Christopher Bell Saved by the Bell in Atlanta

Second at the start of the final lap, Bell immediately took the lead from Kyle Larson (Hendrick Motorsports), then took advantage of a bump from Carson Hocevar (Spire Motorsports) on the back straight. The driver Toyota seemed set for victory but Hocevar immediately threw himself between Bell and Larson, setting up a three-abreast finish, similar to last year's. Unfortunately, the yellow flag came out in the final corner, handing Bell the win ahead of Hocevar, who managed to pass Larson by inches before the caution put an end to the race.

“Being able to restart on the first or second row during a restart on a superspeedway is like a dream, you never know how things are going to go.”, explained the winner of the day. “This type of race has always been a little bit difficult for me. Going into the day, we were obviously stuck in the back. But [chief mechanic] Adam [Stevens] and his guys did an incredible job of getting that car set up, and the second half of the race went as well as possible.”

In a race dominated by Fords, the best representative of the blue oval was Ryan Blaney (Team Penske) in fourth position. His teammates Joey Logano and Austin Cindric, who spent most of their time at the front, were involved in accidents and were unable to defend their chances in the final laps. In addition to a growing controversy following the decision of the NASCAR to wave the yellow flag on the last lap (unlike the Daytona 500 last week), it was the driving of young Carson Hocevar that was criticized, notably by Blaney, who went to confront Hocevar in the pit lane after the finish.

"I just told him, 'Hey, you need to calm down.' I told him about some moves he made earlier in the race that were really, really questionable.", explained Blaney, who spun 27 laps from the finish after contact with Hocevar. “Obviously I spun. He should have known better than to push me there. He can’t bump me as I’m going into a corner, it’ll take me out instantly. So I told him to calm down. You’ve got a lot of talent, but you need to be a little bit cooler at that point. Be smarter.”

Atlanta – Standings