HAMPTON, Ga. – Christopher Bell prevailed in overtime to claim the victory in Sunday’s Ambetter Health 400 at Atlanta Motor Speedway – officially leading only the final lap and getting the photo nod in a three-wide run as a caution flag came out on the last lap to end the NASCAR Cup Series race.
It marks the second year that this race featured a three-wide run to the end. This time Bell was out front over second-year driver Carson Hocevar and 2021 series champion Kyle Larson as the final yellow flag flew. It was the the 10th career series victory for Bell, a 30-year-old Oklahoma native, and his first on a drafting-type track like Atlanta, Daytona or Talladega. It also marked the first victory for Joe Gibbs Racing since June of last year.
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“I’ll tell you what, that right there is what you dream of,” an elated Bell said afterward. “To be able to restart on the first or second row on a restart at a speedway, you never know how those things are going to play out.
“But,” he added looking directly into the FOX television cameras with a huge smile, “I’ll be the first to tell you, ‘I love superspeedways.’
“I don’t know,” he conceded, “but this style of racing has always been a little bit of a struggle for me. Throughout the beginning of the day, obviously today we were just stuck way in the back. But [crew chief] Adam [Stevens] and these boys just did an incredible job of getting this thing fixed up so I could just hold my foot down and you’ve got to be able to just stay in the throttle and that last half of the race we ran our best.”
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Despite his near-miss third-place showing, Larson was pleased with the finish. He’s 0-for-48 in speedway-type races, including 16 previous DNFs. So all said, it was a successful, if eventful, day. He had contact with one of the race’s strongest cars, Austin Cindric’s No. 2 Team Penske Ford, with three laps remaining to make the overtime finish necessary, but led 12 laps.
Hocevar’s runner-up finish was a career-high mark for the 22-year-old driver of the No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet.
However, shortly after the young Michigander climbed out of his car, he was confronted post-race by both Ross Chastain and former series champ Ryan Blaney in separate discussions. Although Chastain declined to share what was said, Blaney confirmed he suggested that Hocevar work on his decision-making.
“I just said, ‘Hey, you got to calm down.’ I told him a couple moves he made earlier in the race that were really, really sketchy,” said Blaney, who rallied to a fourth-place finish after being spun out from contact with Hocevar with 27 laps remaining.
“Obviously, me getting spun. He should know better than to hit me in that spot. He can’t just run into my bumper as I’m turning into a corner. I’m going to wreck. So, I just told him you’ve got to calm down. You got a lot of talent, but you got to be a little bit easier in this certain moment. Be smarter.”
Hocevar also said he preferred to keep the two conversations with his veteran competitors to himself, but immediately offered an apology for any contact with Larson on the final lap.
“I didn’t realize we weren’t racing back to the line,” he said of the last-lap fender rub with Larson, adding, “Some stuff I’ve got to learn and clean up a little bit, but I feel like we put ourselves in a perfect opportunity to win a race and I’ve never really had that opportunity before, especially on superspeedways. So, thanks to everybody at Spire Motorsports.”
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The early portion of the race was dominated by the Ford contingent, which included 10 of the top 11 qualifiers including Blaney’s pole position in the No. 12 Team Penske Ford. Blaney’s teammate, reigning series champion Joey Logano led a race-best 83 laps – the second time in as many races this season he outpaced the field, but finished 12th.
The final yellow flag flew to end the race when Stage 1 winner Josh Berry, Justin Haley and Ryan Preece collided on the backstretch during overtime.
Hyak Motorsports’ Ricky Stenhouse Jr. finished fifth, followed by Denny Hamlin, a strong showing for the veteran who like his JGR teammates all started 25th or worse on the grid.
The race was slowed by 11 caution periods, including eight for wrecks. One of those crack-ups snared Daniel Suárez, who won this race last year at Atlanta in a narrow three-wide finish, but was sidelined Sunday in a Lap 184 tangle involving seven other cars. Richard Childress Racing’s Kyle Busch was the only one of three drivers (with Blaney and Suárez) from last year’s three-wide photo finish not to be collected in an accident. The two-time series champion finished seventh, followed by Trackhouse Racing’s Chastain, 23XI Racing’s Bubba Wallace, and Legacy Motor Club’s John Hunter Nemechek, who scored his second top-10 finish in as many races this year – already half of his single season high in two previous full-time seasons at the NASCAR Cup Series level.
With his fourth-place showing Sunday, Blaney now leads the championship by 12 points over Daytona 500 winner William Byron. Kaulig Racing’s AJ Allmendinger set the Xfinity Fastest Lap of the race.
The NASCAR Cup Series heads west for its first road course race of the season, the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix next Sunday (3:30 p.m. ET on FOX, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Byron is the defending race winner at Circuit of The Americas.
Notes: Post-race inspection in the Cup Series garage was completed without issue, confirming Bell as the race winner. Competition officials indicated that two cars — the No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet and the No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford — would return to the NASCAR Research & Development Center for further inspection this week. … Michael McDowell rallied from a six-lap deficit after his Spire Motorsports crew made an extended stop to repair the No. 71 Chevrolet’s power steering to finish 13th on the lead lap. McDowell was the free-pass beneficiary in six consecutive caution periods during the second and third stages to get back into contention at the end.
Contributing: Staff reports