Christopher Bell wins in Xfinity return at Loudon

The last time Christopher Bell raced in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, he finished third in points with eight wins in 2019. Two years later, he made his return to the series in dominating fashion as he led 151 of 200 laps in Saturday’s Ambetter Get Vaccinated 200 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway en route to the win.

Bell started fourteenth while Kaulig Racing drivers Jeb Burton and Justin Haley comprised the front row. The first half of the opening stage was a Kaulig affair as Burton led sixteen laps before being passed by team-mate A.J. Allmendinger, who enjoyed his time in front through a pair of cautions for a competition yellow and a multi-car accident that took out Bell’s Joe Gibbs Racing ally Brandon Jones, Sam Mayer, and Riley Herbst. Bell took the lead with two laps before the segment end to win the stage ahed of Allmendinger, Harrison Burton, Austin Cindric, Daniel Hemric, Justin Allgaier, Haley, Burton, Josh Berry, and Jeremy Clements.

Brandon Brown and Allmendinger led laps between stages as teams made stops. However, Bell would lead flag-to-flag as Stage #2 ran fully green. Cindric, Hemric, Allmendinger, Allgaier, Haley, Berry, Harrison Burton, Noah Gragson, and Jeb Burton rounded out the order.

Bell’s reign continued as he continued to lead the final stage. The lone incident of the segment came for Patrick Emerling‘s right-front tyre going down and sending him into the turn four wall. At the front, Bell led the rest of the way to win his seventeenth career Xfinity race and third consecutive at Loudon. Since 2008, JGR has won at New Hampshire eleven times.

The Cup Series sophomore led 146 consecutive laps from lap 55 to the checkered flag, the longest such run of 2021 and the most in an Xfinity race since Bell led 153, also at Loudon in 2019.

“I think these weekends with no practice and qualifying, you’re not sitting in the car until they drop the green flag,” said Bell. He will start ninth in Sunday’s Cup race. “This is a really big advantage, especially coming here: the Xfinity Series rules package is really similar to the Cup Series rules package. Hopefully, it will be pretty similar and I hope that we have a really fast Camry tomorrow. Just really proud to be at Joe Gibbs Racing. Everyone here does an amazing job.”

Race results

Finish	Start	Number	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Laps	Status
1	14	54	Christopher Bell*	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	200	Running
2	5	7	Justin Allgaier	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	200	Running
3	13	18	Daniel Hemric	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	200	Running
4	4	22	Austin Cindric	Team Penske	Ford	200	Running
5	10	20	Harrison Burton	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	200	Running
6	2	11	Justin Haley	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	200	Running
7	16	2	Myatt Snider	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	200	Running
8	21	1	Josh Berry	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	200	Running
9	7	02	Brett Moffitt	Our Motorsports	Chevrolet	200	Running
10	12	98	Riley Herbst	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	200	Running
11	1	10	Jeb Burton	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	200	Running
12	6	16	A.J. Allmendinger	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	200	Running
13	11	39	Ryan Sieg	RSS Racing	Ford	200	Running
14	3	9	Noah Gragson	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	200	Running
15	8	51	Jeremy Clements	Jeremy Clements Racing	Chevrolet	200	Running
16	32	26	Brandon Gdovic	Sam Hunt Racing	Toyota	200	Running
17	22	68	Brandon Brown	Brandonbilt Motorsports	Chevrolet	200	Running
18	18	48	Jade Buford	Big Machine Racing	Chevrolet	198	Running
19	34	47	Kyle Weatherman	Mike Harmon Racing	Chevrolet	198	Running
20	38	66	David Starr	MBM Motorsports	Toyota	198	Running
21	17	44	Tommy Joe Martins	Martins Motorsports	Chevrolet	197	Running
22	20	92	Josh Williams	DGM Racing	Chevrolet	197	Running
23	36	17	J.J. Yeley	SS-Green Light Racing	Ford	197	Running
24	30	07	Joe Graf Jr.	SS-Green Light Racing	Chevrolet	197	Running
25	31	4	Landon Cassill	JD Motorsports	Chevrolet	197	Running
26	26	0	Jeffrey Earnhardt	JD Motorsports	Chevrolet	197	Running
27	37	90	Dexter Bean	DGM Racing	Chevrolet	197	Running
28	28	78	Jesse Little	B.J. McLeod Motorsports	Toyota	197	Running
29	19	6	Ryan Vargas	JD Motorsports	Chevrolet	196	Running
30	25	15	Colby Howard	JD Motorsports	Chevrolet	196	Running
31	24	23	Patrick Emerling	Our Motorsports	Chevrolet	196	Running
32	27	5	Matt Mills	B.J. McLeod Motorsports	Toyota	195	Running
33	40	52	Spencer Boyd*	Jimmy Means Racing	Chevrolet	194	Running
34	33	31	Jordan Anderson*	Jordan Anderson Racing	Chevrolet	194	Running
35	35	74	Dawsom Cram*	Mike Harmon Racing	Chevrolet	184	Running
36	15	36	Alex Labbé	DGM Racing	Chevrolet	174	Running
37	39	61	C.J. McLaughlin*	MBM Motorsports	Toyota	164	Electrical
38	23	19	Brandon Jones	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	102	Radiator
39	9	8	Sam Mayer	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	28	Accident
40	29	99	Mason Massey	B.J. McLeod Motorsports	Toyota	26	Accident