Ring the Bell! JGR driver's win at New Hampshire shakes up NASCAR Cup Series playoff picture

Truex looked like he had it in the bag but two tires on a pit stop were the wrong call,as teammate Christopher Bell picked up the slack to earn his 2nd career Cup win.

Entering Sunday’s NASCAR Cup race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, 13 different drivers had secured their spot in the playoffs with a win this season, leaving just three spots open on points with seven races remaining to set the field.

The Joe Gibbs Racing duo of Martin Truex Jr. and Christopher Bell were two of eight winners from last season still seeking their first victory of 2022, and they were also the final two drivers above the playoff cutline on points entering the 301-lap race.

Truex started from the pole position in the No. 19 Interstate Batteries Toyota and absolutely dominated in the early going, sweeping the first two stages and leading a race-high 172 laps. It appeared that Truex was well on his way to becoming the 14^th driver of the season to secure a win and qualify for the playoffs.

But after what would be the final caution of the race with 96 laps to go for a Todd Gilliland spin, Truex hit pit road and took two fresh Goodyear tires. When the field returned to green, Truex reported over the radio that the car wouldn’t go at all, he just about spun out going into Turn 3 and he didn’t know what was going on.

As the win slipped away from one Joe Gibbs Racing driver, another was set to take advantage as Bell made his march to the front of the field in the No. 20 Rheem Toyota.

Bell snatched the lead from Chase Elliott with 42 laps to go and drove away, beating the 2020 Cup Series champion and last week’s winner to the checkered flag by 5.767 seconds. It was the fourth straight top-two finish for Elliott.

Bell is no stranger to success at New Hampshire, as the 27-year-old finished second last season and won three consecutive Xfinity Series races at the 1.058-mile track (2018, 2019, 2021).

While the Norman, Oklahoma native drove a great race, his No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing pit crew, which has struggled at times this season, got the job done on pit road. Prior to last weekend’s race at Atlanta Motor Speedway, the team swapped two tire changers and a tire carrier with the Denny Hamlin-Michael Jordan co-owned 23XI crew.

This was reportedly the sixth different crew combination for Bell this season and that change paid dividends, as NBC Analyst Steve Letarte said two of the three fastest pit stops in Sunday’s race were from the No. 20 crew.

“Man, that one was much needed right there,” said Bell with a giant smile after climbing from his No. 20 Toyota. “That was a blast. Just so happy. So happy to be here at Joe Gibbs Racing, all our partners on this No. 20 car.

“I'll tell you what, that was a hell of a race from my viewpoint. That was so much fun racing with the 45 (Kurt Busch), the 22 (Joey Logano) and the 9 (Chase Elliott). We were all running different lines.

“Winning Cup races is hard. ... It just seems like we've been so close and then we've fallen off a little bit last week. I was talking to my best friend and I told him earlier in the year, I felt like we were right on the verge of winning. And then the last couple weeks, I felt like we were pretty far away, but here we are today.”

While Bell raised the live lobster given to the winner in victory lane, his teammate Truex found himself finishing fourth and dropping to the 16^th and final spot on the preliminary playoff grid. With six races remaining to set the field, Truex finds himself at risk of missing the playoffs if he fails to find victory lane in that time period.

“Just put on two tires and got in a bad spot on the restart,” a dejected Truex said. “I got put three-wide and the 22 (Joey Logano) didn’t get going and I was on the inside behind him.

"I tried to shove him to get him going and get us going and (Kevin) Harvick made it three-wide and put us in a bad spot. And just my car was terrible on two tires and couldn’t go anywhere. Just should have put four tires on, I guess.

“We had the car to do it, we just screwed it up. It’s frustrating and disappointing, but congrats to the 20 (Bell). Obviously, they were smarter than we were at the end.”

The 2022 season is just the fourth in the modern era of Cup Series competition to feature 14 different winners in the first 20 races (2002, 2003 and 2011 being the other three). The plethora of winners has given even more of an emphasis to winning as opposed to points racing as the series enters the final stretch of the regular season.

In addition to the regular-season finale at Daytona International Speedway, the final six races before the playoffs include two road courses (Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course and Watkins Glen), Pocono, Michigan and Richmond.

Despite being third and fourth, respectively, in the point standings, Ryan Blaney and Truex risk missing the playoffs completely if they fail to visit victory lane and two drivers without a win take the checkered flag over the course of the next six events.

There are still seven drivers that won last season who have yet to pick up a victory in 2022 (Blaney, Truex, Aric Almirola, Brad Keselowski, Bubba Wallace, Michael McDowell and AJ Allmendinger) and we all know anything can happen at Daytona and the road courses.

And let’s not forget those drivers currently on the outside looking in, as Kevin Harvick is currently the first driver outside the playoff bubble. In jeopardy is Harvick’s streak of 12 consecutive seasons with a playoff appearance, the longest among active drivers.

Suffice it to say, this next month-and-a-half will be must-see-TV for the NASCAR Cup Series.