Christopher Bell Goes Four-for-Four in Xfinity Series at New Hampshire – Motorsports Tribune

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service

LOUDON, N.H. – Christopher Bell kept it dramatic at New Hampshire Motor Speedway Saturday afternoon, relying on a last lap pass in overtime to claim the SciAps 200 victory – giving him a perfect four-for-four track record in NASCAR Xfinity Series races at the 1.058-mile track.

Bell’s No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota pulled off a daring three-wide move with two corners to go and ultimately pulled away to a .254-second win over fellow JGR team driver Sheldon Creed. The runner-up showing for the Xfinity Series championship contender Creed was the 10th of his career, tying him with NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Jarrett and former series champion Daniel Hemric for most runner-up finishes before a series win.

Bell, a fulltime NASCAR Cup Series competitor for JGR who has already scored two wins in the sport’s premier series this year, now ties Xfinity Series regular A.J. Allmendinger with four Xfinity Series wins in four starts at a single track – and is the fourth different driver to earn a victory in the No. 20 JGR Toyota this season. It is Bell’s 18th win in the NASCAR Xfinity Series scoring his wins at New Hampshire in 2018, ’19, ’21 and now 2024.

“I was just really fortunate, that’s for sure,” said Bell of that race-winning pass on Creed. “I feel so bad for Sheldon. He’s been really, really close to winning these things and today he did everything right to win that race. He re-started in the right lane and gave Cole [Custer] a good push. And coming to the white flag, he got Cole loose and that’s what opened the door for me.

“Very fortunate to keep my undefeated streak alive,” he continued with a smile. “We got really lucky there.”

Despite the recurring near-misses, Creed offered a smile and insisted he was encouraged that a win was close.

“I don’t know, running out of ways to lose them,” Creed said, mustering a smile before adding, “I can think of a million things I could do, that is not a stat I wanted to tie, 10 seconds before a win. …but overall, a great day and proud of everyone at Joe Gibbs Racing. Been in the hunt the past four weeks so just going to keep working hard at it.”

Stewart-Haas Racing’s Custer led the most laps on the day – 114 of the 203 total – and finished third despite having the lead on that final overtime restart. The result was tough to take, but big picture, still good enough to keep him in the NASCAR Xfinity Series…