DAYTONA BEACH, Florida – Christopher Bell followed Joey Logano on Sunday on the winding Daytona Road for his first career Cup victory and a coveted place in the NASCAR playoffs.
Bell won the second race at Joe Gibbs Racing to give the team a surprising pair of victories at Daytona International Speedway. Ty Gibbs, the 18-year-old grandson of the team’s owner, Joe Gibbs, won the Xfinity Series race on Saturday night in his first national career series start.
Bell’s victory was not as amazing, but he still managed to become much earlier than expected in returning to JGR. He was loaned to Leavine Family Racing last year for his debut season, but Gibbs brought him back to JGR this year.
He gave Bell a competitive Toyota, but a victory soon was an important question.
“This is one of the most important moments of my life,” Bell said. “I prepared my whole life for this moment to compete in the Cup Series, last year was such a learning curve for me. I am very grateful that I had the opportunity to run in the Cup and I certainly prepared to go to Joe Gibbs Racing. “
Bell had an unpleasant debut season driving for Leavine, with only seven places in the top 10 in Toyotas, as strong as Gibbs’ four-car fleet. Now driving some of the best cars in NASCAR, Bell joined Daytona 500 winner Michael McDowell as the winning surprise for the first time to start the season.
It is only the third time in NASCAR history that the first two races of the season have been won by the winners for the first time. It was previously made in 1949 and 1950 – the first two seasons of NASCAR.
Bell and McDowell now have two of the coveted 16 playoff berths, a worrying trend for mid-season teams that need all 26 regular-season races to indicate their position in the league. The winners of the race win automatic berths, and the remaining places are determined according to the ranking of points.
“Having Christopher in the playoffs is a big deal,” said Joe Gibbs. “We don’t take that for granted.”
Meanwhile, McDowell claimed his Daytona 500 win with the best run of his career in eighth place.
Bell had to drive away Logano, who had built up a decent advantage on the field, but couldn’t stop Bell once he caught him. Logano finished second; last week, he and his teammate Brad Keselowski crashed into a race for the Daytona 500 victory.
“I hate being so close,” Logano said.
Denny Hamlin was the third to give Gibbs two cars in the top three. Kurt Busch finished fourth, and Keselowski finished fifth for a decent return for Penske.
Keselowski and Logano, before the race, had their first interaction since crashing in the last lap, competing with each other to win the Daytona 500 a week ago.
“We are as good as we can be,” Keselowski said.
Kevin Harvick finished sixth and AJ Allmendinger, in his first Cup race at the end of the 2018 season, finished seventh. It was the highest score of three Cup races for Kaulig Racing, a team from the Xfinity series formed in 2016, which wants to be a full-time Cup next season.
Ryan Preece was ninth for a top-10 pair at Daytona. JTG-Daugherty Racing no longer has a charter to guarantee Preece a place on the field every week and without this the team cannot promise to compete every week this season. With this start, Preece is currently ranked seventh in the points standings.
Chase Elliott again had the most dominant car, but his string of four consecutive road races with points was broken. He drove 45 laps in the races and came out on top when the rain precaution 15 laps from the end forced Hendrick Motorsports to make a strategic call.
Elliott changed position on the track with new tires, took the lead and dropped to 15th. He went to fifth, but turned when he got behind Kurt Busch. Elliott finished 21st.
“Such precautions make a mixed bag, who stays and who leaves, it’s a bit of a gamble,” Elliott said. “I thought the tires were the right move. But you go back into traffic again and it gets so chaotic and just depending on who’s passing (traffic) and who’s not determining how they’re shaking.”