{"id":47901,"date":"2024-08-31T18:45:46","date_gmt":"2024-08-31T23:45:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=47901"},"modified":"2024-08-31T18:46:25","modified_gmt":"2024-08-31T23:46:25","slug":"christopher-bell-wins-nascar-xfinity-race-at-darlington-in-overtime-dash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2024\/08\/31\/christopher-bell-wins-nascar-xfinity-race-at-darlington-in-overtime-dash\/","title":{"rendered":"Christopher Bell wins NASCAR Xfinity race at Darlington in overtime dash"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Christopher Bell, driver of the #20 Sport Clips Haircuts Toyota, celebrates in victory lane after winning the NASCAR Xfinity Series Sport Clips Haircuts VFW Help a Hero 200 at Darlington Raceway on August 31, 2024 in Darlington, South Carolina. (Photo by Meg Oliphant\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service<\/em><\/p>\n

DARLINGTON, S.C.\u2014Christopher Bell survived a near-disaster with Cole Custer on the first lap of overtime and held on to win Saturday\u2019s Sport Clips Haircuts VFW Help a Hero 200 over Custer and snakebit Sheldon Creed.<\/p>\n

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Christopher Bell, driver of the #20 Sport Clips Haircuts Toyota, takes the checkered flag to win the NASCAR Xfinity Series Sport Clips Haircuts VFW Help a Hero 200 at Darlington Raceway on August 31, 2024 in Darlington, South Carolina. (Photo by Jared C. Tilton\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

During a green-flag run that started on lap 97 of 150, Creed caught and passed Bell for the lead on Lap 139 and was poised to claim his first NASCAR Xfinity Series victory after a record 11 runner-up finishes in the series.<\/p>\n

But Kaulig Racing’s AJ Allmendinger slapped the outside wall on Lap 143, causing the sixth caution of the afternoon, and Creed lost the top spot with a slow 15-second stop on pit road, thanks to issues with the right rear tire.<\/p>\n

Creed restarted third behind Bell in the outside lane. Contact between the cars of Bell and Stewart-Haas Racing’s Custer on the backstretch got both cars out of shape below the normal racing line, but the drivers recovered and held their positions.<\/p>\n

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Christopher Bell, driver of the #20 Sport Clips Haircuts Toyota, celebrates with a burnout after winning the NASCAR Xfinity Series Sport Clips Haircuts VFW Help a Hero 200 at Darlington Raceway on August 31, 2024 in Darlington, South Carolina. (Photo by Jared C. Tilton\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cThat was wild, for sure,\u201d said Bell, who started from the pole and led 108 laps. \u201cI thought I was headed nose-first into the inside wall… It\u2019s a tough race track, and off of (Turn) 2, whether you\u2019re on the bottom of the top, it flushes you to the wall, and then you kind of get a little bit of a wiggle coming down.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce again, I feel terrible for Sheldon, to essentially win the race on the long run there and then lose it on pit road. It\u2019s a big bummer\u2026 It seemed like our car was really good on the short runs. Obviously, the 18, Sheldon, was really good on the long runs.<\/p>\n

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Christopher Bell, driver of the #20 Sport Clips Haircuts Toyota, drives during the NASCAR Xfinity Series Sport Clips Haircuts VFW Help a Hero 200 at Darlington Raceway on August 31, 2024 in Darlington, South Carolina. (Photo by Meg Oliphant\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cUnfortunately for him, the race played out differently, and fortunately for us, we got another shot at it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The victory was Bell\u2019s second of the season in as many starts, with the first victory having come at New Hampshire in June. But Bell\u2019s triumph came at the expense of his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate.<\/p>\n

As expected, Creed was disconsolate as he reflected on the race that got away.<\/p>\n

\u201cI lost one the same way a few years ago here,\u201d lamented Creed, who led 30 laps and was pulling away from Bell before the final caution. \u201cThis has been a really good place for me. I\u2019ve always loved racing here. Man, I don\u2019t know if we could be any better than that.<\/p>\n

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Christopher Bell, driver of the #20 Sport Clips Haircuts Toyota, leads the field to the green flag to start the NASCAR Xfinity Series Sport Clips Haircuts VFW Help a Hero 200 at Darlington Raceway on August 31, 2024 in Darlington, South Carolina. (Photo by Jared C. Tilton\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cI felt like I put in one of my best performances today\u2026 Man, it\u2019s a bummer. I\u2019m so proud of everyone at Joe Gibbs Racing on this 18 team. I took a chance on myself and brought all the money we could. I\u2019m literally not even making a dollar this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Creed will leave Joe Gibbs Racing to drive a Ford for the Haas Factory Team next year.<\/p>\n

NASCAR Cup Series driver Chase Elliott finished fourth, followed by Sammy Smith, who leap-frogged Ryan Sieg into the final Playoff-eligible position on points. Smith leads Sieg by 10 points with three races left in the Xfinity regular season.<\/p>\n

Jesse Love, Shane van Gisbergen, Chandler Smith, Austin Hill and Justin Allgaier completed the top 10.<\/p>\n

Creed did pick up his first stage win of the season, beating Bell to the finish line in Stage 2. Bell won the opening 45-lap stage over Hill.<\/p>\n

Interview:<\/h3>\n

NXS Race Winner, Christopher Bell (No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota) – <\/p>\n

  By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service DARLINGTON, S.C.\u2014Christopher Bell survived a near-disaster with Cole Custer on the first lap of overtime and held on to win Saturday\u2019s Sport Clips Haircuts VFW Help a Hero 200 over Custer and snakebit Sheldon Creed. During a green-flag run that started on lap 97 of 150, Creed caught […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":47885,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[11],"tags":[451,651,16,181],"class_list":["post-47901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-christopher-bell","tag-darlington-raceway","tag-nascar","tag-nascar-xfinity-series"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/GettyImages-2169648340-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1707","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-csB","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/676"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47901"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47901\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47905,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47901\/revisions\/47905"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}