MARTINSVILLE, Va. -- When he's needed to in the NASCAR playoffs, Christopher Bell has become Christopher Clutch. Facing elimination in the Round of 12, Bell won at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval in order to advance to the next round. He's done it again, and this time, it's going to give him an opportunity to win his first NASCAR Cup Series championship.
After taking four tires on his final pit stop, Bell ran down Chase Briscoe with four laps to go, making the pass on another driver in a must-win scenario and then pulling away to win the Xfinity 500 at Martinsville and put himself in the Championship 4.
Bell will join Chase Elliott, Joey Logano and Ross Chastain in the Championship 4 -- the latter of whom made what can only be described as a next to impossible move on the final lap. In a last-ditch effort, Chastain went full throttle into Turns 3 and 4 and put his car on the wall, riding it at full speed and passing five cars -- including Denny Hamlin -- by the checkered flag. The move put Chastain in the championship round, knocking Hamlin out of the final Championship 4 spot by one point.
Hamlin, Briscoe, Ryan Blaney and William Byron were all eliminated from championship contention.
Xfinity 500 official results
- #20 - Christopher Bell
- #5 - Kyle Larson
- #12 - Ryan Blaney
- #1 - Ross Chastain
- #11 - Denny Hamlin
- #22 - Joey Logano
- #24 - William Byron
- #45 - Bubba Wallace
- #14 - Chase Briscoe
- #9 - Chase Elliott
After taking the lead thanks to a quick pit stop by his crew under caution, Bell came to life over the final 200 laps, and he was leading when a crash by Landon Cassill brought out the final caution of the day with 34 laps to go. While Bell brought most of the leaders to pit road, Briscoe -- who was also facing a must-win scenario -- stayed out with teammate Cole Custer, and several two and no-tire stops dropped Bell back to sixth in the running order by the restart.
But eventually, Bell's fresher tires prevailed, and he was able to run Briscoe down in the closing laps and pull away in a repeat of his Charlotte Roval heroics.
"I can't believe it, man. To come here to Martinsville -- this place has always been so tough on me ... I don't even know what to say," an emotional Bell told NBC Sports. "... Very appreciative to be here. I don't even know what to say. ... Words can't describe this feeling."
Bell's victory was his third of the season, the fourth of his Cup career, and by far his biggest. But it was immediately and almost completely overshadowed by what unfolded just after Bell crossed the finish line.
Full Send
When Ross Chastain came off Turn 2 on the final lap, it looked like his championship run was about to come to an end. With Bell's win vaulting him from below the cut line to into the Championship 4, Chastain had been bumped below the cut line. And running 10th compared to Denny Hamlin's fifth, Hamlin was set to make the Championship 4 instead of him.
Then, Chastain made the impossible happen. Entering Turn 3, Chastain put his foot to the throttle, riding the outside wall at full speed in order to make the circumference of the corner without losing any speed. The move created such an enormous speed discrepancy between Chastain and the cars that had been well ahead of him that Chastain was able to pass five cars by the start/finish line, edging Hamlin for fifth place and putting him in next week's title race in unreal fashion (Chastain was later credited with a fourth-place finish after Brad Keselowski was disqualified in post-race)
Chastain's move was, quite literally, out of a video game. Speaking post-race, he explained that he had seen it work long ago while playing NASCAR 2005 with his brother on the Nintendo Gamecube. And as a last resort, Chastain utilized it and made it work in legendary fashion.
"I grabbed fifth gear. I asked off of (Turn) 2 on the last lap if we needed it, and we did. I couldn't tell who was leading. And I just made the choice," Chastain told NBC Sports. "I grabbed fifth gear down the back and full committed. Once I got against the wall I basically let go of the wheel, just hoped I didn't catch the Turn 4 access gate or something crazy. But I was willing to do it."
The sellout crowd that witnessed Chastain's move went berserk with approval. Denny Hamlin, who went from being virtually assured of a fifth Championship 4 appearance in a row to being below the cut line, almost appeared shell shocked.
Given Chastain and Hamlin's various run-ins throughout the 2022 season, it was somewhat poetic that Chastain's aggression came at Hamlin's expense. And while he's taken umbrage at Chastain's driving before, Hamlin had little choice this time but to simply tip his cap after losing control of the race despite leading a race-high 203 laps.
"It was a great move. Brilliant," Hamlin told NBC Sports. "When you have no other choice, it certainly is easy to do that. But well-executed."
While Chastain and Bell both made the Championship 4 in spectacular fashion, Chase Elliott was able to advance by earning an 10th-place finish that included a large chunk of points earned by second-place finishes in both stages. Joey Logano, who earned his Championship 4 spot by winning at Las Vegas, finished sixth despite an issue with rubber buildup in his left front rocker box catching fire mid-race.
Race Results Rundown
- After being parked by NASCAR for one race after intentionally wrecking Kyle Larson at Las Vegas, Bubba Wallace hardly showed any rust by running as high as the top five on his way to an eighth-place finish. That set a new personal-best finish for Wallace at Martinsville, and it also gives him 10 top-10 finishes for the 2022 season -- his first time earning double-digit top 10s.
- In the Southern Virginia area that both his family and his race team call home, Harrison Burton enjoyed one of the strongest weekends he's had in his rookie year. Burton started 10th and ran inside the top 10 before earning an 11th-place finish, his fourth finish inside the top 12 in a race this year.
- Another rookie who enjoyed a strong run was Todd Gilliland, who bounced back from a three-race swoon that followed a seventh-place finish at Talladega with a 13th-place run. Bonus points in this writeup for Gilliland driving a sushi-sponsored Cup car -- even Jiro couldn't have dreamed of that.
- Cole Custer's old tires prevented him from capping it off with more than a 14th-place finish, but he enjoyed one of his strongest runs of the season and arguably one of the best of his entire career. Custer ran in the top five consistently throughout the day, and he was as high as second behind his teammate in the closing laps before fading late.
- Ty Gibbs isn't going to win any popularity contests anytime soon, as his bump-and-dump of Brandon Jones to win Saturday's Xfinity Series race was near-universally rebuked and earned him extremely loud boos in driver introductions. But Gibbs was able to score a 19th-place finish on Sunday, doing so as Kurt Busch helped out his race team by running tires and doing gofer work in the garage area.
- After turning back the clock with some strong runs in recent weeks, Kyle Busch turned in one of the single worst performances of his entire Cup career. Busch's car was extremely slow from the drop of the green flag, and he was lapped multiple times on speed and speed alone. Busch would eventually level out at six laps down as he limped to a 29th-place finish in his next-to-last race as a Joe Gibbs Racing driver.
- Brad Keselowski crossed the finish line in fourth, which would have been his second-straight top five and his best finish of the entire 2022 season. However, Keselowski was disqualified after his car did not meet minimum weight requirements in post-race tech inspection.
Next Race
The NASCAR Cup Series season concludes with the season finale and championship race at Phoenix Raceway next Sunday at 3 p.m. ET on NBC. Whoever finishes the best among the Championship 4 -- Chase Elliott, Joey Logano, Ross Chastain or Christopher Bell -- will win the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series championship.
