Christopher Bell was the beneficiary of NASCAR’s decision to resume the USA Today 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on wet weather tires.
The resolution helped the Cup Series run their final 82 laps (plus overtime) on the wet weather tires, finishing the race for everyone in Loudon on Sunday evening. At the time of the red flag, Tyler Reddick was leading, but Bell was able to dominate after getting to the lead and never looking back.
One thing that helped Bell is NASCAR decided to utilize non-competitive pit stops over the last laps following the red flag. That allowed Bell to maintain the lead while getting new tires, and the victor at New Hampshire had some interesting commentary on the matter afterwards.
“I honestly thought that they handled it perfectly,” Bell said, regarding NASCAR’s decision to have non-competitive pit stops at New Hampshire, via FOX’s Bob Pockrass. “I don’t know — it’s going to be so tough, whenever you start introducing competitive pit stops, because you run the risk of really injuring people. It’s all about being cautious, right? But there’s such a reward in executing pit road good, that I don’t think it’s worth — the juice isn’t worth the squeeze, right? That’s just walking a tightrope, whenever you start introducing wet pit roads, and slick tires on damp pit roads.
“So I don’t know what the answer is, but I would be really afraid of having to execute pit road without injuring people or hitting people.”
Of course, Christopher Bell might be biased, as the non-competitive pit stops helped him win the race in Loudon, but it made a lot of sense for NASCAR to utilize that route. We’ll see if they decide to change their minds if a similar situation arises in the future though.
Elton Sawyer says NASCAR would have called race at New Hampshire early without wet weather tires
Continuing, it seems like the NASCAR Cup Series was saved by their use of wet weather tires at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Sunday afternoon.
Mother Nature didn’t want to see NASCAR finish the USA Today 301 in Loudon, but Goodyear allowed the best racers in America to get the job done. That led to a lot of praise for the sport’s decision-makers in general, and NASCAR SVP of Competition Elton Sawyer faced the media afterwards.
Speaking with FOX’s Bob Pockrass following a successful event, Sawyer explained that without the wet weather tires making it possible to get back on the track, the race would’ve been called with 82 laps to go, when the red flag came out for rain.
“Oh, we would’ve,” Sawyer responded, revealing NASCAR would’ve called the race if not for the wet weather tires. “We would’ve been done with 82 laps to go. Again, it gave us an opportunity to get back green. We knew we were up against it, with daylight as well. But kudos to our teams, our drivers, our owners and especially Mr. [Jim] France, for his vision.”
That really puts it all into perspective, as the action we saw following the rain delay was certainly worth it. Hopefully it allows the sport to push the envelope some more into the future, as well.
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