Christopher Bell Triumphs at Atlanta

Christopher Bell raises his arm in victory after capturing the Ambetter Health 400 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. (Photo: Hayden Hutchison | The Podium Finish)

HAMPTON, Ga. — Christopher Bell will remember his latest NASCAR Cup Series win given it occurred in a record-breaking race at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

In a race that featured 50 lead changes among 15 different drivers, Sunday’s Ambetter Health 400 offered harrowing and heroic moments. It was a far cry from the race’s predictions of an all Ford Performance domination at the 1.54-mile speed palace.

When the race was underway, Austin Cindric took the lead from Ryan Blaney, his Team Penske teammate, for the first 23 laps. Cindric swapped the lead with Todd Gilliland before Josh Berry snatched the number one spot on Lap 44 and held it to win Stage 1.

The race’s first caution aside for a stage break occurred on Lap 84 for Ty Dillon‘s incident in Turn 4.

Caution periods seemed to occur subsequently from there with Erik Jones tangling with Chris Buescher in the backstretch on Lap 104, debris on the backstretch on Lap 136, and a three-car accident involving Chase Elliott, Brad Keselowski and Corey LaJoie.

Although the Ford domination continued throughout the majority of Stage 2, Alex Bowman drove his Chevrolet to the lead on Lap 141. He would mix it up with Joey Logano for the next 19 laps before Kyle Larson took the lead and won Stage 2, capturing his first stage victory in a drafting track.

Multiple multicar accidents depleted the competition with Noah Gragson, JJ Yeley, Cody Ware, and Daniel Suárez, the defending race winner, all eliminated in a Lap 186 fracas. Not long after, Buescher, Bowman and Ty Gibbs saw their winning bids cut short due to their Lap 207 frontstretch wreck.

Throughout all of these dramatic incidents, the leaderboard shuffled faster than a game of Texas Hold ‘Em. Different pit strategies mixed contenders like Kyle Larson and Joey Logano outside of the top 15 while Ross Chastain and Shane van Gisbergen, Trackhouse Racing teammates, found themselves toward the front of the pack.

Larson and Logano crafted their way inside the top 10 while Bell bided his time for the right moment. Meanwhile, Blaney, the polesitter, spun in Turns 1 and 2 on Lap 236 due t a bump draft that went wrong with Carson Hocevar.

Blaney dropped outside the top 20 but quickly rallied back inside the top five with fresh tires and some frustration, placing fourth in the rundown.

In the closing laps, Larson challenged Cindric for the lead. With neither driver wanting to cut each other a break, Larson drifted into the lead while Cindric hit the Turn 2 wall.

Not long after, Cindric tangled with two-time DAYTONA 500 champion William Byron, crashing into the backstretch retaining SAFER barrier. Both drivers’ pursuits for the win ended in frustration.

This set up the only NASCAR Overtime session of the race with Larson leading the way. However, Chastain took the lead going into the restart zone before Larson regained it going into the race’s final lap.

Bell drove like a bat out of hell going into Turns 1 and 2, darting to the outside of Larson with drafting help from Hocevar. The trio proceeded into Turns 3 and 4 in three-wide formation before a crash involving Berry, Justin Haley and Ryan Preece resulted in the 11th and final caution that proved decisive for the finish.

Kyle Larson (No. 5) was on the inside of Christopher Bell and Carson Hocevar after the final caution in Sunday’s Ambetter Health 400 at Atlanta. (Photo: Sydney Redden | The Podium Finish)

It was evident that Bell was ahead of Hocevar and Larson when the caution lights were on upon some replay angles. Once Bell knew he won the race, he considered his topsy-turvy experience.

“I definitely wasn’t going to start a burnout till they told me for sure that I won,” Bell said. “I felt like I had it because I was gauging off the guys besides me – whenever I saw the yellow flag. I don’t know – for the last lap or so, I kept seeing smoke in my rear-view mirror, and I was like, oh my gosh, please don’t crash, please don’t crash.

“This place is just bonkers. Every time we come here, it gets wilder and wilder, and I never in my wildest dreams would have thought I would have won a superspeedway race.”

Capturing a career-best finish with a runner-up, Hocevar was a bit contrite when he realized his OEM dilemma in helping Bell, a Toyota, versus assisting Larson, a fellow Chevrolet racer.

“First off, apologies to Larson, HMS, Mr. H and everybody,” Hocevar said. “They help us out a lot and I didn’t realize we weren’t racing back to the line. The last two nights were kind of that way, and I hit the No. 20 to get him out of the way and filled the middle. A little bit longer and maybe we win the race. But big thanks to Spire Motorsports, Chevrolet and Delaware Life. I normally ride in the back and run last, so I was just trying to get a good, decent finish.

“For how bad we were at Daytona, I was not riding. But yeah, there is some stuff I have to learn and clean up a little bit, but I feel like we put ourselves in the perfect opportunity to win the race. I have never had that opportunity really before, especially on a big superspeedway. So just big thanks to Spire Motorsports. They deserve all the praise, and I just get to hold the wheel, run wide open and try to put myself in a decent spot. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the best spot but was just one spot short.”

Larson captured his first drafting race podium of his Cup career. Still, he lamented on what could have been had he played his cards a bit better.

“I think if I didn’t let the No. 20 get to my outside, I would have had an opportunity,” Larson said. “But he would probably split to my inside into (Turn) 1 and clear me. If I don’t hesitate, the wreck probably doesn’t happen. So yeah, I don’t know.. I haven’t seen a replay yet.

“But yeah, bummer not to get a win. I’m proud of the effort today by this No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevy team. We had a lot of fun. It was super intense. It was my first legit finish here at Atlanta Motor Speedway since the reconfiguration, so I’ll take it.”

With the Cup field shifting gears, literally, from superspeedway-style races to the renowned road course known as Circuit of the Americas (Sunday, Mar. 2, at 3:30 p.m. ET on FOX), Bell reflected on his maneuver to win at Atlanta.

Christopher Bell formally enjoys his win in the Ambetter Health 400 in Atlanta’s Victory Lane. (Photo: Sydney Redden | The Podium Finish)

“You just have to keep the momentum. I can be risky to be on the top or the bottom, because sometimes it forms in the middle, sometimes it forms on the top. It forms on the top, you don’t want to be on the bottom,” Bell said. “If it forms in the middle, you don’t want to be on the top. I don’t know – you can kind of pick wrong either way.

“It seemed like the first half of the race, I couldn’t do anything right, and I was just mired back in the pack, and then these boys got the DeWalt Camry tuned up. They got it going really well where I could drive it hard. The DeWalt Camry was fastest when it needed to be at the end.”

Stage 1 Top 10 Results

1. Josh Berry
2. Austin Cindric
3. William Byron
4. Bubba Wallace
5. Chase Elliott
6. Tyler Reddick
7. Todd Gilliland
8. Ryan Blaney
9. Carson Hocevar
10. Joey Logano

Stage 2 Top 10 Results

1. Kyle Larson
2. Bubba Wallace
3. Joey Logano
4. William Byron
5. Alex Bowman
6. Tyler Reddick
7. Carson Hocevar
8. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
9. Austin Cindric
10. Noah Gragson

Ambetter Health 400 at Atlanta Motor Speedway Race Results