(Photo: Nigel Kinrade Photography)
By Aaron Bearden
Post-race review and analysis from the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
*Writer not present at the track this week. Observations are from afar.
Who Won?
Christopher Bell. He took the rest of the field out to the woodshed in a dominant outing.
Who Claimed the Stages?
Christopher Bell again. He won both stages to leave Atlanta with seven playoff points.
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The First of Many?
Christopher Bell entered the 2019 NASCAR Xfinity Series season with the expectation that he’d bring in multiple wins and contend for a championship at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
The series opener at Daytona International Speedway didn’t play out like Bell would would have liked. But in the tour’s second stop at Atlanta, the Toyota prospect found his form.
Bell won both stages, led 142 of 163 laps and drove off to a dominant victory at race’s end – all while driver analysts Kevin Harvick and Jimmie Johnson offered praise for him, with predictions that he’ll compete in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series next season.
By all accounts it was a near-perfect day. To everyone except Bell, at least.
“I felt pretty sloppy there as a driver at sometimes,” he said in victory lane. “Running the yellow line is so hard and I don’t know, I would just struggle on the longer runs there. Like I said, I knew that I was struggling on the bottom of 1 and 2 and I knew I was going to have to move up there if we didn’t get that last yellow, so I was pretty thankful that yellow came out so we could put some tires on it.”
The Oklahoman returned for his second season in the Xfinity Series as the de-facto favorite to claim the championship at year’s end. Bell already had eight race wins to his name, having won at Kansas Speedway in 2017 and surged to a rookie record seven victories in his first full season.
Bell entered Homestead last November as a common pick to claim the championship, but was beaten out by underdog Tyler Reddick’s gutsy drive on the track’s outside lane.
For a time it appeared Reddick could play spoiler to Bell on Saturday. His No. 2 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet was dialed in on long runs, allowing Reddick to close in on Bell in the closing laps. A mistake from Bell’s Joe Gibbs Racing crew allowed Reddick to the lead for a short time in Stage 3, and though Bell regained the top spot moments later, with less than 10 to go Reddick had closed within a few car lengths of Bell for the lead.
The pair seemed poised for a statement-making battle to the finish, but it wasn’t meant to be. A caution flew for a spinning John Hunter Nemechek on Lap 157, and a slow stop from Reddick’s crew mired him back in the pack moments later.
Bell’s No. 20 crew helped him retain the lead, and he drove off on the ensuing restart to secure his ninth-career win. The victory was the 150th for Toyota in the series, and the first for the recently-introduced Supra – a feat Bell was happy to celebrate.
“That’s really really big,” Bell said. “It all just boils down to the fact that you don’t get to be a first-time winner very often. There’s a very good possibility Kyle (Busch) is going to win one of the next three (races) and I beat him to Victory Lane. I’m all smiles right now.”
With a playoff berth clinched, Bell can set his sights on the postseason. The 24-year-old’s dominant performance netted him a series-best seven playoff points, and Bell finds himself in the championship lead leaving Atlanta.
It was a foggy, dreary day in Atlanta. But through the mist Bell made a clear statement to the field.
Last year was no fluke. The 2017 Truck Series champ intends to contend for a championship again this year, though there are still improvements to be made.
“It means a lot to be able to come over here and win in the second race and what I call the first true race of the season,” Bell said. “Hopefully it means something and we can build on this and try and help our long run speed.”
Earnhardt impresses in second JGR start
After years of running in underfunded equipment, Jeffrey Earnhardt bet on his talent and secured a part-time drive for Joe Gibbs Racing heading into 2019.
Two races in, the move appears to be paying off.
Earnhardt began his tenure with the team by leading a career-best 29 laps at Daytona, though he fell to 15th at race’s end after the field ran largely single-oil in the final run to the checkered flag.
One week later in Atlanta the 29-year-old positioned himself with an outside chance to win.
Bell dominated Saturday’s race, but Earnhardt proved every bit the contender. The North Carolinian dropped back to 15th at the start of the race, but methodically rose through the field over the course of the day. Prior to the final caution Earnhardt found himself closing in on Justin Allgaier for third.
One solid pit stop from the No. 18 team and a mistake from second-place Reddick’s crew later, Earnhardt found himself alongside Bell on the front row heading into the final restart.
That restart ultimately went poorly for Earnhardt. Trapped in the outside lane with a major lane disadvantage, Earnhardt spun his tires and dropped back in the pack. He ultimately faded to sixth at race’s end, falling just shy of his first top-five.
“That outside was tough,” Earnhardt said. “I blew the tires off it early in the race. I knew it was going to be hard to get a restart out there. It seemed like everyone kind of struggled up there. Just couldn’t get the power to the ground. I had Brandon (Jones) push me trying all he could do to get me going and just sucks.”
But even after the late drop, Earnhardt had much to celebrate. At the end of his first non-plate race with JGR, the veteran proved to be a legitimate contender. After years of running toward the back of the pack, in good equipment he’d proven that he could hold his own at the front of the field.
“It is awesome,” Earnhardt said afterward. “Just to get to go and compete in a really good car like this. I hate we got stuck on the outside on that last restart. Restarts are really hard on the outside here, but the Toyota Supra was super fast today. These guys put me in a heck of a car. We came up short on the win, but we showed we belong here and we’re going to run up front the rest of the races.”
Other Notes
- Brandon Jones didn’t have the win of Bell or the story of Earnhardt, but he proved every bit as strong as his JGR teammates. Jones overcame a pit road speeding penalty to come home fourth, rising to second in the championship standings as a result. “This was probably by far my best finish I’ve ever had at Atlanta,” he said. “Our teammate (Christopher) Bell, he’s always quick here. I think he had the car to beat all day long, but I think we had a pretty strong second-place Supra behind him right there.”
- Justin Allgaier’s streak of consistent speed continued in Atlanta. Allgaier brought home his 10th finish of third or better in his past 17 starts with a third-place effort on Saturday.
- He spent most of the day outside of the battle for the win, but Cole Custer rose from fifth to second on the final restart and even closed up to Bell on the final lap before settling for second. Afterward the Stewart-Haas Racing star claimed it was a sign of things to come.
- One week after his Stage 1 win at Daytona, Justin Haley earned his first top 10 with an eighth-place run at Atlanta. It was the best finish Haley’s had in five starts, though perhaps not his top performance. His first trip to Daytona last summer shot Haley into the spotlight, though one trip under the double-yellow line kept him from bringing home a suitable finish to cap it off.
- Hidden back in the pack was a strong performance from an underdog. Brandon Brown came home on the lead lap to secure a career-best finish of 13th with Brandonbilt Motorsports. It was Brown’s first top-15 run in 22 series starts.
- Late issues derailed promising days for playoff hopefuls Chase Briscoe and John Hunter Nemechek. The duo each encountered flat tires during the final fuel run, trapping them a lap down and leading Nemechek to spin and bring out the final yellow. Briscoe rebounded to finish 15th, while Nemechek ended the day in 20th.
