With a charge to the lead from fifth place with four laps left in Saturday’s Bass Pro Shops Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway, Christopher Bell kept Joe Gibbs Racing and Toyota perfect in the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs.
Bell survived a hard, square shot to his rear bumper from Brad Keselowski in the final corner and steered straight to the finish line, 0.343 seconds ahead of the Roush Fenway Keselowski co-owner and driver.
Joining JGR teammates Chase Briscoe and Denny Hamlin as winners in the Playoff’s Round of 16, Bell advanced to the Round of 12, which begins Sept. 21 at one of his best tracks, New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
The race marked the end of the Playoffs for the four drivers who came to Thunder Valley below the elimination line—Alex Bowman, Austin Dillon, Shane van Gisbergen and Josh Berry.
Of the four, only Bowman made a significant charge, finishing 10 points below Austin Cindric, the final Round of 12 qualifier.
Six days after complaining bitterly about strategy in a seventh-place finish at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway, Bell was back on top, scoring his fourth victory of the season, his first at Bristol and the 13th of his career.
On fresh right-side tires after a pit stop on Lap 491, the driver of No. 20 Camry took the lead from fifth on Lap 497 of 500 and kept Keselowski, on four new tires, at bay for the duration, even though Keselowski got to Bell’s rear bumper on the final circuit.
With new, softer right-side tires supplied by Goodyear for the race, the extent of tire wear was a shock the drivers and crew chiefs.
“Well, I'll tell you what, I was nervous on the twos (tires),” Bell said. “I didn't know if I wanted to be on the bottom or the top, and whenever Brad picked the top (lane) didn't really give me an option. I had to pick the bottom.
“All night long, I don't know, old tires just really, really pushed up in the middle of the corners, so I was hoping that those guys (starting ahead of him) on old tires would push up, and they did. They did, and I was able to get by or get underneath them.
“It wasn't pretty there at the end, but we got her done.”
Keselowski rued his pick of the top lane for the final restart.
“Just the story of our season, just a 50/50 shot on the restart and I got the lane that couldn't launch,” Keselowski said. “Just frustrating. We had a great car, great strategy, put ourselves in position to, if not win, at least have a really, really solid day, and on that last restart, (we) just rolled the dice and didn't get anything good.”
Bell’s teammate, Ty Gibbs, led a race-high 201 laps, but overshot his pit stall on the last green-flag stop and finished 10th. Briscoe was out front for 127 laps and finished ninth after a late green-flag stop for fresh tires.
Non-Playoff driver Zane Smith ran third, followed by Team Penske title contenders Ryan Blaney and Joey Logano. Part-timer Corey Heim scored a career-best sixth, followed by non-Playoff driver Carson Hocevar and Bowman.
For practical purposes, most of the Round of 16 eliminations were settled early. On Lap 75, Josh Berry brought his No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford to pit road with smoke from the right-front wheel well filling the cockpit.
Berry climbed from the car, finishing last for the third straight event, out of the race and out of the Playoffs.
“It’s hard to put into words, but I’d be way more disappointed if we just ran like crap for three weeks,” said Berry, who had qualified 10th and moved forward from his starting spot. “We’ve been up front. We’ve qualified well. We had the issue at Darlington, bottoming out. Last week, we got clipped by the 9 (Chase Elliott), and then tonight the car catches on fire…
“Honestly, I think the way that was playing out we would have 100 percent had a chance to win tonight.”
By the time Berry exited, Austin Dillon, who entered the race 11 points below the cut line, already had experienced severe cording of his right-side tires. Dillon pitted on Lap 28 and compounded his issues with a pit road speeding penalty.
Dillon was 30th at the end of Stage 1, the last driver one lap down, with little hope of remaining in the Playoffs. By the end of Stage 2, he was two laps down in 33rd. Dillon finished 28th, missing the Round of 12 by 14 points.
Shane van Gisbergen, 15 points down at the start of the race, steadily lost ground throughout the first two stages. The coup de grace for the New Zealander was a spin in Turn 4 after a bump from William Byron.
Another spin and a 26th-place finish left the Sunoco rookie 16 points behind Cindric in his first trip to the postseason.
Of the drivers who started below the cut line, only Bowman mounted a concerted threat. Recovering from a spin on Lap 100, the driver of the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet surged forward on new tires and finished third behind Ty Gibbs and Ryan Blaney in Stage 2.
Bowman had come to Bristol 35 points down, but with the eight points he collected in the second stage, he moved to 11 points behind Ross Chastain for the final transfer spot into the Round of 12 for the start of the final stage.
“I thought our car when he had some green flag running was really good, it just cycled really poorly for re-starts," Bowman said. “I would drive off into Turn One and just hope to make the corner. For whatever reason it just wouldn’t take off and then after five laps, it’d get going again. We couldn’t figure it out, if it was me not cleaning the tires off enough. … I don’t really know what we lacked there.
“But proud of everybody at Hendrick Motorsports for the fight. Obviously, had a shot at it if it had gone green to the end. That last re-start was rough."
Chastain recovered a lost lap and finished 19th, preserving his berth in the Round of 12, but Cindric had a close call when his right-front wheel well started spewing flames on Lap 457. Cindric lost five laps on pit road, as Bowman closed with a point of the transfer spot, but the gap widened in the closing laps.
