June 22, 2024 | By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service

Christopher Bell goes four-for-four in Xfinity Series at New Hampshire

LOUDON, N.H. — Christopher Bell kept it dramatic at New Hampshire Motor Speedway Saturday afternoon, relying on a last lap pass in overtime to claim the SciAps 200 victory – giving him a perfect four-for-four track record in NASCAR Xfinity Series races at the 1.058-mile track.

Bell’s No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota pulled off a daring three-wide move with two corners to go and ultimately pulled away to a .254-second win over fellow JGR team driver Sheldon Creed. The runner-up showing for the Xfinity Series championship contender Creed was the 10th of his career, tying him with NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Jarrett and former series champion Daniel Hemric for most runner-up finishes before a series win.

Bell, a fulltime NASCAR Cup Series competitor for JGR who has already scored two wins in the sport’s premier series this year, now ties Xfinity Series regular A.J. Allmendinger with four Xfinity Series wins in four starts at a single track – and is the fourth different driver to earn a victory in the No. 20 JGR Toyota this season. It is Bell’s 18th win in the NASCAR Xfinity Series scoring his wins at New Hampshire in 2018, ’19, ’21 and now 2024.

“I was just really fortunate, that’s for sure,” said Bell of that race-winning pass on Creed. “I feel so bad for Sheldon. He’s been really, really close to winning these things and today he did everything right to win that race. He re-started in the right lane and gave Cole [Custer] a good push. And coming to the white flag, he got Cole loose and that’s what opened the door for me.

“Very fortunate to keep my undefeated streak alive,” he continued with a smile. “We got really lucky there.”

Despite the recurring near-misses, Creed offered a smile and insisted he was encouraged that a win was close.

“I don’t know, running out of ways to lose them,” Creed said, mustering a smile before adding, “I can think of a million things I could do, that is not a stat I wanted to tie, 10 seconds before a win. …but overall, a great day and proud of everyone at Joe Gibbs Racing. Been in the hunt the past four weeks so just going to keep working hard at it.”

Stewart-Haas Racing’s Custer led the most laps on the day – 114 of the 203 total – and finished third despite having the lead on that final overtime restart. The result was tough to take, but big picture, still good enough to keep him in the NASCAR Xfinity Series championship lead by 15 points now over JGR’s Chandler Smith, who finished 15th.

While the reigning series champion Custer was out front for much of the overcast New England day – he was forced to hold off the field in four restarts in the final 22 laps hoping to claim that first victory of the season. He leaves without a trophy, but won his third stage of the season and maintains that championship advantage.

“I would have done the same thing, you know, you’re racing for the win, it is what it is,” Custer said of the tight racing between him and Creed competing for the win on the final lap. “Man, it just stings. I felt like we had the best car of the day. And that’s not easy to do at these flat short tracks.

“Our guys brought such a fast car. But you get put in those late race restarts, eventually it’s probably not going to go your way. But I’m gonna re-live what I could have done.

“Just gotta keep digging,” he continued. “We’ve got the points lead, just gotta keep knocking on the door.”

JR Motorsports’ Justin Allgaier rallied to finish fourth with teammate, 21-year-old rookie Carson Kvapil rounding out the top-five. He led 24 laps and used pit strategy to run among the leaders late in the race, which featured 15 lead changes among 10 drivers.

Ryan Sieg, Parker Kligerman, Riley Herbst, Alex Bowman and Cory Heim rounded out the top-10 with season-long title-contenders Smith finishing 15th and Austin Hill, 25th – both being involved in incidents.

Justin Bonsignore finished 23rd in his series debut, but that finishing position was not indicative of his afternoon work. He won his third NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour race at New Hampshire Saturday morning and then impressively ran among the top-five in the Xfinity Series all afternoon – making a bold outside pass at one point early in the race to get into the top-five after starting 25th in the 38-car field.

He was ultimately collected in a late race incident that diminished his finish, but he still climbed out of his No. 19 JGR Toyota feeling rightly encouraged – his Modified team trackside cheering him on.

“Just really good pace and unfortunate we got turned around here,” Bonsignore said. “We had good pace all day long and just wished it would have stayed green there [at the end]. We were fifth and right there with Sheldon [Creed]. It’s tough. These late race restarts bunch everyone up, but all in all it was a great experience. … Hopefully we can put something together and do some more.”

The NASCAR Xfinity Series moves to Nashville Superspeedway for next Saturday’s Tennessee Lottery 250 (5 p.m. ET, USA Network, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Allmendinger is the defending race winner.


