Seven NASCAR Cup drivers entered Friday’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Bristol Motor Speedway, so it’s no surprise one of the sport’s top drivers captured the win.
Driving for Halmar-Friesen Racing, Christopher Bell won after taking and extending his lead on a late-race restart.
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“Oh man, that was just so awesome to be able to win a truck race,” said Bell. “It’s been since 2017 I won one of these things. It’s been a lot of fun racing with this group. I got the unfortunate call to drive for Stewart (Friesen, team co-owner) whenever he got hurt, and we went out to Watkins Glen and almost got it. They’ve been working really hard to get to Victory Lane, and whenever they call me about an opportunity to try and run some races, I’m like ‘heck yeah, let’s do it.’ Just so special for me to be able to race with these guys. These wins mean a lot to this organization.”
Chandler Smith finished second for Front Row Motorsports, earning $50,000 as part of the Triple Truck Challenge. Corey Heim could have won all three Triple Truck Challenge races, netting $500,000, but he got turned from the lead during the final stage, dashing his hopes.
Gio Ruggiero finished third, Ross Chastain fourth, and Christian Eckes fifth. Jake Garcia, Dawson Sutton, Kyle Busch, Carson Hocevar, and Brenden Queen filled out the remainder of the top ten.
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This is Bell’s eighth career win, and his first since his 2017 NCTS title run.
Stages 1 and 2
The first caution of the race was for a spin by Andrés Pérez, but he escaped with only minor damage. Eckes had already taken the lead from pole-sitter Honeycutt, and remained firmly in control.
Eckes went on to win Stage 1 over Riggs, Honeycutt, Rhodes, Garcia, Hocevar, Ruggiero, Briscoe, Chastain, and Busch.
Eckes continued to lead most of the second stage as well, but strategies throughout the field split due to the timing of one particular caution.
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Frankie Muniz’s special ‘Malcolm in the Middle’ paint scheme got all torn up after colliding with Tyler Reif. That caution set up a sprint to the end of Stage 2, with a handful of trucks choosing to stay out.
Rhodes won Stage 2 over Busch, Haley, Heim, Bell, Eckes, LaJoie, Honeycutt, Garcia, and Riggs.
Stage 3
Busch led the race after staying out, hoping to stretch the fuel all the way to the end. LaJoie, who was running fifth at the time, was handed a penalty for moving out of line before the start/finish line.
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A flurry of yellows followed, with Tan. Gray and Perez spinning after contact from the Ram trucks. Both trucks sustained damage. The next caution was for Cole Butcher, who spun in the middle of the pack and then clipped Stenhouse.
Luke Baldwin also went for a spin, and all of these cautions were helping Busch in his mission to save enough fuel. However, while shutting the engine off under caution, the No. 7 Chevrolet wouldn’t re-fire for a moment. Since he couldn’t maintain pace car spot, Busch was put back to tenth in the restart order.
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It was now Eckes and Heim on the front row, with Heim moving Eckes out of the way to take the lead. Moments later, Eckes came down and appeared to turn Heim into the wall, ending his race and a shot at the rest of the $500,000 Triple Truck Challenge prize money.
Honeycutt and Riggs also sustained big damage in that crash, while Eckes radioed to his team that the contact was not intentional. The incident forced a red flag for cleanup.
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On the restart, Bell snatched the lead from Eckes, and led until the next caution, which flew for a spinning LaJoie with 35 laps to go.
However, Eckes couldn’t do anything to challenge Bell on the restart, and actually lost several positions as the inside line struggled to get rolling.
Bell then just needed to hold back Smith in the closing laps, never allowing the Front Row Motorsports driver to get too close.
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