As one of the more consistent winless drivers in the Cup Series this season, Christopher Bell had entered Sunday’s race at New Hampshire with the final spot on the playoff grid via points and fighting to keep it. And thanks to the fight he showed, Bell doesn’t need to worry about points anymore.
After taking the lead from Chase Elliott with 42 laps to go, Bell drove away over the final green flag run to win the Ambetter 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, scoring his first win of 2022 and the second win of his career. Bell’s only other win was the second race of the 2021 season at the Daytona International Speedway Road Course.
Bell now becomes the 14th different driver to win a race in the first 20 races of the season, leaving now just two spots available in the NASCAR playoffs on points.
Ambetter 301 results
- #20 – Christopher Bell
- #9 – Chase Elliott
- #23 – Bubba Wallace
- #19 – Martin Truex Jr.
- #4 – Kevin Harvick
- #11 – Denny Hamlin
- #6 – Brad Keselowski
- #1 – Ross Chastain
- #99 – Daniel Suarez
- #45 – Kurt Busch
“That one was much needed right there. I’ll tell you, that was a hell of a race from my viewpoint,” Bell told NBC Sports. “… Winning Cup races is hard … It just seems like we’ve been so close, and then we’d fallen off a little bit last week. I was talking to my best friend and I told him early in the year, I felt like we were right on the verge of winning. And then the last couple weeks, I felt like we were pretty far away. But here we are today.”
Here’s more on the fallout from New Hampshire and a Christopher Bell victory with massive playoff implications.
For Whom the Bell Tolls
Entering New Hampshire, Christopher Bell’s advantage over Kevin Harvick for the final spot in the playoffs on points had stood at 19 points, making it perfectly possible for Harvick to make that gap up and for Bell to potentially lose ground quickly. But the complexion of the last 100 laps of Sunday’s race changed things entirely.
Through the first two stages, it had looked that Martin Truex Jr. was the class of the field and that Harvick may have had the only car capable of challenging him for the win. But the final caution of the day for a spin by Todd Gilliland — which set up a 93-lap green flag run to the finish — completely changed things.
Strategies were split throughout cars on the lead lap, and Truex and Harvick were among the drivers to take just two tires on pit road. That proved to be the wrong call, as neither Truex nor Harvick were able to make their way through traffic on two tires early in the run. The cars that took four tires, meanwhile — Chase Elliott, Christopher Bell, Bubba Wallace and others — were able to make their way through the field and toward the front effectively.
Elliott looked as though he may have been in the best position to take the win once he got around Kurt Busch, Joey Logano and Cole Custer — none of whom elected to pit — but Bell’s car came to life over the final 50 laps, running Elliott down and then driving away for good once Bell took the lead with 42 to go.
As a result of Bell’s win, only two spots now remain for drivers to make the playoffs on points. Ryan Blaney holds a 105-point advantage over the cutoff line, and maximum stage points throughout the day have given Truex a 68-point advantage over the cut line. Kevin Harvick now trails Truex for the final spot in the playoffs by 68 points, and he’s the only driver within 100 points of the cutoff line after Aric Almirola suffered a transmission failure and lost many laps during Sunday’s race.
The way things have shaken out have put many drivers in must-win territory to make the playoffs. It’s also created a scenario in which two drivers in the top five in points — Blaney and Truex — are in danger of missing the playoffs. And what’s more, there’s still a full six races remaining for all of this to be resolved.
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Read More: NASCAR Cup Series at New Hampshire results: Christopher Bell wins Ambetter 301