In dominant fashion, Christopher Bell did what he has done for most of the season, ending the race in victory lane.
“I just had a really good race car,” Bell told NBCSN. “This track’s been really good to us and our team.”
Bell led 186 of the 200 laps at New Hampshire Motor Speedway en route to his fifth victory of the season and the second at New Hampshire.
Cole Custer finished second, followed by Justin Allgaier, Tyler Reddick and Paul Menard rounding out the top five.
Stage 1:
Custer started on the pole but was quickly taken by Bell on Lap 2 into Turn 1. Bell led all the way until 10 to go in the stage when the No. 23 of John Hunter Nemechek lost his brakes and got into the wall. His day was quickly over, not the result that he was looking for at New Hampshire.
With under 10 to go in the stage during this caution, teams chose to select some different strategies. The leaders came in but Ryan Sieg and Brandon Jones, among others, stayed out in the hope that either a caution would come out close to the stage ending or they could hold on for some stage points.
That hopefulness worked as Jones ended up winning the stage with Bell, Reddick, Sieg and Allgaier rounding out the top five.
Stage 2:
Stage two continued with Reddick and Bell side by side with the Oklahoma native getting the advantage. Allgaier was able to get up to second but was unable to get past Bell for the stage win.
Custer ended up in third with Reddick and Menard rounding out the top five. With the stage going green the entire way, only 20 cars remained on the lead lap.
Final Stage:
Bell and Allgaier came in one and two and came out of pit lane, one and two, as they restarted the third and final stage.
Bell started out with the lead and pulled away from the field fairly easily. Allgaier wasn’t so lucky as he battled Custer for second and eventually lost the spot to Custer. It stayed like that until Lap 141 when the yellow waved for what was a debris caution. The lap before, the No. 9 of Noah Gragson, tagged the wall and was quickly losing positions after battling for a top 10 spot.
They went back under green but for the first time this afternoon, the beating and banging was evident. It started when Gragson got into with Austin Cindric. Cindric continued battling, this time with the No. 8 of Ryan Truex.
While that was going the No. 18 of Harrison Burton was battling with Menard until Menard had enough and turned Burton heading into Turn 1 on Lap 153. Menard said on the radio that, “He needs to race me clean. He hit me twice.” Burton went on to finish 29th.
The race went back green once again with 42 laps to go and like most of the day, Bell started from the front and pulled away once the green was in the air. However, unlike the previous caution, it was Custer who was chasing down Bell and not Allgaier. Custer was making ground for a little bit but in the end, Bell was too much for him and ended up in victory lane.
Next up for the Xfinity Series? Their second trip to Iowa where Christopher Bell won earlier this year.
