Was The New Hampshire Finish Really Rain Affected

I've been chatting with a few folks and it's interesting that even though everyone was focused on the fact that the race was rain shortened, that no one seems to be remembering that the front runners all had to stop for fuel anyway, regardless.

With the rain taking the blunt of the blame, we still have to keep the fuel mileage thing in mind. That brings to light that when the yellow came out, who stayed, who pitted, who took chances?

Kurt Busch said that with a few laps of caution, they probably would have won or contended for the win because of how they managed the fuel mileage.

Michael Waltrip, who finished 2nd, echoed the sentiment, saying strategy put him where he was, not rain and he even felt he could have contended for the win with Kurt Busch if the race stayed green. (Is Kurt running that badly these days?)

Reed Sorenson, who finished 6th said they stayed out just because the rain was that close.

What befuddled me a bit was when they showed the weather radar at one point near the end of the race, there was a massive yellow section indicating heavy rain heading for the track and it wasn't far off, why more top contenders didn't take the chance? Yea, it is a big chance, but the radar looked pretty nasty and if you knew it was coming, why come in? Live on the edge boys!

Tell you what though, this little fuel / rain debacle mixed up the points standings a little bit and definitely juggled up the bubble zone in Owners Points around 35th, but I'll be touching on that in a later post.

When all is said and done, I wasn't there, so obviously things looked different to different folk, but I'm just wondering out loud from my perspective on the couch, where I didn't get rained on.
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Source: NASCAR News