A week after turning his frustration into headline fodder in St. Louis, Christopher Bell finally had a reason to grin Saturday night at Bristol Motor Speedway. He led only 12 laps, but they happened to be the right 12 — the final four, the only ones that matter. In a race that coughed up more carnage, tire wear, fire, and smoke than Bristol’s seen in years, Bell muscled his way to the front on the last restart and held off Brad Keselowski by a scant .343 of a second.
“We just know that any week, any given week, it could be us, and it hadn’t been us for a long time,” Bell said, before adding with a grin, “But Bristol, baby, tonight it’s us!”
The win gave Joe Gibbs Racing a clean sweep of the opening Playoff round after Chase Briscoe and Denny Hamlin claimed the first two races. More importantly, the postseason field is now whittled down to 12 — and there are no real surprises in the lineup. But it took 500 laps of chaos and frayed tempers to get there.
The storyline heading into Saturday wasn’t just that Bristol was the last stop before the playoff guillotine dropped — it was the rubber. NASCAR and Goodyear had spent the past few months trying to bottle lightning again, chasing the madness of the Spring 2024 race, which gave us 54 lead changes and enough chaos to make a demolition derby look orderly.
But the Spring 2025 race? Seven lead changes. That’s it. The lowest since 2008. A cure for insomnia. Goodyear swore this time would be different. Softer tires, more grip, more action. And in Friday’s practice, under bright Tennessee sunshine, it looked like we were in for another letdown. Some cars ran 70 laps on the new rubber without so much as a blister.
But Saturday night the lights came on. And just like that, the rabbit finally came out of the hat.
By lap 34, drivers were skating across Bristol’s concrete like it had been greased with cooking oil. Used rubber piled against the wall, and the field split into two groups: those with new tires who looked like superheroes, and those clinging to worn-out tires who looked like they were dragging an anchor.
In the opening laps Ryan Blaney and Austin Cindric tried to play the long game, but Blaney finally cried uncle on lap 62 and pitted. Meanwhile, Josh Berry’s playoff dreams went up — literally — in flames. On lap 81 his Ford caught fire, most likely fed by the rubber buildup on the right front. He limped to his pit stall trailing smoke and flames, climbed out, and with that, so ended his playoff run.
The race went green again at lap 94 with 46 laps left in the stage, with Ty Gibbs in front. But Alex Bowman, also clinging to playoff life, didn’t help himself. Running a lap down, he tangled with Riley Herbst and spun on lap 101. Under that caution, Blaney was the only front-runner to pit.
That call turned out to be genius. With fresh tires, Blaney carved his way back to the front and swiped the lead from Gibbs with just two laps to go, hanging on to win Stage 1.
Stage 2 wasn’t just about cautions — it was about caution. The pace slowed, not because the cars were slow, but because the drivers had finally realized they were chewing through rubber faster than a dog with a chew toy. Just like in the Spring 2024 Bristol race, tire management wasn’t just part of the game — it was the game, and everyone was learning how to play it.
The first caution came on lap 147, when Ricky Stenhouse Jr. got into the back of Shane van Gisbergen and turned him sideways. The field scrambled, smoke filled the air, and Michael McDowell and Erik Jones both spun like extras in a Hollywood chase scene. Amazingly, nobody’s night ended — no bent sheet metal, no tow trucks. Just a collective “what the hell was that?” moment, and the race carried on.
The pit cycles began around lap 183, with leaders staying out as long as possible before giving in. Gibbs finally came down on lap 210, and by lap 233, he had cycled back into the lead like nothing had happened. But the calm didn’t last long.
On lap 239, van Gisbergen’s night went from bruised to broken. After drifting up into the marbles behind Zane Smith a few laps earlier, he was a sitting duck. William Byron gave him the lightest of nudges in Turn 4 and SVG spun like a 45 RPM record. That was the final nail in the coffin for his Playoff hopes — Bristol isn’t forgiving, and neither is NASCAR math.
