HAMPTON, Ga. - Christopher Bell scored a win at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Sunday in overtime as the yellow flag waved for a crash behind the race leaders.
Bell, of Norman, Oklahoma, picked up his first ever drafting style win over Carson Hocevar and Kyle Larson having only led the last lap. His No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing machine was barely ahead of his competitors when the caution came out as Josh Berry wrecked down the backstretch.
“Man, I’ll tell you what that right there is what you dream of,” Bell said to FOX Sports reporter Regan Smith. “To be able to restart on the first or second row at a green-white checkered at a speedway, you never know how those things are going to play out.”
Bell has admittedly spoken out about struggling to find victory lane at superspeedway style racing as the draft plays a major role. He was winless in his previous 26 starts at drafting ovals.
Per NASCAR Insights, Bell was the fourth driver in the NextGen era to lead the last lap and win. He poked fun at his prior struggles and said, “I’ll be the first to tell you, I love superspeedways.”
The overtime was caused by a crash that took out Austin Cindric for the second straight week and Daytona 500 winner William Byron. With three laps to go, Larson threw a block that squeezed Cindric into the wall which sent him spinning back down the track into Byron.
“We had the best cars here this weekend,” Cindric told RACER.com’s Kelly Crandall about the performance of Team Penske. “We put ourselves into position to win the race and got used up.”
He was admittedly frustrated with the result after his Menards Ford got taken out in back-to-back races. “It is disappointing,” he said. “I feel like we have had the car to beat and haven’t done it.”
The ensuing restart was called into question as NASCAR threw a caution for Berry’s wrecked race car on the backstretch. This came one day after the sanctioning body allowed the Xfinity Series to race back to the line under green flag conditions despite cars crashing.
However, NASCAR officials told drivers during the pre-race drivers meeting the call from the night before was a mistake. According to Jordan Bianchi of the Athletic, they explained that drivers should expect a caution if a similar incident were to occur.
The next NASCAR event features an all new layout at Circuit of the America. The Texas track is set to host its fifth Cup Series event on Sunday, March 2 at 3:30 p.m. Eastern Time.