Christopher Bell surged from fifth place with just four laps remaining to capture the Bass Pro Shops Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway on September 13, capping off a Joe Gibbs Racing sweep of all three races in the opening round of the playoff eliminations.
Bell beat Brad Keselowski by 0.343 seconds after receiving a last-corner shove from him, allowing Bell to earn his fourth victory of the season. It also followed up his teammate Chase Briscoe’s win at Darlington, and his teammate Denny Hamlin’s victory at Gateway, ensuring a JGR sweep.
Tires Shaped The Race
Sept. 13’s short track contest was defined by tire wear. Drivers had noted during Friday’s practice that Goodyear’s tire appeared durable enough to allow long runs without grip loss. However, a combination of weather and track surface caused the tires to degrade quickly, forcing teams to burn through their fresh sets rather quickly.
By the final round of pit stops, several contenders had exhausted their allotment of fresh tires and had to use scuffs (previously used tires), which put them at a disadvantage as the laps wound down.
With 30 laps to go, Keselowski held a three-second lead before contact with a slower car brought out a caution, effectively erasing his advantage. Bell, starting fourth on the final restart, surged past three cars ahead and held off Keselowski in the closing laps.
As reported by NBC Sports, Bell stated after the race, “Well, I’ll tell you what, I was nervous on the twos (taking two tires instead of four). I didn’t know if I wanted to be on the bottom lane or top, and whenever Brad picked the top, it didn’t really give me an option. It wasn’t pretty, but we got her done.”
Heartbreak For Four Playoff Drivers
The Round of 16 elimination race ended the championship dreams for Alex Bowman, Austin Dillon, Shane van Gisbergen, and Josh Berry.
Berry’s playoff run collapsed dramatically. The Wood Brothers Racing driver brought his No. 21 Ford to pit road on Lap 75 with smoke filling the cockpit, marking his third straight last-place finish after prior accidents in the other two races of the opening round.
Dillon, who entered the race 11 points below the cutline, suffered severe tire wear early and was served a pit-road speeding penalty, finishing 28th place.
van Gisbergen, in his first Cup postseason appearance, spun after contact early in the race and finished 26th.
Bowman was one of the drivers in the top ten on the final restart, but without fresh tires, the number of cars he needed to pass proved insurmountable.
Round of 12 Set
Heading into the Round of 12, the playoff field consists of: Hamlin, Briscoe, Bell, Ross Chastain, Ryan Blaney, William Byron, Kyle Larson, Bubba Wallace, Tyler Reddick, Joey Logano, Chase Elliott, and Austin Cindric.
Ty Gibbs led a race-high 201 laps, but made several mistakes on pit-road, relegating him to a 10th place finish, yet again shy of his first victory. Fellow non-playoff drivers Zane Smith and Carson Hocevar led laps late in the race, but chose to stay out on old tires.
The Round of 12 starts at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Sept. 21, where the remaining playoff drivers will compete to punch their ticket into the Round of 8.
Photo by Haomeng Yang on Unsplash.
Originally Published at: https://www.fsuthevoice.com/nascar-playoffs-in-full-swing-joe-gibbs-racing-dominates/
Cameron Bebeau 
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