Christopher Bell stole away with the NASCAR Cup Series win at Atlanta on Sunday with a dramatic last-lap pass just before the backstretch went under incident.
Within mere moments of separation, Kyle Larson was passed on the last lap by Bell as the latter and Carson Hocevar crossed the finish line ahead of Larson. Attempting to become part of their thrilling win, however, Josh Barry was swept off into the fence just past the last lap after the three-wide madness.
The caution came out just before the end, unlike the previous day when race control decided against calling a caution for a major crash during Xfinity Series race.
During the drivers’ meeting before Sunday’s race, NASCAR admitted that they erred by not throwing a caution on Saturday, which they termed as a major crash. One must remember that Daytona 500 had also finished under the green until the last-lap mayhem in the backstretch.
This marks Bell’s tenth Cup Series victory and his first on a drafting track. Remarkably, the final lap was the only lap he led in this race. The Fords qualified extremely well and occupied the top 10 starting positions, while the Toyotas lagged a bit but were really tuned for good handling.
So, Bell got around this setup and advanced his position into the front during the last stage for the win. The pass for the win came from clearing Larson on the green-white-checker finish set up by the crash at the front. Larson was trying to go by Austin Cindric to take the lead and misjudged his clearance, causing
Cindric to slam the wall. Also caught up in that were Larson’s teammate, winner of the Daytona 500, William Byron, and Cindric, causing them to smash into the inside wall.
Although he finished second, a career best, Hocevar rubbed many drivers the wrong way during the race.
