Christopher Bell will compete for the NASCAR Cup Series championship for the second consecutive year after a come-from-behind win Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Bell made the winning pass on William Byron on lap 252 of 267. He led the final 16 laps unchallenged and won by 1.6s over Ryan Blaney.
It was a fight to get to that point. Bell qualified 13th and was in danger of going a lap down in the second stage. When he was informed of this by his No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing team, Bell sarcastically replied, “OK, I’ll start trying.”
It was not until lap 221 that he ran a green flag lap inside the top five. A caution with 46 laps to go further pushed Bell toward the front. He lined up fourth (second in the outside lane) for the restart and made a three-wide move in Turns 3 and 4 to clear Denny Hamlin and Ryan Blaney for the lead.
Christopher Bell TO THE LEAD!#NASCARPlayoffs | NBC pic.twitter.com/YWcSl8eY9l
— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) October 22, 2023
The No. 20 led until a caution flew a few laps later and the field returned to pit road. He came off pit road third and again chose to line up fourth for the final restart that took place with 25 laps to go.
The late charge resulted in his second win of the season. It is his first at Homestead.
“I’ve got the best team behind me,” Bell said of the rebound. “Honestly, I don’t know man, that race was a whirlwind and I was ready to throw the towel in in the second stage, and I got really frustrated on the radio and Adam [Stevens] kept after it. Adam, Tyler Williams, the guys back at the shop working over the adjustments…it gave me what I needed. When we got some clean air, this thing was really good.
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“I cannot say how proud I am to be here with our partners Rheem and DeWalt, driving these Toyota Camrys. I’ve been with Toyota since day one, so thank you to everyone who supported me. This is better than a dream come true.”
Blaney finished second after leading 53 laps. The Team Penske driver avoided potential disaster when Kyle Larson ran into him coming to pit road under green flag conditions on lap 213. Blaney was leading and Larson was trying to close the gap when he hit the Penske Ford in the bumper and then hit the sand barrels to bring out the red flag.
Tyler Reddick finished third, Byron fourth and AJ Allmendinger fifth. Bubba Wallace finished sixth, Ty Gibbs seventh, Joey Logano eighth, Aric Almirola ninth and Austin Dillon 10th.
Chris Buescher finished 21st. He is now in a must-win scenario going into the elimination race next weekend.
Martin Truex Jr. finished 29th with a potential engine issue. Denny Hamlin finished 30th after hitting the wall in Turn 1 on lap 236 while running inside the top five.
Larson finished 34th. He led the most laps (96) and won the first stage. Blaney won the second stage.
There were 25 lead changes among nine drivers in the 4EVER 400, and five caution flags.
Full results to come