DAYTONA BEACH, Florida – Christopher Bell chased Joey Logano on the winding Daytona circuit on Sunday for his first career Cup victory and a coveted NASCAR playoff spot.
Bell won his second race driving Joe Gibbs Racing to give the team a pair of surprising wins at the Daytona International Speedway. Ty Gibbs, the 18-year-old grandson of team owner Joe Gibbs, won the Xfinity Series race on Saturday night at his first start in a national series.
Bell’s victory was not that impressive, but he still delivered much earlier than expected on his return to JGR. He was loaned to Leavine Family Racing last year for his debut season, but Gibbs pulled him back to JGR this year.
This gave Bell a competitive Toyota, but a victory, as soon as, was a big hit.
“This is one of the highlights of my life,” said Bell. “I prepared my whole life for this moment of playing in the Cup Series, last year was a great learning curve for me. I am very grateful to have had the opportunity to race in the World Cup and it definitely prepared me to go to Joe Gibbs Racing. “
Bell had an unsurprising debut season driving for Leavine, with only seven results in the top 10 at Toyota, not as strong as Gibbs’ fleet of four cars. Now driving some of NASCAR’s best cars, Bell has joined Daytona 500 winner Michael McDowell as the startling winner of the season.
It is only the third time in NASCAR history that the first two races of the season have been won by winners for the first time. This was done previously in 1949 and 1950 – the first two seasons of NASCAR.
Bell and McDowell now have two of the coveted 16 playoff spots, a worrying trend for intermediate teams who need all 26 races of the regular season to reach the championship. Race winners win automatic slots and the remaining slots are decided by the points classification.
“Having Christopher in the playoffs is a big deal,” said Joe Gibbs. “We don’t take that for granted.”
McDowell, in turn, supported his victory in the Daytona 500 with the best career result in eighth place.
Bell had to chase Logano, who had built up a decent lead on the field, but was unable to defend himself from Bell after catching him. Logano finished second; last week, he and teammate Brad Keselowski beat each other competing for the Daytona 500 victory.
“I hate being so close,” said Logano.
Denny Hamlin was the third to give Gibbs two cars in the top three. Kurt Busch finished fourth and Keselowski finished fifth with a decent rebound from Team Penske.
Keselowski and Logano had their first interaction before the race since they crashed on the last lap competing with each other for the victory of the Daytona 500 a week ago.
“We are as good as we can be,” said Keselowski.
Kevin Harvick finished sixth and AJ Allmendinger, in his first World Cup race since the end of the 2018 season, finished seventh. It was the best result in three Cup races for Kaulig Racing, an Xfinity Series team formed in 2016 that wants to be the Cup full time next season.
Ryan Preece was ninth with a top 10 pair in Daytona. JTG-Daugherty Racing no longer has a license to guarantee Preece a spot on the field every week, and without it the team cannot promise that it will race every week this season. With this start, Preece currently occupies the seventh place in the points classification.
Chase Elliott again had the most dominant car, but his streak of four consecutive points-based street races was interrupted. He led 45 laps with the best quality of the race and was ahead when caution due to rain with 15 laps to go forced Hendrick Motorsports to make a strategic decision.
Elliott changed the position of the track for new tires, took the lead and fell to 15th. He worked his way up to fifth position, but turned when he hit Kurt Busch on the back. Elliott finished 21st.
“Care like this means that mixing who stays and who goes, is a bit of a gamble,” said Elliott. “I thought tires were the right move. But you get back into traffic and it gets chaotic, depending on who passes (traffic) and who doesn’t, and that determines how it’s going to happen.”