New Hampshire Provides Another Unlikely Winner

What Happened?

On a day that was dominated by Toyota, Christopher Bell finally broke through and won the Ambetter 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Sunday (July 17).

Bell continues to show his strength at the track.  He has won three times in just as many NASCAR Xfinity Series races he has competed in there. He was also the runner-up in last year’s event, finishing second to Aric Almirola in a darkness-shortened race.

The win is also just the second career NASCAR Cup Series victory for Bell in his near three-year endeavor. His first came at the Daytona International Speedway road course in 2021.

Chase Elliott continues his hot streak with a second-place finish, his fourth top-two result in the last four races. Behind him, Bubba Wallace came home third, followed by Martin Truex Jr., the dominant car of the day (as well as the stage one and two winner). Kevin Harvick finished fifth to gather a much-needed top five in a season where his average result is the worst it’s been since 2014.

How Did It Happen?

Bell was having a relatively quiet day until the final stage, when his crew had some fantastic pit stops and launched him into the top five for most of the second half of the race. Still, he wasn’t the favorite as that last stage began.

That honor went to Truex, who led all 70 laps en route to a stage one win before backing that up with a stage two victory. The driver of the No. 19 was the clear favorite for the win at his home track once stage three went green, but one pit call changed everything.

A two-tire call turned out to be the wrong one, and on the restart, Truex got put three-wide. As has been the case this season, the once-dominant car didn’t handle as well in traffic, and Truex spent the rest of the race fighting for a shot that he never got. The fourth-place finish was just his third top five this season and his first since a fifth-place run at Talladega Superspeedway 10 races ago.

With Truex all but out of contention, the door opened for drivers who took four tires such as Bell, Elliott and Wallace to take advantage.  After the drivers who just didn’t stop under the caution pitted, Elliott cycled to the lead, but Bell was right there.  With 42 laps to go, Bell took the lead from Elliott and held onto it until he took the checkered flag more than five seconds ahead.

Who Stood Out?

While a playoff run might be out of the question at this point, it isn’t stopping Brad Keselowski from fighting for good performances.

The No. 6 team had an early run-in with Austin Dillon after the latter was upset with how he was being raced by Keselowski.  Following a caution for a Kyle Busch spin, Dillon ran into Keselowski’s door to express his displeasure, to which Keselowski responded by dooring Dillon all the way down the backstretch and nearly spinning the No. 3 under caution.

THEY’RE FIGHTING WITH THEIR CARS!

Brad Keselowski and Austin Dillon are wrecking each other down the backstretch! #NASCAR

📺 : @USA_Network pic.twitter.com/qU1LM2tZgZ

— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) July 17, 2022

Keselowski later had a run-in with Ross Chastain (then again, who hasn’t at this point?) and ran him low on the track just past…