Christopher Bell does the double in New Hampshire

The 2024 NASCAR Cup Series arrived in New Hampshire this weekend for the USA Today 301. The Championship leader, Chase Elliott, took pole position yesterday a week after claiming the overall lead of the Cup Series.

Last weekend Ryan Blaney returned to victory road and took Ford's first win of the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series. For the 301-lap race today Blaney started from the front row as he qualified in second place.

Early on in the race Elliott controlled the lead of the race after starting from pole. However, after 42 laps he lost his lead to the Joe Gibbs Racing car of Christopher Bell. Bell then continued to lead the race for the remainder of the first stage and won the first stage of the race on Lap 71.

Bell led the field to green for the start of the second stage of the race with Joey Logano and Elliott in second and third. The battle for second began to heat up with Josh Berry and Martin Truex Jr also getting involved at the front.

On Lap 124 Truex Jr, Berry, Logano, Denny Hamlin, Elliott and Ross Chastain all pit, with Bell pitting from the lead a lap later. After the front runner's pit, Todd Gilliland filtered to the front with Truex Jr behind. However, Truex Jr did get the lead after Gilliland decided to pit.

The first true caution of the race occurred on Lap 142 after Daniel Hemric spun out from 32nd place. Under the caution, Alex Bowman had an engine issue and returned to pit lane where he was pushed back into the paddock.

Hamlin inherited the race lead after his rivals pit under the caution flags with Logano in second place. Not long after the restart Noah Gragson and Kyle Busch wrecked after Busch made contact with Gragson, this brought out the caution flags once again.

After inheriting the lead Hamlin ended up winning the second stage of the night. Tyler Reddick ended up leading the field on the restart until Logano and Elliott wrecked together on Lap 194. Only six laps later Corey LaJorie crashed on the restart from the previous caution flag.

On lap 216 Kyle Busch wrecked again and another caution was brought out around the New Hampshire circuit. On Lap 220 the NASCAR Cup Series race was red flagged due to rain.

After over two hours of delay, the NASCAR Cup Series got back underway after a brief caution run with 73 laps to go. There was a mixture of strategies on the restart after two drivers had incidents on the caution sighting laps.

The first of the wet cautions came out with 67 laps to go as Ross Chastain spun around. He was not hit and did not hit the wall the driver spun on his own but continued. Later in the damp running, Corey LaJorie went around, and the caution came back out.

On the restart, Bell led Blaney and Larson around the oval with only 38 laps to go. With 37 laps to go the 11th caution came out as Bubba Wallace, Austin Cindric, Noah Gragson and Austin Dillon all wrecked.

With 27 laps to go the race was back underway with Bell leading the pack from Reddick and Blaney. The 12th caution of the day came out ten laps later as Hocevar spun.

Nine laps to go and the race was back underway for one corner. Michael McDowell and Ryan Blaney spun around. The race went green again for a five lap sprint and Bell pulled away from the field and looked like he would break the pack.

Three laps to go and Brad Keselowski spun around and the 14th caution of the race came out. NASCAR Overtime then got underway with only two laps left to race.

Bell takes victory today in the Cup Series as he sweeps the weekend after winning the Xfinity race yesterday. Briscoe finished in second with Berry in third.

Larson and Buescher finished in fourth and fifth places. Reddick thought he would have another race win to his name today, but he finished in sixth. Ricky Stenhouse Jr finished in seventh with John Hunter Nemechek in eighth. Then Martin Truex Jr and Ross Chastain rounded out the top ten in ninth and tenth.