BRISTOL, Tenn. — Joe Gibbs Racing completed a clean sweep of the first round in the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs as Christopher Bell charged to a victory Saturday night at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Bell went from fourth to first on the final restart and led the last four laps at the 0.533-mile oval, ending a 24-race winless streak with his fourth victory of the season.
“It wasn’t pretty there at the end, but we got her done,” said Bell, who led only 12 laps in what was the 13th victory of his career on NASCAR’s top level. “We just know that any given week, it could be us, and it hasn’t been for a long time. But Bristol, baby, tonight it’s us.”
He joined JGR teammates Denny Hamlin and Chase Briscoe as playoff winners with the first round concluding at Bristol. Alex Bowman of Hendrick Motorsports, Austin Dillon of Richard Childress Racing, Shane van Gisbergen of Trackhouse Racing and Josh Berry of Wood Brothers Racing were eliminated from the 10-race championship run, reducing the postseason’s initial field of 16 contenders to a dozen heading into another three-race round that will drop four more drivers.
“Just so excited about the start to the playoffs,” NASCAR Hall of Fame team owner Joe Gibbs said.
Bell finished less than a half-second (0.343) ahead of RFK Racing driver and co-owner Brad Keselowski, who was trying to end a 51-race winless streak. The 41-year-old Keselowski, the 2012 Cup Series champion, led 33 laps Saturday in his No. 6 Ford.
“Just the story of our season,” Keselowski said. “Just a 50-50 shot on the restart, and I got the lane that couldn’t launch. Just frustrating. We had a great car, great strategy, and on the last restart, we just rolled the dice and didn’t get anything good.”
Zane Smith was next across the finish line for Front Row Motorsports, followed by Team Penske drivers Ryan Blaney and Joey Logano — the reigning Cup Series champion — as a trio of Fords completed the top five at Bristol. Corey Heim was sixth in a 23XI Racing Toyota, while Carson Hocevar’s seventh-place finish for Spire Motorsports was the best result for any Chevrolet driver.
There were a season-high 14 caution flags for 137 laps as drivers and teams struggled to get a handle on a new right-side tire with excessive wear that required more pit stops.
The playoff drama spiked with 40 laps remaining when a fire erupted under Austin Cindric’s Team Penske No. 2 Ford. His pit crew was able to extinguish the flames, but Cindric lost several laps in the process and reemerged outside the top 30.
His 30th-place finish still was good enough for the 12th and final transfer spot into the second round.
“Moving on,” Cindric said. “I believe in this team. I believe in myself. I have not been driving as well as I am now in the Cup Series.”
Bowman ran as high as second after rebounding from a spin on the 100th lap. He would have bumped Cindric with a victory but finished eighth and came up 10 points short of advancing.
“I don’t think you can really point at something that cost us,” said Bowman, who benefited from a crew overhaul after suffering through some disastrous pit stops in the first two playoff races. “Our back was against the wall coming in here. We knew it was going to be a tough thing to do.”
JGR’s Ty Gibbs, seeking his first Cup Series victory in his third full-time season driving for the team owned by his grandfather, led a race-high 201 of 500 laps but bungled while trying to reach the pits for his final green-flag stop, losing major time in his No. 54 Toyota.
Meanwhile, with smoke billowing from the cockpit and flames shooting out from his right front tire, Berry made an eye-catching exit as the first driver eliminated. He had qualified 10th Friday and ran as high as third before a fire erupted on his No. 21 Ford.
“Man, just so disappointing,” Berry said. “That was going to be a lot of fun. We were moving forward. It’s been a tough couple of weeks, but it hasn’t been because of performance. We executed well and ran well; just haven’t had the finishes.”
Berry, whose playoff debut began with a crash on the first lap of the Southern 500 two weeks ago at South Carolina’s Darlington Raceway, finished last in all three races in the first round.
I don’t think you could ever script three last-place finishes in the ways that we’ve gotten them,” he said.
Despite four wins in the regular season — three of them on permanent road courses and the other on a temporary street circuit in downtown Chicago — van Gisbergen was eliminated with three consecutive finishes of 25th or worse. The 36-year-old Cup Series rookie, who is inexperienced on ovals after winning three championships in the Australian-based Supercars Championship touring car series, placed 26th at Bristol after spinning twice.
“It’s a privilege to be here, but also pissed at myself,” van Gisbergen said. “The last few weeks, I just haven’t been good enough. I’ve been really doing well getting better at ovals, and I just haven’t performed the last couple of weeks. I blame myself at the moment, but thanks to the Trackhouse team, we’ve had an awesome year.”
Bell typically has a low-key demeanor, but he blasted his team and its strategy with a vulgarity-laced tirade after finishing seventh in the prior race at World Wide Technology Raceway last Sunday. Bell, who was without a top-five finish since July, said he was frustrated after watching teammates Hamlin and Briscoe win the first two races of the playoffs.
“If I was consistently leading laps and in position to win, then I would never have been frustrated,” Bell said. “But the fact of the matter is I haven’t been in position to win races, I haven’t led laps. My teammates are leading it seems like almost every lap, and they’re getting the results. It’s less about winning races and more about being in position to do well, and we haven’t had that.”
The NASCAR Cup Series playoffs will open the second round at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Sunday, Sept. 21. It’s the first Cup Series race at the 1.058-mile oval since June 2024 and the first playoff race at the track in Loudon since September 2017.