Christopher Bell bests NASCAR Cup field in wild Bristol Night Race
BRISTOL, Tenn. — Christopher Bell was best of the NASCAR Cup Series field in a wild finish to an even wilder Bristol Night Race.
Bell easily grabbed the lead from Carson Hocevar on a restart with four laps to go but it wasn’t easy in the final turn of the final lap. Brad Keselowski gave Bell a big shunt but couldn’t get by and settled for second.
“Story of our season, 50/50 shot and we picked the lane that couldn’t get going,” Keselowski said, noting the team still had successes and speed.
Bell now has four wins on the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season. However, his Bristol win is his first since Phoenix Raceway in March.
TOP-10 (LAP 500): Christopher Bell, Brad Keselowski, Zane Smith, Ryan Blaney, Joey Logano, Corey Heim, Carson Hocevar, Alex Bowman, Chase Briscoe, Ty Gibbs.
Chris Buescher, William Byron and Justin Haley rounded out the lead lap cars in 11th, 12th and 13th, respectively.
Austin Cindric finished 30th and advanced despite a late-race fire and Bowman contending for the win. He is driven as he heads to the Round of 12.
“I have not been driving as well as I have been now in the Cup Series and the people around me reflect that,” Cindric said.
Bowman is out of the playoffs after the first two weeks saw severe pit woes and little speed compared to his competitors. Bristol was better but he settled for eighth after running out of fresh tires and having to be on older tires at the end.
“I don’t think you can look at any one thing that cost us. Being out of tires at the end didn’t help us. If I had to point to one thing, our cycled tire restarts hurt us. I couldn’t go at all,” Bowman said. “We swung in the right direction so we’ll keep swinging in the next seven races… We’re a plenty capable race team a lot of the time and the last two weeks have not been good. I thought we were going to struggle but not that bad and then we’re good here [at Bristol]. We just gotta keep digging to get better.”
Alex Bowman missed the Round of 12 by 10 points. Here are the playoff standings before the reset:
- Chase Briscoe WIN (2143 points)
- Ryan Blaney -6 to Briscoe (+81 to the cutline)
- Denny Hamlin -16 (WIN)
- Christopher Bell -28 (WIN)
- William Byron -28 (+59)
- Kyle Larson -35 (+52)
- Bubba Wallace -37 (+50)
- Tyler Reddick -41 (+46)
- Joey Logano -47 (+40)
- Ross Chastain -63 (+24)
- Chase Elliott -71 (+16)
- Austin Cindric -77 (+10)
- Alex Bowman -87 (-10)
- Austin Dillon -91 (-14)
- Shane van Gisbergen -93 (-16)
- Josh Berry -133 (-56)
Among the 12 remaining drivers, here are the standings after the reset heading into the Round of 12:
Hamlin +26, Larson +24, Byron +24, Bell +20, Blaney, +19, Briscoe +10, Elliott +5, Wallace +1, Cindric -1, Chastain -2, Logano -2, Reddick -3
is racing at Bristol Motor Speedway for the Bristol Night Race and an elimination race in the 2025 playoffs, follow here for live race updates
STAGE 1 (LAP 125): Blaney, Gibbs, Byron, Wallace, Zane Smith, Buescher, Allmendinger, Keselowski, John Hunter Nemechek, Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
STAGE 2 (LAP 250): Gibbs, Blaney, Bowman, Keselowski, Hocevar, Cindric, Buescher, Wallace, Zane Smith, Hamlin.
FINAL STAGE
Christopher Bell wins at Bristol after a bump from Brad Keselowski! Zane Smith 3rd, Blaney 4th, Logano 5th, Heim 6th, Hocevar 7th, Bowman 8th, Briscoe 9th, Gibbs 10th. Bowman, SVG, Austin Dillon and Berry eliminated form the playoffs, pending post-race tech.
Oh boy! Here are the lead lap cars: Hocevar, Zane Smith, Bowman, Keselowski, Bell, Logano, Heim, Blaney, Byron.
10 TO GO: Keselowski, Bell, Blaney, Logano and Heim pit. Top three is now Hocevar, Zane Smith and Bowman who stayed out. Byron free pass.
CAUTION, 12 TO GO: Bubba Wallace crashes in turn four, completely changing the course of the race. Right in front of Brad Keselowski, no less.
