Bell Wins At Bristol; Playoffs Move to 2nd Round

The 2025 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs’ first round has hit its cutoff, once again being marked by one of the most grueling races on the schedule – an event that many still consider to be in the debate to be one of the sport’s crown jewel events.

Of course, I am referring to the Bass Pro Shops Bristol Night Race. The annual high speed and high-stakes September battle at the .588-mile high-banked oval as of late has proven to be difficult to figure out. Not necessarily for the drivers – Kyle Larson and Denny Hamlin have both put together “old-fashioned butt whippings” in this race over the last 2 years. But, for many, the artform of navigating traffic with ease while preserving your equipment over the course of a 500 lap race goes unappreciated. Fans and even some of the drivers – understandably so – prefer the on-track racing product NASCAR and Goodyear have repeatedly failed to replicate back in the 2023 Spring race here where tires get corded within 20-30 laps of overtly aggressive driving.

The “unicorn” race back in March of 2023 was one that cannot be easily duplicated due to a predominant theory that the track surface is just too sensitive to ambient temperatures – particularly when it is cooler out. It is also worth noting that the accidental softness of the tire attributed to a defective rubber compound ground up to make them, has not been replicated despite many tries. Goodyear has run several tire tests on varying types of tracks since, each time adjusting the hardness or softness of the tire compound to increase or decrease tire wear based on the feedback of the drivers. While that approach has helped NASCAR make drastic strides to improve the racing on other tracks such as North Wilkesboro, Richmond, and Iowa, Bristol has continually proven to be a mystery.

This time around, the engineers at Goodyear used data rather than a live tire test at Bristol in the leadup to Saturday night’s event, unable to do so because of Major League Baseball’s Speedway Classic held a month prior. Nonetheless, they crafted a softer right side tire while NASCAR applied PJ1– a sticky substance often applied to the preferred groove of a track to encourage drivers to use that line rather than waiting for the track to rubber up – hoping that paired with cooler temps in the mid to upper 70s, the fans would leave the Tennessee hills satisfied with what they saw rather than inclined to complain.

In a shocking twist, the buildup to Saturday night produced a few storylines. AJ Allmendinger – often touted as a road course and superspeedway kind of driver – won the pole ahead of Ryan Blaney. Perhaps even more shockingly, an extreme dark horse non-playoff driver emerged in practice. Spire Motorsports’ Justin Haley was among the fastest, clocking a 15.307 second lap (tying him with Blaney for single lap speed), and also managed the best 10-lap long run average in Friday’s practice session – 124.045 MPH top speed over a span from his 2nd to 11th laps.

As the green flag dropped on the main event, it quickly became evident that Goodyear did in fact, finally manage to replicate the wear the “mistake” tire from the Spring of 2023 showed. Within 40 laps, the area up near the wall in turn 4 was littered with “marbles” – shreds of tire rubber that can cause drivers to lose control quickly if they find themselves up in them. Not only that, but after green flag pit stops, you could physically see the shredding fiberglass in the tire lining.

“They are trying to make the tires wear a lot more. I’d say they did it”, said JGR 20 team Crew Chief Adam Stevens in jest about the tire situation in this race. “If that is what we have to look forward to every week, it is going to shorten the lifespans of some people. After practice, I would have bet my house that we were going to have a normal Bristol race with long green flag runs where we get through the stages with ease. It became evident very early on tonight that it was not going to be the case. That is not to say that a race like tonight is not fun to run, but it would have been a lot more fun if we expected it.”

With the knowledge they needed to save tires as best they can, the drivers began to pace themselves and ride the bottom line for a while until they could get to the end of stage one, which was won by Ryan Blaney. But not before some “playoff chaos” struck. Josh Berry saw his abysmal playoff run end with a DNF due to his right front tire overheating and catching fire, which brought out the race’s first caution at lap 80. At lap 90, Alex Bowman, who also entered the day below the cutline, got loose at the bottom and came up the track into Riley Herbst, sending the 48 around. When things got back green for a sprint to the finish, Blaney took advantage of traffic to make a last lap pass on Ty Gibbs to secure the critical stage points.

The second stanza of the race was much less subdued/conservative. On the restart, Ty Gibbs got a nice jump in the restart zone. But, Bubba Wallace went from third to first down the backstretch to take a brief lead. Two laps later, the opposite happened with Gibbs going to the lead and Wallace dropping back to third. The stage saw the first of several yellows at lap 146 when Ricky Stenhouse Jr got loose in turn four and ended up sideways, causing Michael McDowell and Erik Jones to spin trying to avoid him with the trio coming to rest at the start/finish line. As the stage neared its end, playoff chaos hit another driver below the cut line when Shane Van Gisbergen got turned around by William Byron. That set up a short sprint to the green and white checker, with Ty Gibbs going on to claim the bonus point for winning the stage.

