Christopher Bell wins his first Cup Series race at the Daytona Road Course

 

Jasen Vinlove / USA TODAY Sports

     26 year old Christopher Bell, Joe Gibbs Racing No. 20, won the NASCAR Cup Series “O’Reilly Auto Parts” 253 at the Daytona Road Course. 

This race started out with last week’s winner, the No. 34 of Michael McDowell (who started 2nd), bringing out the caution on lap 1, after missing turn 1, causing quite the pile up, and leaving tire debris on the track. Throughout the race we saw road course ringer, Chase Elliot, lead the pack for a majority of the race, though because there were so many of wrecks, from time to time there was some shuffling. The most notable cautions that occurred during today’s race were when the No. 8 of Tyler Reddick got into the grass on the infield, which brought out the caution, and ended his day, and when light rain developed in certain areas of the track, and the caution was called to allow the rain to dissipate.

Ultimately these cautions and wrecks led to favorites like the No. 9 of Chase Elliott, and the No. 19 of Martin Truex Jr. falling off the pace, and drivers like the No. 22 of Joey Logano, the No. 20 of Christopher Bell, and the No. 1 of Kurt Busch making it to the front of the pack. With only a few laps to go, it seemed as though  the No. 22 of Joey Logano would win this race, but with two laps left in the race, the No. 20 of Christopher Bell passed him for the lead, and made his first ever trip to victory lane in the NASCAR Cup Series.

Chase Elliott won stage 1, Denny Hamlin won stage 2, and of course, Christopher Bell won stage 3. 

The following are the complete results of the “O’Reilly Auto Parts” 253:

1. Christopher Bell- No. 20
2. Joey Logano- No. 22
3. Denny Hamlin- No. 11
4. Kurt Busch- No. 1
5. Brad Keselowski- No 2
6. Kevin Harvick- No. 4
7. AJ Allmendinger- No. 16
8. Michael McDowell- No. 34
9. Ryan Preece- No. 37
10. Alex Bowman- No. 48
11. Chris Buescher- No. 17
12. Martin Truex Jr- No. 19
13. Cole Custer- No. 41
14. Erik Jones- No. 43
15. Ryan Blaney- No. 12
16. Daniel Suárez- No. 99
17. Aric Almirola- No. 10
18. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.- No. 47
19. Ty Dillon- No. 96
20. Ryan Newman- No. 6
21. Chase Elliott- No. 9
22. Anthony Alfredo- No. 38
23. James Davison- No. 15
24. Justin Haley- No. 77
25. Cody Ware- No. 51
26. Bubba Wallace- No. 23
27. Garrett Smithley- No. 53
28. Scott Heckert- No. 78
29. Timmy Hill- No. 66
30. Kyle Larson- No. 5
31. Corey LaJoie- No. 7
32. Chase Briscoe- No. 14
33. William Byron- No. 24
34. Austin Dillon- No. 3
35. Kyle Busch- No. 18
36. Josh Bilicki- No. 52 - DNF
37. Matt DiBenedetto- No. 21
38. Tyler Reddick- No 8 - DNF
39. Ross Chastain- No. 42 - DNF 
40. Quin Houff- No. 00 - DNF