Finally, a “dirt track ace” took the victory on the dirt at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Joe Gibbs Racing’s Christopher Bell took the win on Easter Sunday (April 9), leading 100 of the 250 laps on his way to victory in the 2023 Food City Dirt Race. The Oklahoma native made a name for himself running dirt throughout the midwest and still moonlights as much as possible aside from running the No. 20 Toyota in the NASCAR Cup Series.
“Man, let me tell you those were some of the longest laps of my entire life,” a smiling Bell told Fox Sports. “This place is so much fun whether its on dirt or concrete, and when the cushion got up there on the top it was very tough, you couldn’t drive it hard or you’d be sucked in…it was a lot of fun.”
Attrition was high at Bristol as numerous contenders, including Kyle Larson, Kyle Busch and Joey Logano failed to finish. The race featured 14 cautions and a number of additional spins where racing continued under green; a wreck on the final lap involving Daniel Suarez, Josh Berry and Ross Chastain caused the race to end under yellow.
The win marks Bell’s fifth of his career; he is now responsible for the last four Cup victories at JGR. Tyler Reddick finished second for the second straight year at Bristol Dirt while Austin Dillon, Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. and Chase Briscoe rounded out the top-five finishers.
“It was a lot of fun honestly,” Reddick said of his battle with Bell. The runner up went on to tell Fox Sports, “Really intense, I felt like I had a little bit more. I thought I had the edge, but I wasn’t quite there in the last couple of laps. Just hate it for everyone on this Sirius XM Toyota Camry TRD.”
Larson ended up leading the entire first stage of the race before Reddick took over in stage two, staying out on old tires for track position. That caused Bell and 10 other drivers to pull the same gamble entering the final stage, putting the No. 20 car in position to grab a lead he would not relinquish.
Larson, meanwhile, drew the ire of Ryan Preece during the middle stages of the race when Larson made contact with Preece’s No. 41 Ford Mustang. Later on, after a Larson spin, Preece caught up with the No. 5 Chevrolet and made contact on the backstretch, sending Larson around and breaking his suspension.
Larson thought Preece was out of line, and told Fox Sports as much. “I’m guessing he was paying me back for whatever I did earlier and ran me straight in the fence,…
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