Christopher Bell Picks Up First Victory in Wild Daytona Road Course Race

 Originally written for CLNS Media.

Christopher Bell picked up his first career victory in the O’Reilly Auto Parts 253 from the Daytona International Speedway Road Course on Sunday afternoon.

Bell erased Joey Logano’s three-second lead in the closing laps and was able to make the winning pass in the chicane coming to the white flag.  Bell pulled away over the final lap, and he picked up his first victory in just his second start with Joe Gibbs Racing.

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Bell pitted for tires under one of the final cautions, and he said that’s what made the difference in the race against Logano.

“Whenever we pitted and I came out, I liked where I lined up,” Bell said.  “Honestly didn’t think I was going to get there.  [Logano] really struggled coming out of Turn 6 one time and it allowed me to close the gap.”

Bell’s first victory followed Michael McDowell’s first victory in last weekend’s Daytona 500.  It is just the third time in NASCAR history that two first-time winners opened up the season, and the first since 1950.

Bell said this victory was at the end of a very long road to NASCAR’s top series.

“I’ve prepared my whole life to race in the Cup Series,” Bell said.  “I’m very grateful that I got the opportunity to run in Cup.  This is definitely one of the highlights of my life so far.”

Logano said he had too many laps to run on old tires to make their strategy work.

“One more caution lap would have been enough to at least have a door-to-door finish across the line,” Logano said.  “[Bell’s] the one that got through with tires.  It’s hard when he’s catching you a second a lap.”

Unofficial results:

1. Christopher Bell

2. Joey Logano

3. Denny Hamlin

4. Kurt Busch

5. Brad Keselowski

6. Kevin Harvick

7. AJ Allmendinger

8. Michael McDowell

9. Ryan Preece

10. Alex Bowman

11. Chris Buescher

12. Martin Truex Jr.

13. Cole Custer

14. Erik Jones

15. Ryan Blaney

16. Daniel Suarez

17. Aric Almirola

18. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

19. Ty Dillon

20. Ryan Newman

21. Chase Elliott

22. Anthony Alfredo

23. James Davison

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24. Justin Haley

25. Cody Ware

26. Bubba Wallace

27. Garrett Smithley

28. Scott Heckert

29. Timmy Hill

30. Kyle Larson

31. Corey LaJoie

32. Chase Briscoe

33. William Byron

34. Austin Dillon

35. Kyle Busch

36. Josh Bilicki

37. Matt DiBenedetto

38. Tyler Reddick

39. Ross Chastain

40. Quin Houff