Christopher Bell won Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Atlanta with a last-lap pass before a crash on the backstretch.
Bell passed Kyle Larson on the last lap and finished ahead of Larson and Carson Hocevar as Josh Berry got crashed on the final lap when he was squeezed in the middle of a three-wide scenario. The caution came out before the finish line a day after NASCAR race control didn’t throw a caution for a large crash on the final lap in the Xfinity Series event.
In the drivers’ meeting ahead of Sunday’s race, NASCAR admitted it erred in not throwing the caution on Saturday because of the size of the crash. The Daytona 500 also ended under green after a crash on the backstretch on the final lap.
The win is the 10th of Bell’s Cup Series career and his first at a drafting track.
The final lap was his only lap led as well. As Ford drivers got nine of the top 10 starting positions in qualifying, Toyota drivers qualified far behind and clearly had cars set up for maneuverability. Bell used that to his advantage as he worked his way up to the front in the final stage to set himself up for the win.
Bell passed Larson on a green-white-checker finish that was set up by a crash at the front of the field. Larson tried to move up ahead of Austin Cindric while making a pass for the lead but wasn’t clear. That forced Cindric into the wall, and Larson’s teammate and Daytona 500 winner William Byron then slid up into Cindric. That sent both Byron and Cindric crashing into the inside wall.
Hocevar ended up getting a career-best finish of second after he drew the ire of several drivers throughout the race. Ryan Blaney went spinning off his bumper in the final stage and was one of multiple drivers to talk to Hocevar on pit road after the race.
Blaney came back to finish fourth thanks to the fresh tires his team put on his car after that spin.
Sunday’s race was a far better display of drafting-style racing than Daytona was a week ago. Drivers had to manage the handling of their cars on worn tires and racecraft felt like it was much more of a priority than at Daytona where wrecks reigned supreme.
Fox continues to struggle
The race was also another example of how far Fox’s coverage standards have fallen since the network started broadcasting NASCAR races 25 years ago. The production of Sunday’s race was haphazard at best, and the booth struggled to follow the relevant storylines unfolding throughout the race.
There was even an extremely awkward moment in the final stage of the race. The broadcast was in the midst of a Toyota-sponsored segment when Toyota driver Chase Briscoe hit the wall to trigger a multi-car crash on the frontstretch. As the crash unfolded live, the sponsored segment went on. Fans were forced to see replays of the crash after the segment ended after play-by-play announcer Mike Joy informed the viewing audience that a wreck had happened.
The network’s coverage is getting lapped by even the CW’s entry into NASCAR. The CW has the rights to the Xfinity Series and the production for its races is largely being done by NASCAR. But the CW booth of Adam Alexander — the former Xfinity Series voice for Fox — and former drivers Parker Kligerman and Jamie McMurray already provides much more insight and a coherent conversation than Joy, Clint Bowyer and Kevin Harvick.
Harvick is a great analyst in his own right. But he and NASCAR fans are being done a disservice with the current quality of Fox’s coverage. And given that Fox just re-upped with NASCAR to continue broadcasting races, it’s hard to see when the network’s coverage will improve.
Race results
1. Christopher Bell
2. Carson Hocevar
3. Kyle Larson
4. Ryan Blaney
5. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
6. Denny Hamlin
7. Kyle Busch
8. Ross Chastain
9. Bubba Wallace
10. John Hunter Nemechek
11. Joey Logano
12. Zane Smith
13. Michael McDowell
14. AJ Allmendinger
15. Todd Gilliland
16. Austin Dillon
17. Riley Herbst
18. Chase Elliott
19. Ryan Preece
20. Tyler Reddick
21. Chase Briscoe
22. BJ McLeod
23. Shane van Gisbergen
24. Justin Haley
25. Josh Berry
26. Alex Bowman
27. William Byron
28. Austin Cindric
29. Ty Dillon
30. Chris Buescher
31. Erik Jones
32. Ty Gibbs
33. Daniel Suarez
34. Noah Gragson
35. Cody Ware
36. Cole Custer
37. JJ Yeley
38. Corey LaJoie
39. Brad Keselowski
