NASCAR News: Bell gets lucky caution flag to win Atlanta Cup race

Christopher Bell only led 100 yards of the partial last lap of today’s Atlanta Motor Speedway NASCAR Cup race, but when they started crashing behind him the caution flew, and he was ahead by a nose and declared the winner.

Bell emerged as the winner of another wild overtime finish at Atlanta Motor Speedway Sunday, as he dueled with Carson Hocevar and Kyle Larson in the closing lap of the Ambetter Health 400.

As the trio of lead cars spread out three-wide half way through the white flag lap, the final caution of the race flew when Josh Berry’s car slammed into the wall back in the pack. Berry won Stage 1 in his No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford and ran in the front most of the night.

As NASCAR hit the caution button, Bell was in the lead at the time and was declared the winner in his No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.

A look at the finish of tonight’s race at @ATLMotorSpdwy. @CBellRacing is victorious in the No. 20. pic.twitter.com/irWtUozrO4

— NASCAR (@NASCAR) February 24, 2025

It was the only lap that Bell led in the race after starting 32nd. He was one of 15 different leaders for a track-record 50 lead changes.

Bell was half-a-car-length ahead of Hocevar and Larson was a couple more inches back as they were charging to the checkered flag.

The win is the first Cup Series victory for Bell on a superspeedway, his first win of the season and 10th win of his career.

“This place is just bonkers and every time we come here it gets wilder and wilder,” Bell said. “It can be risky to be on the top or bottom. You can pick wrong either way. First half of the race I couldn’t do anything right. We kept working on it and then these boys got it tuned up.”

The drama started to unfold as the field charged around the track with four laps to go. As the cars up front shuffled around, Austin Cindric’s machine grazed the outside wall and slid to his left where he made contact with Daytona 500 winner William Byron, who was positioning himself behind teammate Larson to begin pushing him. The two cars careened down the track and brought out a caution to set up the green, white, checker finish.

Larson and Bell were lined up side by side on the final restart and Hocevar, pole winner Ryan Blaney, and Ross Chastain were also in the mix. Bell was in the right place at the right time when caution waved on the white flag lap.

“That right there is what you dream of to restart on the first or second row of a superspeedway race,” Bell said. “I love superspeedways. This style of racing has been a struggle for me. Adam (Stevens, crew chief) and the boys had this car tuned up and I just had to hold my foot to the floor and that’s how you like it. Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought I would win a superspeedway race.”

Larson, who won stage two and has also had his struggles with superspeedways, will remain winless on them, but he will take his third-place finish. It’s his third top-five at Atlanta after posting five recent finishes in the 30th place spot or worse.

“Bummer not to get a win,” Larson said. “I’m proud of the effort today by this No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevy team. We had a lot of fun. It was super intense. It was my first legit finish here at Atlanta Motor Speedway since the reconfiguration, so I’ll take it. I feel like we learned a lot and I feel like we can be a lot better with the balance of our racecar to be a little bit more on offense while we are in traffic. We just came up a little bit short. Congratulations to Bell.”

Last year’s Cup Rookie of the Year Hocevar was aggressive in the overtime period and several drivers spoke to him after the race. He says he is still learning but was thrilled to be in the mix at the end.

“Apologies to Larson and Mr. H (Rick Hendrick, team owner),” Hocevar said. “I didn’t realize we weren’t racing back to the line. A little longer and maybe we win the race. I normally ride in the back and run last and try to get a decent finish. There’s some stuff I have to learn and clean up a little bit. We put ourselves in a good position to win a race tonight and I’ve never done that before, especially in a superspeedway race.”

Local favorite Chase Elliott saw his chances of winning his hometown race go away after his No. 9 Chevy got caught up in a caution late in Stage 2 around lap 150. He and Brad Keselowski, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., and Corey LaJoie were among the drivers involved in that incident.

Defending winner Daniel Suárez’s quest to repeat his victory here from last spring ended when his No. 99 Trackhouse Racing Chevy was involved in a crash with Noah Gragson, Cole Custer, Ty Gibbs, and Todd Gilliland on lap 185.

Of the notables who were involved in cautions, their final finish spots included 20th place Elliott, 25th place Berry, Byron at 27th, Cindric at 28th and Keselowski at 39th.

Joey Logano led the most laps at 83 but finished 12th in his No. 22 Team Penske Ford.

Polestitter Blaney finished fourth and was followed by Stenhouse, Denny Hamlin, Saturday truck winner Kyle Busch, Chastain, Bubba Wallace and John Hunter Nemechek in the top 10.

The NASCAR Cup Series heads west for its first road course race of the season, the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix next Sunday (3:30 p.m. ET on FOX, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Byron is the defending race winner at Circuit of The Americas.

Christopher Bell – Winner

Christopher Bell on a green/white checkered finish in what was a wild Atlanta race. Somehow you came from 32nd and found a way get it done today. As he gets a hug from his wife, how did you do that? You found a way to get it done. How did you do that?

CHRISTOPHER BELL: I’ll tell you what, that right there is what you dream of, to be able to restart on the first or second row in a green/white checkered in a speedway. You never know how those things are going to play out, but I’ll be the first to tell you, I love superspeedways (laughing).

I don’t know. This style of racing has just always been a little bit of a struggle for me, and throughout the beginning of the day we obviously were just stuck way in the back. Adam and these boys back here, they did an amazing job getting this thing fixed up to where I could just hold my foot down. That’s what it’s all about. You have to be able to stay in the throttle, and that last half of the race we were at our best.

2nd Place Carson Hoecevar

Carson Hocevar comes home in second place today. Career best finish for you, Carson, but I have to ask you, there was a long line of guys here to talk to you… Ross Chastain, Ryan Blaney. Very aggressive race out there. What did they have to say to you?

CARSON HOCEVAR: I’ll just leave those to myself, but first off, apologies to Larson and HMS, Mr. H, everybody. They help us out a lot, and I didn’t realize we weren’t racing back to the line. The last two nights were kind of that way. I hit the 20 to get him out of the way and fill the middle. A little bit longer, maybe we win the race.

Big thanks to Spire Motorsports, Chevrolet, everybody, Delaware Life. I normally ride in the back and run last, and I tried to get a good, decent finish. For how bad we were at Daytona, I was no riding.

Yeah, I mean, there’s some stuff I got to learn and clean up a little bit, but I feel like we put ourselves in the perfect opportunity to try and win a race. I’ve never had that opportunity really before, especially on a superspeedway.

So just a big day today for everybody at Spire Motorsports. They deserve all the praise. I just get to hold the wheel and run wide open and just try to put myself in a decent spot. Unfortunately it wasn’t the best spot, but it was just is one spot short.

3rd Place Kyle Larson

Came, oh, so close. Led 12 laps. I thought maybe this was going to be your night to get a drafting track win, but third place. You’re so close. Take us through kind of those closing laps. What happened with you and Cindric and there at the end with three wide?

KYLE LARSON: Yeah, just a little bit of a lazy kind of up the track. He got there a little bit quicker than I thought he would. I thought he was going to pick me up on the exit at two. Yeah, that was probably my fault. I haven’t seen a replay, but I’m sure that was my fault.

Yeah, the restart, I haven’t seen it back. Obviously the 20 got to my right side, but I don’t know. I don’t know what I did wrong or right. I thought maybe the 20 picked me up. He was just going to push me and get clear of me into one anyway.

I think it kind of worked out okay. Then, yeah, just didn’t get the caution to come out late enough until I got the run back to the inside. Came up a little bit short, but proud of the effort today by everybody on our HendrickCars.com Chevy. Yeah, finally finished at Atlanta and finally got to run up front.

Race Results