TOP 5, 16 TO GO: Keselowski, Bell, Blaney, Logano, Hocevar. Hocevar is on new tires. This is going to be close for him to catch Keselowski.
Keselowski to the lead, 20 to go.
LAP 472: Alex Bowman pits for fresh tires. He could go hard and try to win on this strategy. We’ll see… Hocevar pits now, Zane Smith and others too.
LAP 466: Brad Keselowski drops from first to fourth. Zane Smith and Alex Bowman battle, Bowman goes to second.
LAP 464: Austin Cindric is only +3 to Alex Bowman to remain in the playoffs. Bowman could get those spots and possibly win, in fourth…
TOP 10, 44 TO GO: 6 77 38 48 42 60 22 19 17 12.
Austin Cindric’s car is on fire!
LAP 436: Ty Gibbs misses pit road! That will likely cost him the win. He has a right-front tire down and rear-end damage. Brad Keselowski to the lead over Christopher Bell.
LAP 428: The tires have turned off the guys who stayed out… Bell to the lead while Gibbs, Briscoe, Bowman, Buescher and others are hanging on or pitting.
LAP 427: Chris Buescher drops from fifth to way back on older tires. He pits Alex Bowman tried to fend off Christopher Bell and Carson Hocevar but couldn’t. He is dropping back, now sixth, and is going to pit.
LAP 416: Ty Gibbs bumps Chase Briscoe out of the way for the lead. He has led seven times for 191 laps and won’t be denied.
Top 17 did not pit. Behind them who pitted: Smith, Hocevar, Logano, Bell. They run 7th, 10th, 8th, 9th
LAP 398 TOP 10: 19, 17, 54, 48, 6, 60, 12, 2, 23, 42.
LAP 385: Denny Hamlin lost a right-front wheel and got into AJ Allmendinger. Caution… Hamlin will lose his front tire changer and jackman for two of the three races in the Round of 12. That’s big.
William Byron also got damage from that incident.
LAP 379: Bowman had a bad turn 1 and drops from 2nd to 4th. Zane Smith almost gets a bump and run on Briscoe. Bowman wiggles from 4th!
LAP 372 TOP-10: Briscoe, Bowman, Buescher, Z. Smith, Hocevar, Keselowski, Gibbs, McDowell, Preece.
LAP 366: Kyle Larson crashes and brings out the caution. Something happened with Daniel Suarez…
LAP 363: Alex Bowman to second!
LAP 356: Hamlin, Jones, Reddick stayed out. Everyone else pitted. Haley free pass, 22 cars on the lead lap. 11, 19, 20 48, 77 the top 5.
Bubba Wallace was craaaaaaawling and clipped Ricky Stenhouse Jr. in turn 1, lap 355.
LAP 349 Austin Hill makes up a lap and is now two laps down. Ty Gibbs bumps Chris Buescher out of the way for third, classic Bristol style. This is fun…
LAP 332: Briscoe to the lead!
Top 8 did not pit: Bubba, Gibbs, Hocevar, Keselowski, Cindric, McDowell, Preece, Stenhouse, pitting from lap 271-295. Pitting on lap 323: Briscoe, Buescher, Hamlin, Blaney, Bell, Logano, Zane Smith, Byron, Bowman, Nemechek, Allmendinger, Jones, Chastain.
LAP 312: Chase Elliott has crashed! Looks like Elliott let Cindric go, tried jumping down in front of Nemechek but Nemechek was committed to the corner and they came together. Elliott is done. Elliott has to hope Bowman doesn’t win… He would fall out of the playoffs if so.
“It was a game of just how quick could you get to the bottom after a few laps to preserve your tires. I was just trying to get back down in line and got a huge shot from behind, but nonetheless it happened and it was done. It looks like we’re in a bit of a pickle here right now,” Chase Elliott said to USA.
LAP 294: Noah Gragson spins on the backstretch. Top 10 is now Briscoe, Buescher, Bell, Blaney, Wallace, Hocevar, Nemechek, Z. Smith, Keselowski, Gibbs. Chastain gets the free pass. Hocevar and Keselowski pit from sixth and ninth. Logano and Cindric pit.
TOP-10 (LAP 288): Briscoe, Bell, Buescher, Hocevar, Nemechek, Z. Smith, Keselowski, Cindric, Logano, Preece.