Chase Elliott crashed on Lap 311 after contact with John Hunter Nemechek’s Toyota and finished 38th, but the Hendrick driver had enough of a cushion to move on to the Round of 12.
Other drivers advancing to the next Playoff round on points were Blaney, William Byron, Kyle Larson, Bubba Wallace, Tyler Reddick and Logano.
The NASCAR Cup Series will start the next three round Playoff series Sunday with the Mobil 1 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway (2 p.m. ET on USA Network, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) where Bell is the defending race winner.
- Story by NASCAR Newswire
NASCAR Cup Series Race - Bass Pro Shops Night Race
Bristol Motor Speedway
Bristol, Tennessee
Saturday, September 13, 2025
- (9) Christopher Bell (P), Toyota, 500.
- (18) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 500.
- (24) Zane Smith, Ford, 500.
- (2) Ryan Blaney (P), Ford, 500.
- (22) Joey Logano (P), Ford, 500.
- (38) Corey Heim(i), Toyota, 500.
- (12) Carson Hocevar, Chevrolet, 500.
- (15) Alex Bowman (P), Chevrolet, 500.
- (31) Chase Briscoe (P), Toyota, 500.
- (4) Ty Gibbs, Toyota, 500.
- (21) Chris Buescher, Ford, 500.
- (7) William Byron (P), Chevrolet, 500.
- (17) Justin Haley, Chevrolet, 500.
- (19) John Hunter Nemechek, Toyota, 499.
- (14) Tyler Reddick (P), Toyota, 499.
- (32) Kyle Busch, Chevrolet, 499.
- (25) Michael McDowell, Chevrolet, 499.
- (29) Riley Herbst #, Toyota, 499.
- (13) Ross Chastain (P), Chevrolet, 499.
- (27) Erik Jones, Toyota, 499.
- (20) Ryan Preece, Ford, 499.
- (11) Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Chevrolet, 499.
- (30) Noah Gragson, Ford, 498.
- (36) Todd Gilliland, Ford, 498.
- (33) Austin Hill(i), Chevrolet, 497.
- (28) Shane Van Gisbergen # (P), Chevrolet, 497.
- (37) Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, 497.
- (23) Austin Dillon (P), Chevrolet, 496.
- (34) Cody Ware, Ford, 496.
- (3) Austin Cindric (P), Ford, 496.
- (6) Denny Hamlin (P), Toyota, 495.
- (5) Kyle Larson (P), Chevrolet, 495.
- (26) Cole Custer, Ford, 488.
- (8) Bubba Wallace (P), Toyota, Accident, 487.
- (39) Chad Finchum, Ford, Brakes, 458.
- (1) AJ Allmendinger, Chevrolet, Steering, 408.
- (35) Daniel Suarez, Chevrolet, Accident, 364.
- (16) Chase Elliott (P), Chevrolet, Accident, 311.
- (10) Josh Berry (P), Ford, Brakes, 75.
Average Speed of Race Winner: 69.686 mph.
Time of Race: 3 Hrs, 48 Mins, 10 Secs. Margin of Victory: .343 Seconds.
Caution Flags: 14 for 137 laps.
Lead Changes: 36 among 14 drivers.
Lap Leaders: A. Allmendinger 1-23;T. Gibbs 24-30;R. Blaney (P) 31-48;A. Cindric (P) 49-56;R. Blaney (P) 57-62;T. Gibbs 63-123;R. Blaney (P) 124-129;A. Allmendinger 130;T. Gibbs 131-137;*. Wallace (P) 138-141;T. Gibbs 142-209;C. Hocevar 210;A. Cindric (P) 211-212;A. Bowman (P) 213-216;C. Hocevar 217-227;T. Gibbs 228-240;A. Bowman (P) 241;R. Stenhouse Jr. 242-246;T. Gibbs 247-276;C. Briscoe (P) 277-323;*. Wallace (P) 324-331;C. Briscoe (P) 332-356;C. Bell (P) 357;D. Hamlin (P) 358-360;C. Briscoe (P) 361-415;T. Gibbs 416-430;C. Bell (P) 431-436;B. Keselowski 437-438;*. Smith 439-442;J. Logano (P) 443-449;B. Keselowski 450-465;C. Hocevar 466-474;*. Smith 475;B. Keselowski 476-490;C. Bell (P) 491;C. Hocevar 492-496;C. Bell (P) 497-500.
Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led): Ty Gibbs 7 times for 201 laps; Chase Briscoe (P) 3 times for 127 laps; Brad Keselowski 3 times for 33 laps; Ryan Blaney (P) 3 times for 30 laps; Carson Hocevar 4 times for 26 laps; AJ Allmendinger 2 times for 24 laps; * Bubba Wallace (P) 2 times for 12 laps; Christopher Bell (P) 4 times for 12 laps; Austin Cindric (P) 2 times for 10 laps; Joey Logano (P) 1 time for 7 laps; * Zane Smith 2 times for 5 laps; Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 1 time for 5 laps; Alex Bowman (P) 2 times for 5 laps; Denny Hamlin (P) 1 time for 3 laps.
Stage #1 Top Ten: 12,54,24,23,38,17,16,6,42,47
Stage #2 Top Ten: 54,12,48,6,77,2,17,23,38,11