The final 235 laps would prove to be the most chaotic of the night as the track temps continued to drop and the tires began to unravel almost as quickly as the pit crews could get them on. Gibbs continued to lead for much of the early going, but following another Van Gisbergen spin, Chase Briscoe eventually was able to run down Gibbs on the back straightaway on the ensuing restart to claim the lead. He held on through a bevy of caution flags – a spin from Cole Custer that broke his toe link after contact with Ty Dillon, a Noah Gragson solo spin, and some chaos for Chase Elliott – who was turned after trying to fall back in line ahead of John Hunter Nemechek. The stack up caused Denny Hamlin to run into the back of Nemechek and subsequently force Elliott up the track nose first into the wall, which would ultimately end the 9 team’s night.

That was not all of the playoff chaos to strike down the stretch. Bubba Wallace got into Ricky Stenhouse Jr not realizing that the 47 was trying to come to pit road, turning him around. A short while later, Kyle Larson got into the outside wall and broke a toe link after running into Daniel Suarez. Larson’s inability to steer meant he came back down and hit the inside wall hard to prompt a yellow even though he eventually wheeled it to pit road. After another short green flag run, Denny Hamlin had a tire come loose and sever his brake rotor which caused him to run into Aj Allmendinger before hitting the wall, ending his race.

The laps ran under that caution made for the most under yellow in a single race since Martinsville back in the Spring of 2000. So naturally, it would mean one more at a time that completely wrecked the race strategies in play at the time. In the middle of what was supposed to be the final green flag stop cycle of the night, where many took just right side tires and fuel, Chase Briscoe gave up the lead with 16 to go. Brad Keselowski assumed the top spot from there, attempting to gamble and stay out to try and steal a win. But, with 12 laps left, Bubba Wallace was sent into the wall by contact from the 41 of Custer, who was sent up the track by Keselowski.

Carson Hocevar took just right side tires on his stop, which put him in position to get his first win but on the final restart as the field was going through turns 1 and 2, Christopher Bell, who took the green in 4th, made a power move past the guys ahead of him on more worn tires to steal a win, capping a clean sweep for Joe Gibbs Racing and Toyota in all three races in the opening round of the playoffs and making for his first win since taking the Daytona 500 and Ambetter Health 400 (Atlanta) back to back to start the season.

“A lot of fortune went into winning this race”, said Bell of the win. “You had to have luck with pit strategy and having tires available. Adam (Stevens) made all the right calls. Those last three laps were not the prettiest we have run. I got the lead and we were on just right side tires. I could not get my car to stick on the bottom. I tried to stay under the tires knowing Brad (Keselowski) was going to bump me. Luckily I was able to hold on.I don’t know if it is the right word to say I stole this one. There were a lot of guys in the same position as me. But we were fortunate to come out on top.”

Joe Gibbs Racing essentially swept the night save for the first stage with multiple laps led by every JGR driver except for Denny Hamlin, furthering the narrative that the road to the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series championship runs through JGR. Even if Joe Gibbs Racing doesn’t win the championship, it could still be said that any Toyota team could win it if we are basing things on how the playoffs have started out.

‘We have a lot of good things going on for us right now”, said Gibbs. “But as we all know, in our sport, it all starts over again in 6 days.”

Christopher Bell reflected that in his postrace comments.

“The Toyotas are all running well right now – 23XI, JGR, even Legacy Motor Club. That is the good news. The bad news is that we aren’t running Phoenix next week. It’s a long way to go to get there and as everybody knows, it is going to be a hard road. I’m glad we got this one tonight because winning is everything and that is what it is all about. It fixes everything, it is a huge morale boost. But, in the end, tonight means nothing when you look at what we have the rest of the season. There is nothing you can take from tonight and apply it to the rest of the year.”

With round one in the books, Alex Bowman, Austin Dillon, Shane Van Gisbergen, and Josh Berry are eliminated. With the reseeding of the points after each round, Denny Hamlin is the leader in the playoff points with 26. Kyle Larson is 2 points back tied with William Byron, Bell is 6 points back, Blaney sits at 7 behind, Briscoe is 16 off, Chase Elliott is 21 away, and Bubba Wallace is just 1 point above the cut line. Austin Cindric is 1 point below the line, Joey Logano is 2 in the negative tied with Ross Chastain, and Tyler Reddick is 3 under.

The round of 12 begins next week as the series heads north to Loudon, New Hampshire for the Mobil 1 301. The green flag is set to drop at 2:00 PM on Sunday, September 21st with television coverage on USA Network.