NASCAR New Hampshire race winners and losers: Josh Berry’s big finish, Kyle Busch’s struggles

It was an eventful and very long Sunday in NASCAR’s New Hampshire race’s USA TODAY 301.

Christopher Bell won for the third time this season, and joked that it wasn’t rain-shortened like his win in the Coca-Cola 600 was in May.

NASCAR also broke out the rain tires for the second time this season and finished on them for the first time since they were approved in 2023. The drivers ran the final 82 laps of the race on rain tires.

Here are the winners and losers from the USA TODAY 301 NASCAR Cup Series race at New Hampshire.

USA TODAY 301 RESULTS: Who won NASCAR Cup race in New Hampshire? Norman native Christopher Bell is winner

Winners from NASCAR’S USA TODAY 301

Christopher Bell

Bell is the easy choice here with his race win. But the way he did it by leading 149 total laps and dominating the final laps of the race was just the way he needed to get the job done and earn the win, his second of the season and second in five starts at New Hampshire.

Josh Berry

The Hendersonville native was strong in Sunday’s race and finished third. Berry was running toward the front all day and utilized the hectic nature of the wet-weather tires to push his way up the leaderboard. Berry’s finish on Sunday was tied for his best finish this season at Darlington. Berry now has four top-10s and two top-5s in the last six races.

Chase Briscoe

Briscoe battled hard throughout Sunday’s race to finish second. He fought off Bell at the end of stage one to stay on the lead lap, which helped with pit strategy and track position. Briscoe utilized the rain-soaked restart with 73 laps remaining and moved through the field in a hurry. He had a couple of chances to win the race with the late restarts inside of the final 10 laps, but couldn’t get the jump he needed to pass Bell.

Losers from NASCAR’S USA TODAY 301

Alex Bowman

Bowman suffered an engine failure on lap 142 after the first incident-related caution of Sunday’s race. Bowman was running 17th at the time and was credited with a 36th-place finish in the 36-car field. Bowman entered the day just outside of the playoff cutline, and that is sure to take a big hit after his last-place finish.

Kyle Busch

Busch had all kinds of struggles in Sunday’s race – much like he has all season. Busch overdrove a corner, spun and collected Noah Gragson. Busch had a spin in the backstretch just before the race went into the red flag and spun under caution after the red flag, slapping the wall and ending his day in 35^th place.

LOGANO, ELLIOTT CRASH: Joey Logano, Chase Elliott crash in NASCAR Cup race at New Hampshire in USA TODAY 301

HOW IT HAPPENED: NASCAR Cup Series race at New Hampshire: Live updates, highlights, live leaderboard of USA TODAY 301

NASCAR race management

There are a couple of levels to this one. First, NASCAR red-flagged the race too early with the rain coming in. But bringing the wet-weather tires to New Hampshire was a great call to get the race done to even more than its scheduled distance. On top of that, the racing was fantastic with drivers fanning out to find a different line around the racetrack.

However, NASCAR really struggled in its enforcement of the rules after the drivers went back racing with the rain tires. The officials were strict on the non-competitive pit stops and not allowing race teams dictate the strategy was a big miss. This was the second time the wet-weather tires were used in a points race on an oval and the first at the end of a race, so it’ll just take some time and practice to get it right.

If and when the rain tires are needed again, NASCAR should let the teams decide their strategy and how they want to run the race.