The stage ended with one last dash. The green waved on lap 247 with just five laps to go. Gibbs shot out front, Alex Bowman tucked in behind, and Ryan Blaney decided he wasn’t going to wait politely in line. He muscled Bowman out of the way to grab second, setting up another Gibbs-Blaney showdown.
This time, though, Gibbs wasn’t having it. He stretched his legs and left Blaney a full second behind, claiming the Stage 2 win and making it clear that if anyone wanted Bristol glory, they were going to have to take it from him.
Just like the Spring 2024 race, NASCAR threw teams a curveball at the end of Stage 2, handing out an extra set of tires. Strategy sheets lit up like Christmas trees, and suddenly everyone had a new card to play.
At the drop of the green to start the final stage, Chase Briscoe — who started a miserable 31st — rocketed past Gibbs for the lead. It was a feel-good story that lasted exactly four laps before poor Shane van Gisbergen was spun again, this time courtesy of Ty Dillon.
From there Dillon seemed to develop a taste for chaos. Five laps later he tagged Cole Custer into a spin. Five laps after that, he spun Noah Gragson. If there was a “wreck of the week” award, Dillon was already a lock.
On lap 312, Chase Elliott’s Playoff hopes took a sickening hit. Three cars tangled, Elliott’s Chevy slammed nose-first into the outside wall, and just like that he was behind the wall, headset on, hoping no new winner spoiled his shaky Playoff math. Depending on who you root for, it was either Elliott’s mistake or just rotten circumstance — but either way, it was a crushing blow.
Bubba Wallace briefly stole the lead on lap 330, but Briscoe’s fresher tires chewed him up and spit him out. Wallace’s night only got worse. On lap 355, trying to dive to pit road, he bounced and collected Ricky Stenhouse Jr., bringing out the eleventh caution. By then, Wallace was tumbling through the order like a bowling pin.
Hamlin stayed out on old tires during that caution and predictably got eaten alive on the restart. Just a few laps later, Kyle Larson — usually Bristol’s master — slammed the inside wall after a run-in with Daniel Suarez. His Chevy limped off with a broken toe link, ending what had been a miserable night.
Then Hamlin himself imploded. He pitted on lap 384, only to have his right-front tire fall off as he rejoined the track. The result: Hamlin and AJ Allmendinger stuffed into the wall, and Hamlin’s bid for redemption literally rolled away.
The lead shuffled between Briscoe and Gibbs until green-flag stops on lap 436 went sideways. Briscoe pitted, Gibbs tried to follow but came in too hot, shot back onto the track, got hit, and had to limp around for another lap before finally getting service.
With less than 50 laps left, Brad Keselowski was leading, Bowman was praying for a miracle in fourth, and Austin Cindric’s Ford burst into flames in a carbon copy of Josh Berry’s earlier demise. That put Cindric on the Playoff bubble, giving Elliott faint hope and forced Bowman to throw a desperate Hail Mary. He pitted with 27 to go, rolling the dice.
Carson Hocevar grabbed the lead on lap 467 but pitted, handing it back to Keselowski. With 12 to go, Wallace’s nightmare ended in a wreck with Cole Custer, bringing out the 14th caution — the most in a Bristol night race since 2012.
That set up pure mayhem. With just eight cars on the lead lap, Hocevar, Zane Smith, and Bowman stayed out, gambling on glory. But when the green flew with four to go, they were all quickly swallowed up. Bell muscled through a three-wide battle and drove off into the night, stealing the win.
Keselowski, Zane Smith, Blaney, and Logano rounded out the top five. Briscoe, Gibbs, Hocevar, Bowman, and Corey Heim completed the top ten.
For Bowman, it wasn’t enough — he joined Austin Dillon, van Gisbergen, and Berry on the Playoff chopping block. The Round of 12 is set, with Hamlin the top seed followed by Larson and Byron as the series heads to New Hampshire.
Greg was a writer for DriveTribe supporting Amazon's The Grand Tour and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, and a Masters degree in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek and a regular contributor to Forbes.
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