By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service
BRISTOL, Tenn. – Before Sunday night’s Food City Dirt Race at Bristol Motor Speedway, Christopher Bell lamented that a “dirt guy” hadn’t won the NASCAR Cup Series’ only race on the red clay in Thunder Valley.
Bell fixed the problem—in a race that also saw hard feelings between pole winner Kyle Larson and Ryan Preece boil over.
Holding off charging Tyler Reddick in the final stage of the 250-lap race, Bell held a slim lead over Reddick when NASCAR called the 14th caution with 200 yards left in the final circuit.
A dirt-track aficionado who won three straight Chili Bowl Midget Nationals from 2017-2019, Bell collected his first victory of the season and the fifth of his career.
“Man, let me tell you, these are some of the longest laps of my entire life,” Bell said of the lates stages of the race. “This place is so much fun, whether it’s dirt or concrete. Whenever the cushion got up there on the top, it was very tough, because you couldn’t drive it super hard. Otherwise, you’d get sucked in.
“If you got your right front into it, you’d push a little bit. If you got your right rear into it, you’d slide. It was a lot of fun.”
Bell used his experience on dirt to negotiate the two ends of the half-mile track, which featured markedly different racing characteristics.
“(Turns) 3 and 4, that was the scary corner for me, because if you got into it too far, you lost all your momentum,” the driver of the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota explained. (Turns) 1 and 2, I think I kept hitting the wall a couple times.
“Seems like there was a little bit more moisture up there—it would hold me better. I’m like, ‘OK, I can really attack 1 and 2.’ But 3 and 4, I had to be careful… Definitely the track tonight favored experience.”
Staying out on old tires after the end of Stage 2, Bell led the last 100 laps. Reddick, on the other hand, forewent a pit stop after Stage 1 and won Stage 2, but paid the price with a pit stop at the second break and rested 12th on Lap 151.
It wasn’t until Lap 223 that Reddick passed eventual fifth-place finisher Chase Briscoe for the second position, as Briscoe scraped the outside wall in Turn 4. Reddick began his pursuit of Bell, but the final caution foiled any opportunity he might have had.
“Yeah, towards the end there definitely feel like I had a little bit more,” Reddick said. “I thought…
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