Christopher Bell passed Kyle Larson on the final lap to win in overtime at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
The yellow flag flew with Bell just ahead of Carson Hocevar, who had nosed ahead of Larson for a career-best second place.
Bell, 30, earned his first victory on a drafting superspeedway (Atlanta, Daytona and Talladega) in his 28th start on those types of tracks.
It was the 10th career victory in Cup for the No. 20 Toyota driver, who led only the final lap on the 1.54-mile oval — the last of 15 leaders who accounted for a track-record 50 lead changes.
“I’ll tell you what, that right there is what you dream of, to be able to restart on the first or second row in a green-white-checkered on a speedway,” Bell told Fox’s Jamie Little. “You never know how those things are going to play out, but I’ll be the first to tell you, I love superspeedway.
What drivers said after Atlanta Cup race won by Christopher Bell
Here is what drivers were talking about after Sunday’s NASCAR Cup race at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
“This style of racing has just always been a little bit of a struggle for me, and throughout the beginning of the day, we obviously were just stuck way in the back. (Crew chief) Adam (Stevens) and these boys back here, they did an amazing job getting this thing fixed up to where I could just hold my foot down. That’s what it’s all about. You have to be able to stay in the throttle, and that last half of the race we were at our best.”
With Bell pushing him from the second row, Larson chose the outside for the final two-lap restart and took the lead over Ross Chastain. But Bell surged into first on the outside with a push from Hocevar, who slid into the middle lane ahead of Larson as the final yellow flew.
“I don’t know what I did wrong or right,” Larson told Fox , who ended a streak of crashing in six consecutive races at Atlanta. “I thought maybe (Bell) would pick me up. He was going to push me and get clear into (Turn) 1 anyway. I think it kind of worked out OK. And I just didn’t get the caution to come out late enough until I got the run back to the inside (to take the lead). Came up a little bit short but proud of the effort today. Finally finished at Atlanta and finally got to run up front.”
Ryan Blaney, who rebounded from falling to 23rd after being spun by Hocevar with 22 laps remaining, rallied for fourth, and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was fifth.
Hocevar was confronted by Blaney and eighth-place finisher Ross Chastain for animated discussions in which the Cup veterans took issue with the second-year driver for Spire Motorsports.
“I’ll leave those to myself,” Hocevar said when asked about those discussions by Fox’s Regan Smith. “Apologies to Larson and HMS and Mr. H and everyone. They helped us out a lot, I didn’t realize we weren’t racing back to the line. The last two nights were kind of that way, and I hit (Bell) to get him out of the way and fill the middle. Little bit longer, maybe we win the race.
“I normally ride in the back and run last and try to get a decent finish. For how bad we were at Daytona, that was no riding. There’s some stuff I’ve got to learn and clean up a little bit, but I feel like we’ve put ourselves in the perfect opportunity to try to win a race. I’ve never had that opportunity before. Especially on a superspeedway. Just big thanks to everyone at Spire Motorsports. They deserve all the praise. I just get to hold the wheel and run wide open and try to put myself in a decent spot. Unfortunately it was just one spot short.”
The race went past the 400-mile distance when Larson squeezed Austin Cindric into the Turn 2 wall while taking the lead on Lap 258. Cindric spun down the track and collected William Byron, who crashed after being in position to win after collecting his second consecutive Daytona 500 victory last week.
“Not clear. Awesome,” Cindric sarcastically radioed his team after the No. 2 Ford came to a stop.
“(Cindric) got there quicker than I thought he would,” Larson said. “I haven’t seen the replay, but I’m sure that was my fault.”
Stage 1 winner: Josh Berry
Stage 2 winner: Kyle Larson
Next: Circuit of the Americas, Sunday, March 2, 3:30 p.m. ET, Fox
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