Christopher Bell Dominates Foggy Xfinity Race at Atlanta

After a day filled with mist and fog, Christopher Bell had the car to beat leading all but 21 of the 163 laps. It was the 9th win of Bell’s Xfinity Series career, and his first at Atlanta Motor Speedway. He’s also the first Xfinity Series regular to win at Atlanta since Ricky Stenhouse Jr. in 2012. The win also marks the first for the new Toyota Supra car.

Bell won the first two stages handily, but the final stage didn’t come easy for the Norman, Oklahoma native. During green flag pit stops, Bell had a 1.5 second lead and came to pit a lap or so later than the other front runners. After a miscue on the right front, Bell fell to third place behind Reddick and Justin Allgaier. In a show of how strong of a car he really had, Bell was able to re-take the lead within just three laps.

The only caution of the day besides the two stage cautions came with less than 10 laps to go. John Hunter Nemechek spun off of Turn 2 after running in the Top-10 all day. It could not have come at a worse time for Tyler Reddick as his car was best in the long run and he was ready to pounce on Christopher Bell. Reddick then lost many positions on pit road when the air hose got caught on his right front fender. That put Bell and teammate Jeffrey Earnhardt on the front row for the final restart with 3 laps to go.

Earnhardt spun the tires and left Cole Custer to chase Bell for the win. When the #20 team noticed that Custer was catching him on the high side, Bell adjusted and rode up high in the final lap to take the checkered flag.

Among the notable finishes, Jeffrey Earnhardt earned his first career Xfinity Series Top-10 finish with a 6th place run. He’s set to run a partial schedule with Joe Gibbs Racing and was running in the Top-5 late in the race until the final restart. Ryan Sieg was passing cars like Team Penske’s Austin Cindric and Kaulig Racing’s Justin Haley up in the Top-10, but came home 11th. And Brandon Brown held on to the lead lap for the majority of the race and earned his best career finish at 13th.

Unofficial results: