Christopher Bell Earns 10th NASCAR Cup Series Win With Atlanta Overtime Triumph

Christopher Bell earned the 10th win of his NASCAR Cup Series career on Sunday, as he led Carson Hocevar and Kyle Larson when the caution flag flew on the final lap of the Ambetter Health 400 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Bell scored the win on an overtime restart, surging ahead of Larson on the outside line. Behind them, a crash involving Josh Berry, Justin Haley and Ryan Preece unfolded. When NASCAR officials displayed the yellow flag, Bell was ahead of both Hocevar and Larson, who finished second and third respectively.

“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 in a speedway,” said Bell. “You never know how those things are going to play out, but I’ll be the first to tell you, I love superspeedways.”

Bell qualified 32nd for the Ambetter Health 400, but persevered throughout the afternoon to work his way forward and put himself in contention for the victory.

Race Results: 2025 NASCAR Cup Series Ambetter Health 400 at Atlanta

“I don’t know. 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. 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.”

An incident among the leaders set up that overtime finish, ending the day early for both Austin Cindric and William Byron.

Cindric and Larson made contact exiting turn two while battling for the lead, which forced Cindric into the outside wall and collected Byron. Larson took fault for the incident after the race.

“Yeah, just a little bit of a lazy kind of up-the-track,” said Larson. “[Cindric] got there a little bit quicker than I thought he would. I thought he was going to pick me up on the exit at two. Yeah, that was probably my fault. I haven’t seen a replay, but I’m sure that was my fault.”

Larson maintained the lead on the overtime restart, while Hocevar split between Larson and Ross Chastain to contend for the win. That maneuver dropped Chastain to eighth in the final running order, while Hocevar was narrowly ahead of Larson for second-place at the time of the caution.

Several drivers spoke on pit road with Hocevar following the race for his involvement in various on-track clashes, including the late-race battle for the win as well as a spin for Ryan Blaney with 27 laps to go. While Hocevar did not share the contents of those conversations, he offered an apology to Larson and Hendrick Motorsports and acknowledged his inexperience at superspeedway racing.

“I’ll just leave those to myself, but first off, apologies to Larson and HMS, Mr. H, everybody,” said Hocevar. “They help us out a lot, and I didn’t realize we weren’t racing back to the line. The last two nights were kind of that way. I hit the 20 to get him out of the way and fill the middle. A little bit longer, maybe we win the race.

“I normally ride in the back and run last, and I tried to get a good, decent finish. For how bad we were at Daytona, there was no riding. Yeah, I mean, there’s some stuff I got to learn and clean up a little bit, but I feel like we put ourselves in the perfect opportunity to try and win a race. I’ve never had that opportunity really before, especially on a superspeedway.”

Larson, who has notably struggled at superspeedway racing, was largely pleased to come away with a podium finish and on-track when the checkered flag fell.

“Obviously, the 20 [of Bell] got to my right side, but I don’t know. I don’t know what I did wrong or right. I thought maybe the 20 picked me up. He was just going to push me and get clear of me into one anyway.

“I think it kind of worked out okay. Then, yeah, just didn’t get the caution to come out late enough until I got the run back to the inside. Came up a little bit short, but proud of the effort today by everybody on our HendrickCars.com Chevy. Yeah, finally finished at Atlanta and finally got to run up front.”

After a relatively calm first half of the race, including a caution-free first stage, several multi-car incidents shook up the field during the second half.

Last year’s Ambetter Health 400 winner, Daniel Suarez, was part of a lap 184 crash with Ty Gibbs. Cody Ware, Noah Gragson, Cole Custer and J.J. Yeley were also collected in that wreck.

Before that, Chase Elliott and Brad Keselowski wrecked just before the conclusion of stage two. Contact between Chase Briscoe and Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. sent Stenhouse up the race track into Elliott on the exit of turn four, triggering that incident.

The next event for the NASCAR Cup Series is the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas on Sunday, March 2. The race begins at 3:30 p.m. ET, with coverage on FOX, PRN, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

-Photo credit: LAT for Toyota Racing