Bell Scores Maiden Cup Win at Daytona Road Course

For years, the NASCAR Cup schedule has consisted of only two road course races each season. However, given the amount of action that takes place on such a track, and the number of surprise winners, NASCAR decided to add five additional road courses to the schedule for the 2021 season. The first was the Daytona Road Course and the race definitely lived up to expectations.

LAP 1: The front row of the starting grid consisted of Chase Elliott in pole position (based on NASCAR’s points-formula) and last week’s winner, Michael McDowell, in P2. Elliott pulled away from the field in Turn 1 while McDowell overshot the corner and went into the run-off area, falling back to 30th. Kyle Busch encountered major issues when he was pushed off the track in the Turn 4 dogleg by the #14 of Chase Briscoe. Busch’s splitter dug into the grass and caused damage on the right-front of his #18 Toyota. 

CAUTION – LAP 2: The yellow flag waved early for debris when the outer rubber of McDowell’s tire fell off the wheel and rolled onto the track on the back straightaway. McDowell’s #34 team believed the tire was already flat when he started the race, which explained when he missed Turn 1 on the first lap. When the race restarted, Elliott retained the lead. 

CAUTION – LAP 11: Matt DiBenedetto cut the right rear tire on his #21 Ford Mustang. As the tire began to shred, it ripped apart the quarter panel and caused the yellow for debris. Most of the field pitted during the caution, with the exception of Christopher Bell in the #20 who stayed out. The race restarted with 3 laps to go to the end of the stage and Elliott easily passed Bell in Turn 2 to regain the lead.

STAGE 1 END – LAP 16: Chase Elliott hung on and won the stage, claiming his first playoff point of the season. Joey Logano, Denny Hamlin, Brad Keselowski, and Martin Truex Jr rounded out the top 5. The top 11 cars stayed out of the pits, which allowed Elliott to stay in 1st place. 

CAUTION – LAP 28: Ross Chastain in the #42 and Ryan Blaney in the #12 made contact that sent Chastain into the wall in Turn 11, resulting in significant damage on the entire right side of his Chevrolet Camaro and ended his day. During the yellow, the field was shuffled when 5 cars opted to stay out, putting the #16 of AJ Almendinger in the top spot. Elliott had a slow pit stop due to problems with the right-front tire, which put him back in the 14th position for the restart. 

LAP 30: Almendinger hung on to P1 on the restart, but was overtaken by Denny Hamlin heading into Turn 4. 

STAGE 2 END – LAP 34: Hamlin picked up the stage victory – his third of the season already. Kurt Busch, Joey Logano, Christopher Bell, and Martin Truex Jr rounded out the top 5 with Elliott having made his way up to 6th. Busch won the race off pit road and led from the restart. 

LAP 37: The #1 Chevrolet of Kurt Busch clipped a left-hand curb heading into Turn 5, which jarred the car to the right and Busch shot straight through the infield grass. Busch fell back to 23rd, which put the #20 of Christopher Bell in the lead. 

LAP 41: Elliott worked his way up to the front after restarting 5th and passed Bell for the top spot. Elliott began to pull away to the same dominate lead he had in the opening stage of the race.

CAUTION – LAP 57: With reports of light rain showers in only 2 of the 14 turns, NASCAR put out the yellow for weather. This is standard procedure at road courses because it gives teams an opportunity to come down pit road and put on rain tires, if they want. However, the track was barely damp, making the caution feel pointless to many drivers and fans. Not all teams chose to pit and those that did pit opted for a fresh set of slick tires.

When the race restarted, Joey Logano and Kurt Busch occupied 1st and 2nd place respectively, and Elliott was scored down in P15.

CAUTION – LAP 59: The yellow waved just half-a-lap after the restart when Tyler Reddick in the #8 was pushed into the infield grass. The splitter dug into the dirt with such force that it folded the splitter under the car and cut the oil cooler line. Reddick’s #8 erupted in a ball of fire and he was out of the race.

CAUTION – LAP 60: With 10 laps to go, the eighth and final caution came for Corey Lajoie who made contact with Chase Elliott in Turn 5 that sent Lajoie into the wall. Logano and Busch remained on the front row for the restart.

LAP 64: After charging through the field and into the 5th position, Chase Elliott was racing Brad Keselowski for 4th, with Denny Hamlin behind them. Keselowski braked hard heading into Turn 6, which caused those behind him to check-up and resulted in Hamlin spinning Elliott into the run-off area. Elliott, who was favoured to win at the start of the race, went on to finish 21st.

LAP 68: Christopher Bell, who had ran in the top 10 all day, passed Joey Logano for the lead in Turn 12.

CHECKERED FLAG – LAP 70: Christopher Bell crossed the finish line to win his first Cup Series race.

RESULTS:

1. Christopher Bell
2. Joey Logano
3. Denny Hamlin
4. Kurt Busch
5. Brad Keselowski
6. Kevin Harvick
7. AJ Allmendinger 
8. Michael McDowell
9. Ryan Preece
10. Alex Bowman
11. Chris Buescher
12. Martin Truex Jr
13. Cole Custer
14. Erik Jones
15. Ryan Blaney
16. Daniel Suarez
17. Aric Almirola
18. Ricky Stenhouse Jr
19. Ty Dillon
20. Ryan Newman
21. Chase Elliott
22. Anthony Alfredo
23. James Davison
24. Justin Haley
25. Cody Ware
26. Bubba Wallace
27. Garrett Smithley
28. Scott Heckert
29. Timmy Hill
30. Kyle Larson
31. Corey Lajoie
32. Chase Briscoe
33. William Byron
34. Austin Dillon
35. Kyle Busch
36. Josh Bilicki
37. Matt DeBenedetto
38. Tyler Reddick
39. Ross Chastain
40. Quin Houff