Christopher Bell Steals 4th New Hampshire Xfinity Win in OT (2024)

The only thing Christopher Bell does in the NASCAR Xfinity Series at New Hampshire Motor Speedway is win.

Bell claimed his fourth Xfinity race at the Magic Mile in dramatic fashion Saturday, completing a three-wide pass on Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Sheldon Creed and Cole Custer in the final lap of overtime for the win. The Oklahoman has won every single Xfinity race he has started at New Hampshire and now has 18 career wins in the series overall.

“I feel so bad for Sheldon,” Bell said. “He’s been really, really close to winning these things, and today, he did everything right to win that race. He restarted in the right lane, gave Cole a good push, and coming to the white flag, he got Cole loose, and that’s what opened the door for me.

“This Mobil One Camry was really, really good early in the race. Once I lost the track position, I was just kind of another guy. [I’m] very fortunate to keep my undefeated streak alive. We got really lucky there.”

Creed tied Dale Jarrett for most second-place finishes in Xfinity Series history with 10 runner-ups after leading the on the final lap. He nudged Custer out of the lead in turn 4 and was outside of Bell early in the final lap, but Custer paid him back with contact in turn 2.

“That’s not a stat I wanted to tie,” Creed said. “I thought when I got next to the [No.] 00 there off of [turn] 4 coming to the white, that was going to be my best opportunity. Obviously, the [No.] 20 got a good run, and we shipped it down into [turn] one. I felt like I was going to stay outside of him. I think the [No.] 00 was able to stay close enough to me, and me being free on the short run all day – just a little too free there to stay outside the 20, but overall, great day.”

Custer led a race-high 114 laps on the day, including most of the late stages before five cautions plagued the ending to the race. He restarted with the lead ahead of Bell before falling behind the JGR drivers of Bell and Creed.

“I would’ve done the same thing,” Custer said of the contact. “You’re racing for the win. It is what it is. Man, it just stings. I felt like we had the best car all day. That’s not easy to do at these flat short tracks. Our guys brought such a fast car. [I] guess you get put in those late-race restarts six times or whatever.

“Eventually, it’s probably not going to go your way, but I’m going to relive that definitely of what I could’ve done different. Maybe I could’ve protected a little bit more. It went completely wrong for us.”

Custer extended his regular-season points lead over Chandler Smith, after the No. 81 spun out battling for fourth with Creed and Jesse Love. Smith ended up finishing 15th.

Justin Allgaier overcame a slow pit stop on lap 93 and battled back on two other separate occasions to finish fourth. JR Motorsports teammate Carson Kvapil completed the top five.

Ryan Sieg, Parker Kligerman, Riley Herbst, Alex Bowman and Corey Heim rounded out the top 10.

Matt DiBenedetto, who finished the race 17th after overcoming a shifting problem at the start of the race, was disqualified in post-race inspection for having three loose lug nuts on his No. 38 Viking Motorsports Ford.

The Xfinity field got to experience wet-weather tires during the first 11 laps of the race, with drivers either taking advantage of the track conditions or struggling because of them. While Custer started on pole and maintained the lead and Bell worked his way from 23rd to fourth after pit stops, Smith slid back from starting second all the way to 23rd.

After the first caution for a switch to the dry tires, a pair of yellows for Patrick Emerling coming to a stop and Kligerman spinning out split the strategies around the field. Custer led the majority of stage one, but after a six-lap dash, Sam Mayer gapped the field to win his first stage of the season.

Sammy Smith held onto second over Herbst in third and AJ Allmendinger in fourth. Allgaier completed the stage one top five.

Bowman, Kvapil, Sieg, Jeb Burton and Justin Bonsignore made up the top 10 for stage one.

NASCAR Whelen Modified veteran Bonsignore stayed out during the stage one caution but quickly lost the top spot to Bell on the restart. Bell pulled away uncontested by Bonsignore by over three seconds to win a caution-free stage two.

Custer, Creed and Chandler Smith were the top five from stage two. Allgaier, Heim, Brandon Jones, Austin Hill and Kligerman rounded out the stage two top 10.

During stage two, both Allgaier and Mayer experienced a problem with their main radio channels that sounded like a constant keying of the radio, frustrating both JRM drivers throughout the stage. The problem was fixed in time for stage three.

Custer led the majority of the final stage, but Xfinity newcomer Armani Williams had two separate spins, one at the start of the stage and another on lap 168.

Multiple cautions ensued. Chandler Smith’s No. 81 took a slide. Bonsignore spun out off the nose of Sammy Smith, collecting Hill, Shane van Gisbergen, Mayer, Kyle Weatherman and Bowman. A third wreck, involving Nathan Byrd and Hailie Deegan, occurred deep in the field with 12 laps to go.

“It was a good day until it wasn’t there at the end,” Bonsignore told Frontstretch. “We showed that we had good pace and we could run up front. I need to clean up everything on pit road. I just really struggled there to make time out of the pit box and get to the pit box on the green flag stop there, but the car was really, really good.

“We were keeping pace with our teammates and ran solidly in that top three, top five for a good chunk of the day. Those late cautions, it is what it is. Nothing we can do. We’ll just try and see if we can put together another deal and try to do this again.”

Custer and Bell battled aggressively side-by-side on the restart with six laps to go, but once again, another caution flew for an accident involving Mason Maggio and Ryan Ellis.

That forced overtime, where Bell found a way to get back to victory lane.

Xfinity New Hampshire Results

Next week, the Xfinity Series will travel to Music City for the Tennessee Lottery 250 at Nashville Superspeedway on Saturday at 5 p.m. ET. Television coverage will be provided by USA Network.