Points as they run: Bell +62, Byron +61, Logano +44, Elliott +43, Reddick +42, Cindric +40, Chastain +25, Bowman -25, Austin Dillon -26, SVG -33, Berry -63.
There are 21 cars on the lead lap. A.J. Allmendinger just received the free pass and is now 21st.
LAP 283: Gibbs, Bowman, Elliott, Hamlin, Byron pit from second, 11th, 12th, 14th and 16th, respectively. Bowman took on scuff tires while Hamlin took two tires.
LAP 282: Cole Custer spins in turns one. Shane van Gisbergen barely missed him.
The slow pace from extreme tire wear is creating closer-quarters racing. Aero isn’t as much of a factor at Bristol as it has been in previous NextGen races — sans the March 2024 race.
LAP 279: Chase Briscoe leads a Joe Gibbs Racing 1-2-3 with Ty Gibbs and Christopher Bell in second and third. Here comes Gibbs with a bump, though, on lap 281!
Bowman did not get going well on that restart and dropped from second to sixth. SVG spins… again, lap 270. Top 10 is now Gibbs, Buescher, Briscoe, Bell, Smith, Bowman, Cindric, Hocevar, Nemechek, Elliott.
TOP 10, LAP 266: Gibbs, Bowman, Hocevar, Buescher, Wallace, Zane Smith, Hamlin, Jones, Briscoe, Bell.
STAGE 2
Ty Gibbs nips Ryan Blaney for the stage win after Blaney nipped Gibbs for it. Gibbs and Blaney beat Alex Bowman, Brad Keselowski, Carson Hocevar, Austin Cindric, Chris Buescher, Bubba Wallace, Zane Smith and Denny Hamlin as the stage ends on lap 250.
The stage saw two cautions:
- Lap 148: Incident on frontstretch involving Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Shane van Gisbergen, Erik Jones, Michael McDowell
- Lap 239: Shane van Gisbergen spun in turn four after contact from William Byron.
STAGE 1
The first stage is 125 laps, then the second stage is 125 laps and final stage is 250 laps to the checkered flag on lap 500.
Lap 125: Ryan Blaney wins the stage in a stage photo finish over Ty Gibbs. Blaney and Gibbs beat William Byron, Bubba Wallace, Zane Smith, Chris Buescher, AJ Allmendinger, Brad Keselowski, John Hunter Nemechek and Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
Lap: 99: Alex Bowman, one lap down, goes for a spin with help from Riley Herbst. Second caution.
Lap 81: Caution for Josh Berry’s No. 21 car having a fire underneath. He took his car to the garage and is eliminated from championship contention. Eight drivers were on the lead lap
Laps 48: More drivers hit road including Gibbs, Reddick and more. Blaney leads.
Lap 34: Ty Gibbs leads. Allmendinger and Dillon with tire issues. Have to put under green.
Lap 10: A.J. Allmendinger has led the opening laps with Ty Gibbs behind.
RACE INFO
Broadcast: USA, PRN, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
Distance: 500 laps / 266.5 miles
Average time of race: 2:49:07
Pit road speed: 30 mph
Caution car speed: 35 mph
Fuel Window: 200 laps
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Jonathan Fjeld View All
Jonathan Fjeld is the co-owner of the The Racing Experts, LLC. He has been with TRE since 2010.
A Twin Valley, MN, native, Fjeld became a motorsports fan at just three years old (first race was the 2002 Pennsylvania 500). He worked as a contributor and writer for TRE from 2010-18. Since then, he has stepped up and covered 24 NASCAR race weekends and taken on a larger role with TRE. He became the co-owner and managing editor in 2023 and has guided the site to massive growth in that time.
Fjeld has covered a wide array of stories and moments over the years, including Kevin Harvick's final Cup Series season, the first NASCAR national series disqualification in over 50 years, Shane van Gisbergen's stunning win in Chicago and the first Cup Series race at Road America in 66 years – as well as up-and-coming drivers' stories and stories from inside the sport, like the tech it takes for Hendrick Motorsports to remain a top-tier team.
Currently, he resides in Albuquerque, N.M., where he works for KOB 4, an NBC station. He works as a digital producer and does on-air reports. He loves spending time with friends and family, playing and listening to music, exploring new places, being outdoors, reading books and writing among other activities. You can email him at fjeldjonathan@gmail.com