This weekend, Christopher Bell will be the latest NASCAR Cup Series driver to attempt to win all three NASCAR National Series races in the same weekend, a task that is much easier said than done.
Future Hall of Famer Kyle Busch remains alone when it comes to sweeping a NASCAR weekend, having taken all three National Series races, Cup, O’Reilly, and Truck, not once but twice.
Both of Busch’s sweeps came at Bristol Motor Speedway, with the first in August 2010 and his most recent sweep in August 2017. And since then, no other driver has been able to match that feat.
Now, Christopher Bell will try to follow that trail this weekend at Darlington Raceway.
Bell is set to run all three races across the weekend, stepping into the No. 62 Toyota for Halmar Friesen Racing in the Truck Series on Friday, then taking over the No. 19 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing in the OAP Series race on Saturday in place of Brent Crews due to age restrictions, before climbing into his No. 20 Toyota Camry for Sunday’s Goodyear 400.
Darlington has tested Bell before across two of the three National Series, with the Oklahoma native meeting its challenge.
Carrying an average finish of 15.3 in 13 starts, he has yet to reach Victory Lane there in the Cup Series, though he has three top-five finishes, including a third-place run last year when Denny Hamlin played the long game and took the win.
In the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series, Bell broke through with a win at the track in 2024. The Truck race, however, will be new ground for him at the 1.366-mile egg-shaped oval.
Of course, in the Cup Series, Bell has knocked on the door to Victory Lane at Darlington before but has yet to break it down.
In 2023, he won the pole for the Cup race during Throwback Weekend, running a scheme that paid tribute to NASCAR legend Matt Kenseth, but he could not turn track position into a result and finished 14th. Last year, he returned to the Xfinity Series race, grabbed the pole again, and once more saw the day slip away, ending in 25th.
While many drivers occasionally “double” (compete in two series), very few attempt all three. Kyle Larson gave it a shot at Bristol last year in April, coming up one step short in the Truck race before winning both the O’Reilly and Cup events.
Before that, in March, Larson had tried to sweep the Homestead-Miami Speedway weekend, where he won the Truck race, led 132 laps in the O’Reilly event but settled for fourth, and then closed the deal with a Cup win on Sunday.
Record-wise, Bell’s best weekend racing across series came at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in 2024 when he swept the Xfinity and Cup races.
Last year, he returned to the Truck Series at Watkins Glen International as a stand-in for an injured Stewart Friesen, but could only manage to finish fourth. In the Cup series race at the road course, after qualifying 9th, he managed to steer his No. 20 Toyota to finish runner-up behind Shane van Gisbergen.
Bell is also not alone in his attempt to sweep the weekend, as Trackhouse’s Ross Chastain is also scheduled to run all three races. Chastain has an impressive track record of his own at Darlington, with a win in the NASCAR Truck Series complimenting solid outings in the OAP and Cup Series.
For Bell and Chastain, the plan is to log laps, learn the track, and carry their seat time into Sunday, while keeping one eye on a sweep that many have even attempted, but only one has ever achieved.
For now, Bell stands sixth in the Cup Series standings with an average finish of 13.0, after five starts, and has finished the last three races in the top five.
Besides Darlington, Bell has yet to announce any other plans to attempt all three races in a weekend this season, though, with expanded participation rules for Cup Series drivers, the veteran could very well do so.
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