Cup: Bell Forces the Issue, Takes Out Berry and Gibbs

What’s Happening?

After a clean but eventful Stage 1 was in the books, we got our first caution for incident on Lap 81. Fresh off the stage break, the aggression was still amped up. What triggered this incident in particular was Christopher Bell’s headful of steam juking below Josh Berry as they raced down the backstretch. Berry, not expecting to go 4 wide into the corner, lifted. Subsequently, he clipped the rear bumper of Ty Gibbs. This sent both Berry and Gibbs hard into the outside SAFER barrier. Here’s what happened.

• Berry and Gibbs both were having decent days heading into this unfortunate event. Berry, though he wasn’t able to earn stage points in the first stage, did show speed. He ran solidly in the top 3 in the opening laps of the race before getting shuffled back to just outside the top 10.
• Gibbs also showed some promise early on, in the thick of contention in the opening laps of the race. Unfortunately, he was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time when his teammate made a late move and tried to force 4 wide in Turn 3.
• Denny Hamlin and Rilet Herbst, in turn, both received damage from this incident. For both drivers, it was minor and strictly cosmetic. Meanwhile, Gibbs and Berry were both hauled to the garage.
• When it comes to how their 2025 seasons ended, it’s sort of a tale of two cities when it comes to Berry and Gibbs. Berry, on one hand, started off the 2025 season strong. He led a lot of laps at Atlanta last year and even won at Las Vegas. However, he petered out in the summer months and went on to have one of the worst Playoff showings in recent memory.
• Gibbs was the complete opposite. He started agonizingly off the pace, running horribly in the first half of the season. Then, in the summer stretch, it was like a switch flipped. He started to run more consistently and even showed race-winning speed by season’s end. This isn’t the start to the season that either of these drivers wanted.

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