Trucks: Christopher Bell wins his first Truck race since 2017 at Bristol

What’s Happening?

Fresh off the Easter weekend, several Cup Series drivers dropped into the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Bristol Motor Speedway on Friday, including Kyle Busch, Ross Chastain, and Daniel Suárez, but it was Christopher Bell who had the last word.

He may have opened the Cup Series season in fits and starts, yet his first Truck outing of the year hit pay dirt. After winning last fall’s Cup race, Bell climbed into a Halmar-Friesen Racing truck and drove the No. 62 Toyota to victory. He led 63 laps on the way and now has wins at Bristol across all three of NASCAR’s national series.

Post-race report:

• Bell slipped past Christian Eckes on Lap 188 and never looked back, the 2017 Truck champion taking his eighth career series win by 0.33 seconds. The result snapped a three-race Bristol run by Front Row Motorsports.
• The opening caution came in Stage 1 when Andrés Pérez spun, escaping with minor damage. Up front, Eckes had already taken command from pole-sitter Kaden Honeycutt and kept the field in check. Bell started the race from P15 and ended Stage 1 in the same spot, while Eckes bagged the stage.
• Eckes stayed out front through much of Stage 2, but the deck was reshuffled when a caution split strategies. Frankie Muniz saw his ‘Malcolm in the Middle’ scheme torn up after contact with Tyler Reif, setting up a dash to the Stage 2 flag with some trucks gambling by staying out. By then, Bell had climbed to P5. Ben Rhodes took the stage win but faded in the run to the finish as his truck kept shutting off, leaving him 11th.
• In the final stage, Busch moved to the front of the pack by staying out, aiming to stretch fuel to the end. But then Corey LaJoie, running fifth, was hit with a penalty for jumping out of line before the start/finish line. And cautions came in waves. Taylor Gray and Pérez spun after contact with Ram trucks, both taking damage. Another yellow flew when Cole Butcher looped it in the pack and clipped Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Luke Baldwin also went around, each stoppage hampering Busch’s fuel game.
• Eventually, the gamble came up short. While saving fuel under caution, the No. 7 Chevrolet failed to refire, and with the pace broken, Busch was dropped to tenth for the restart.
• With 70 laps left, Corey Heim edged past Eckes for the lead, chasing a third straight Truck win and a $350,000 Triple Truck Challenge bonus. The bid ended in an instant. As Heim cleared him, Eckes moved left from the top lane, looking to tuck in behind in Turns 1 and 2, but misjudged the move and clipped Heim’s right rear. Heim slammed the wall, and Honeycutt, his teammate and the points leader, was collected. Heim fell to P30, Honeycutt to P31.
• The wreck brought out a red flag. On the restart, Bell took control from Eckes, who had led a race-high 132 laps, with 63 to go. The Cup driver held serve through the next caution, triggered by a spinning LaJoie with 35 laps left.
• Eckes had no answer on the restart and lost ground as the inside lane struggled to fire off, slipping to fifth in a final stage that slipped through his fingers. Bell, meanwhile, kept his nose clean and held off Chandler Smith, who was chasing back-to-back wins in the event.
• Gio Ruggiero crossed in third, with Chastain fourth. Smith’s runner-up run put him back atop the standings, one point clear of Honeycutt, after losing the lead at Rockingham due to a disqualification. Heim, not running the full schedule, and Layne Riggs sit four points back in third and fourth.
• Smith also pocketed a $50,000 bonus as the highest-finishing Truck regular. Jake Garcia, Dawson Sutton, Busch, Carson Hocevar, and Brenden Queen rounded out the top 10.
• Busch led 39 laps, but the race slipped through his hands under caution when the engine refused to fire.

Official Race Results:

Points Standings:

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