It was a rough run to the checkers in the NASCAR Cup Series race at Bristol Motor Speedway on Saturday night. After multiple cautions throughout the field, it was Christopher Bell in the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota prevailing to win the 500-lap event.
For Bell, this is his fourth win in 2025 and first ever at Bristol. This also completes a Round 16 sweep by JGR with Chase Briscoe winning at Darlington Raceway and Denny Hamlin at World Wide Technology Raceway last week.
This was the final Round of 16 race as four drivers are now out, and the other Playoff eligible drivers move on to the Round of 12. Out are Alex Bowman, Austin Dillon, Shane Van Gisbergen and Josh Berry.
Only Led 12 Laps, Dedicates Win to Charlie Kirk
Bell didn’t dominate the race by any means. Matter of fact, he was lined up third for the final restart with six laps remaining. As the front row of Carson Hocevar and Zane Smith took the green, the Spire Motorsports teammates made slight contact and washed up the track.
This opened the door for Bell as he dove low and bolted past them to take the lead. He survived a valiant effort and bump from second-place finisher Brad Keselowski to take the checkers.
“I’ll tell you what, I was nervous on the choose and I didn’t know if I wanted the top or the bottom,” he said in Victory Lane. “When Brad took the top, it didn’t really give me an option and I had to take the bottom.
“All night long, old tires just really pushed up in the middle of the corners. I was hoping those guys on old tires would push up and they did. I was able to get by them. It wasn’t pretty there at there at the end, but we got it done.
“Most importantly, this week has obviously been a very tough week. There’s a lot on our minds, and this one is for Charlie.”
Tire Cording Caused Problems Entire Race
On Tuesday before the race, NASCAR and Goodyear announced teams would be competing on a softer right-side tire. This was the first time a change was made in the last four BMS races.
It didn’t take long for teams to learn they needed to massively change tire management and race strategy if they wanted to survive the high-banked action around the .533-mile concrete oval. Just 27 laps in, pole sitter AJ Almendinger and fellow Chevrolet driver Austin Dillon were on pit road with right side tire problems.
The changes quickly revealed a very visible cording of both the front and rear right side Goodyears. This would go on to affect every team in the race as pit stops were made sooner than planned to address the sudden tire wear.
Teams were going through their tire allotment so quickly NASCAR released an extra set to competitors on Lap 273. Prior to the race weekend, teams were issued 11 sets with nine for the race, one for practice and starting on the same set each car used in qualifying.
Goodyear Said Tires Performed Properly
According to Goodyear, the new softer right-side tires performed like they planned.
During the race, Justin Fantozzi, Goodyear’s operations manager told this to NBC Sports.
“The team’s working really hard getting this extra set mounted, balanced and ready,” Fantozzi said. “We’re going to go back to the same amount of sets that we had in the spring race where we saw the same sort of condition. We’re ready to go.
“The industry has asked for this. We got the best drivers, the best crew chiefs. We’re going to ask them to manage it. And we’re delivering on exactly what we were asked to do.
“The temperatures have gotten really cool right now. I’m in a sweater. And as that temperature has dropped, it’s returned back to what we saw spring 18 months ago.
“So, the tire’s behaving exactly as it should.”
Tire Fires
Josh Berry suffered a fire in the right front fender area on Lap 81 to bring out the caution. The fire was so severe he registered a DNF, a 39th place finish and any hope he had to make advance in the Playoffs
Late in the race, Austin Cindric was forced to pit road under green to put out a right-front tire fire. As the cockpit filled with smoke, the fire was put out and the No. 2 Ford returned to action.
That time on pit road cost him valuable track position dropping him four laps down to finish 30th. By virtue of Alex Bowman’s eighth-place finish, Cindric survived to move on to the Round of 12 by 10 points.
Christopher Bell Survives Tire Issues to Win at Bristol