RPW Exclusive: Racing In The Wet Sunday At NHMS Helped Several In The Top Five Make The Most Of Their Day

Column By: BOBBY CHALMERS / RPW – LOUDON, NH – The question of finishing Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway was severely in question with roughly 80 laps remaining.

Mother Nature had intentions to send everyone home early.

NASCAR, and the folks at NHMS, however, had other plans, and those plans included the implementation of wet-weather tires.

While Christopher Bell had the dominant car during the dry conditions, his dominance of the Magic Mile was on display even more once the ‘damps’ were bolted on the Cup cars.

However, several in the top five ascended to the front of the field after the rain delay to salvage days they probably wouldn’t have had otherwise.  For second place finisher Chase Briscoe, you could say he was nowhere to be found on a dry track but things fell his way at the end of Sunday’s 301-mile event.

“What a whirlwind,” Briscoe said.  “Two hours ago, we couldn’t even run 25th and the rain saved us.  This was an awesome recovery for our Zep Ford today.  This is one of my worst race tracks so to run second is kind of surprising, to be honest.”

Restarts during the final 80 laps of the event played right into Briscoe’s hands.

“The rain definitely helped us,” he said.  “If it wasn’t for that, we were probably going to end up 24th or something like that.  We were able to have a couple good restarts and our guys did a really good job understanding the rain balance.  I think we learned a lot when we did it at Richmond.”

After a string of four Cup Series starts where the #14 Stewart-Haas Racing team had only one finish inside the top 20, Sunday’s second place showing was greatly needed.

“We needed a good turnaround day,” he said.  “Today definitely didn’t start that way but it ended well.”

Briscoe had a great battle at the end of the race on Sunday with his SHR teammate, Josh Berry.  Berry, who’s continued to impress in his rookie Cup Series campaign, ended up bringing his #4 home in the show position.

However, he was another whose results made a complete 180-degree turn once the wet-weather tires were bolted on.

“We were 20th when the rain came,” Berry said.  “Then, we threw some rain tires on it and did what I knew we could do and drove through the field.”

Even though he knew he could have been one spot better, Berry enjoyed the final 80 laps on Sunday.

“That was a lot of fun, honestly,” he said.  “I’m going to think back to a million things I could have done different.  Really, the bottom was just so hard to get going through turns one and two.  I felt like, if I could just clear the 14, I might have a chance.  I was inching in on CBell before the final caution.”

It just wasn’t mean to be on the final restart, where lined up right behind the leader while his teammate went to the inside on the front row.  Berry got a good restart but couldn’t successfully make the pass.

“I just got a little loose off of turn two,” he said.  “That let Chase (Briscoe) get back to my left rear and he kind of drug me back.  Then, we got stuck racing each other.”

Choosing the right line on any restart can either be a great positive or a massive negative.  Sometimes, you have to lead with your head rather than your heart and Berry did that on Sunday to make sure he had a shot at a solid finish.

“I wanted to take the front row so bad there at the end,” he said.  “However, I felt like we were making the right decision.  Based on the track conditions, things just didn’t work out.”

Things actually played into fourth place finisher Kyle Larson’s hands once the wet tires were put on.  He felt right at home, sliding around the one-mile Loudon oval.

“It’s fun when it was like that,” Larson said.  “I think that’s why you saw a lot of the dirt racers migrate to the front.  We were just trying to feel things out under caution.”

Then, things began to get wild for the Elk Grove, CA driver, especially on restarts.

“I felt like my best bet on the restarts was just to go extreme low,” he said.  “It ended up working out and we were able to maintain track position the rest of the race.”

Fifth place on the day was Chris Buescher and the #17 RFK Racing team was another group that’s had an up-and-down 2024 season.

Since finishing second in the closest NASCAR Cup Series race in history at Kansas Speedway on May 5th, Buescher has only finished in the top 5 one other time before Sunday.  That is a span of five races but the former Xfinity Series champion was how well they ran at NHMS.

“Loudon’s not been our best track, well, mine, specifically,” Buescher said.  “There was no quit in this group today.  That was awesome to come home with a top five.”

Track conditions helped play into Buescher and company’s hands, once the rain became a factor.

“We were really good in the rain when it was, ‘wet’ out there,” he said.  “We really fought for it when it was dry on the wet tires so there at the end, there was really just one good groove.  That made restarts a real battle.”