NASCAR Xfinity Series Race Number 16
Race Results for the Sci Aps 200 - Saturday, June 22, 2024
New Hampshire Motor Speedway - Loudon, NH - 1.058 - Mile Paved

Total Race Length - 203 Laps - 214.774 Miles

Provided by NASCAR Statistics - Saturday, 6/22/2024 @ 07:30 PM Eastern

Fin Str Car Driver Team Laps Stage 1 Pos Stage 2 Pos Pts Status Tms Laps Playoff Pts
1 23 20 Christopher Bell(i) Mobil 1 Toyota 203  1 0 Running 2 43
2 5 18 Sheldon Creed Friends of Jaclyn Foundation Toyota 203  4 42 Running 1 1
3 1 00 Cole Custer Haas Automation Ford 203  3 42 Running 5 114
4 12 7 Justin Allgaier BRANDT Chevrolet 203 5 6 44 Running  
5 38 88 Carson Kvapil Clarience Technologies Chevrolet 203 7  36 Running 2 24
6 9 39 Ryan Sieg Sci Aps Ford 203 8  34 Running  
7 8 48 Parker Kligerman Spiked Lite Coolers Chevrolet 203  10 31 Running  
8 4 98 Riley Herbst Monster Energy Ford 203 3  37 Running  
9 37 17 Alex Bowman(i) HendrickCars.com Chevrolet 203 6  0 Running  
10 7 26 Corey Heim(i) Yahoo! Toyota 203  7 0 Running  
11 22 16 AJ Allmendinger Campers Inn RV Chevrolet 203 4  33 Running  
12 6 8 Sammy Smith Pilot Flying J Chevrolet 203 2  34 Running 1 3
13 15 2 Jesse Love # Whelen Chevrolet 203   24 Running 1 3
14 29 9 Brandon Jones Menards/Watts Chevrolet 203  8 26 Running  
15 2 81 Chandler Smith Smith General Contracting Toyota 203  5 28 Running 1 1
16 21 44 Brennan Poole Frontline Fire Protection Chevrolet 203   21 Running  
17 20 27 Jeb Burton Bommarito.com Chevrolet 203 9  22 Running  
18 28 97 Shane Van Gisbergen # WeatherTech Chevrolet 203   19 Running  
19 3 1 Sam Mayer 10X Health Chevrolet 203 1  28 Running 1 9 1
20 11 5 Anthony Alfredo Steele Group/Anchor Advisors Chevrolet 203   17 Running  
21 18 51 Jeremy Clements Impel Union Chevrolet 203   16 Running  
22 25 19 Justin Bonsignore M3 Technology's Toyota 203 10 2 25 Running 1 3
23 17 11 Josh Williams Alloy Employer Services Chevrolet 203   14 Running  
24 13 21 Austin Hill Bennett Transportation Chevrolet 203  9 15 Running 1 2
25 32 91 Kyle Weatherman DriveSmartWarranty.com Chevrolet 203   12 Running  
26 24 31 Parker Retzlaff FUNKAWAY Chevrolet 203   11 Running  
27 33 29 Blaine Perkins AutoParkit.com Ford 203   10 Running  
28 35 35 Glen Reen New Wave Bath Chevrolet 203   9 Running  
29 34 4 Garrett Smithley Trophy Tractor Chevrolet 202   8 Running  
30 31 14 Mason Massey(i) Brunt Workwear Chevrolet 202   0 Running  
31 19 28 Kyle Sieg Onsite Power Academy Ford 201   6 Running  
32 30 15 Hailie Deegan # VIVA Tequila Seltzer Ford 201   5 Running  
33 36 6 Armani Williams Doug Flutie Jr Fdn for Autism Ford 198   4 Running  
34 27 07 Patrick Emerling Laquerre's Power Sports Chevrolet 197   3 Running  
35 16 43 Ryan Ellis United Construction & Forestry Chevrolet 196   2 DVP  
36 26 92 Nathan Byrd ClearCore Solutions Chevrolet 185   1 Accident  
37 14 42 Leland Honeyman # RANDCO Industries Chevrolet 95   1 Accident  
38 10 38 Matt DiBenedetto Sci Aps Ford 203   1 Running  

Time of Race: 2 Hrs, 35 Mins, 21 Secs. Average Speed: 82.951 MPH Margin of Victory: 0.254 Seconds

Stage 1 Top 10: 1, 8, 98, 16, 7, 17, 88, 39, 27, 19
Stage 2 Top 10: 20, 19, 00, 18, 81, 7, 26, 9, 21, 48

Failed to Qualify: (1) 74 Jade Buford.

Caution Flags: 11 for 58 laps; Laps: 12-16 (Competition Caution [None]); 29-33 (#07 Slow On Track [None]); 36-39 (#16, 48, 98 Incident Turn 1 [6]); 47-52 (Stage 1 Conclusion [07]); 92-98 (Stage 2 Conclusion [42]); 102-105 (#6 Spin Turn 4 [15]); 169-174 (#6 Spin Backstretch [9]); 177-181 (#81 Spin Turn 3 [14]); 183-188 (#1, 8, 9, 16, 17, 19, 21, 44, 91, 97 Incident Turn 2 [29]); 190-194 (#15, 92 Incident Turn 4 [31]); 197-201 (#14 Spin Turn 2 [35]).

Lead Changes: 15 among 10 drivers; C. Custer 1-16; A. Hill 17-18; C. Custer 19-36; S. Smith 37-39; S. Mayer 40-48; J. Bonsignore 49-51; C. Bell(i) 52-93; C. Custer 94-149; C. Smith 150; C. Kvapil 151-166; C. Custer 167-170; J. Love # 171-173; C. Kvapil 174-181; C. Custer 182-201; S. Creed 202; C. Bell(i) 203.

(i) Ineligible for driver points in this series

Next Race: June 29, 2024 - Nashville Superspeedway

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