For the second consecutive year, Christopher Bell will be racing for a championship when the NASCAR Cup Series heads to Phoenix in two weeks.
Just like in 2022, he earned his way there with a well-timed win, this time at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Sunday’s race seemed like just an ordinary drive up until late in the going. That’s when Kyle Larson, trailing Ryan Blaney as they battled for the lead, crashed into the wall at the pit-road entrance. Larson had led a race-high 96 laps prior to that.
Shortly afterwards, playoff driver Denny Hamlin hit the wall after he had been racing hard with Blaney near the front of the field. Almost simultaneously, his teammate Martin Truex, Jr. suffered an engine failure and fell out of the race, as did Hamlin. Both drivers are now fighting an uphill battle next week at Martinsville.
Bell, who was nearly a lap down at one point in the race, rallied to pass William Byron for the lead with 16 laps to go and then held off a hard-charging Blaney to secure the victory. It’s only Bell’s sixth career Cup Series win, but they’ve tended to come at opportune times.
He’ll join Larson as part of the Championship 4, with the other two spots still to be determined Byron and Blaney enter Martinsville in the best positions to earn those two spots, while Tyler Reddick and Chris Buescher also look to spoil the party in addition to Hamlin and Truex. Buescher is the only one in a virtual must-win scenario.
Last year’s Martinsville race saw the wild finish in which Ross Chastain rode the wall to advance to the title round. That move won’t be legal this year, but if the playoffs so far have been any indication, it should be another action-packed thriller as NASCAR sets its championship field.