blaney and Truex — are in danger of missing the playoffs. And what’s more, there’s still a full six races remaining for all of this to be resolved.
Bad Brad Goes Mad
Brad Keselowski’s season-long grind to return RFK Racing to relevance may have reached a major turning point on Sunday. After spending much of the season toiling in obscurity, Keselowski put in a season-best seventh place run, but not without considerable drama.
After a spin by Kyle Busch brought out a mid-race caution, Austin Dillon expressed his displeasure with the way Keselowski had been racing him by driving up to Keselowski’s door and taking a swipe at it down the backstretch. Keselowski proceeded to flip out on Dillon, hanging a left into Dillon’s door and banging fenders with him all the way down the back straightaway.
Keselowski suffered considerable left side damage, but he continued to motor on and even responded to contact with Ross Chastain by aggressively running Chastain down the track on the frontstretch. After Keselowski’s season-best performance, the issue of what triggered his run-in with Dillon remained.
“We’ve gone at it a couple times the last two years. One time, I hit really hard,” Dillon told NBC Sports. “I just don’t like the way certain people race me. Probably not the right way to do it under a caution.”
Dillon said that he had no plans to discuss the issue with Keselowski, saying that “I don’t talk to him.” Keselowski, meanwhile, indicated that he would handle the matter privately.
“Hot in the cars and tempers get the best of us,” Keselowski told NBC Sports. “I’ll talk to him privately. I don’t need to be a jerk in the media.”
Hubba Bubba
Bubba Wallace has a NASCAR Cup Series win to his credit, and he’s also finished second twice in the Daytona 500. But Sunday may have marked, from start to finish, the most complete race of his Cup career.
After earning his best-career qualifying effort in fourth, Wallace drove to second early and seldom left the top 10 the rest of the day. Wallace executed on-track and his team executed on pit road, as best illustrated by their final pit stop: Crew chief Bootie Barker’s call to put on four tires helped Wallace over the final long run, as his fresher left side tires helped him drive all the way up to third by the checkered flag.
It was a cathartic result for Wallace, who has had a difficult 2022 season and whose team had recently made changes to their pit crew after much-publicized struggles in the pits that led to Wallace losing his patience several weeks ago at Nashville.
“I’m just proud of the team, proud of myself, proud of everybody at the shop,” Wallace told NBC Sports. “… (The car) didn’t handle that great, but it had speed, and so we knew that. Just the mental preparation, had to set yourself up for a long day, and we did. I had no idea where we were running there at the end. I knew it was inside the top five. Just tire management there at the end, and we were able to capitalize.
“Just proud. Just proud of everybody, happy. It’s been hell for me the last month, and so good to come out with a top five.”
Wallace’s third-place finish marked his first-ever Cup Series top five on a track less than two miles in length. Wallace’s previous top fives had all come at either Daytona and Talladega, Indianapolis Motor Speedway or Pocono Raceway.
Race Results Rundown
- Kurt Busch fared the best of any of the three drivers that elected to stay out on the final caution. With neither Busch, Logano, or Custer able to make it to the finish, Busch had a clean final green flag stop and was able to drive all the way back up to 10th at the finish. Custer’s final pit stop was badly botched, as he left prematurely as his crew was trying to get the right rear wheel off, resulting in a long stop and relegating him to 27th. Logano tried to stretch his fuel as long as possible, but he had to pit with five laps to go and finished 24th.
- Austin Cindric used strategy to make his way up inside the top 10 early in the race, but his day went awry when he had a right front wheel come off as he was leaving his pit stall under caution. Cindric would eventually recover to finish 13th, ending his top-10 streak at four races.
- Harrison Burton led laps for the third week in a row, as he stayed out under one caution to be the leader on a restart. Burton had been running inside the top 10 when his crew was given an equipment interference penalty on their final stop. Burton never regained his track position and finished 26th.
- Alex Bowman made it just four laps before being an innocent bystander when Ty Dillon spun up the track in front of him, ending Bowman’s day prematurely in a four-car crash. Bowman now has three DNFs in the last four races, continuing a miserable summertime streak that has seen him not score a single top-10 finish since Charlotte in May.
Next Race
After a trip up to New England, the NASCAR Cup Series stays in the Northeast with a trip to the mountains and the Pocono Raceway in Pocono, Penn. Pocono will serve as the site of the M&M’s Fan Appreciation 400 next Sunday at 3 p.m. ET.
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