Christopher Bell earns his first career win at the Daytona Road Course

The NASCAR Cup Series closed out the weekend at the Daytona International Speedway’s road course Sunday afternoon. Chase Elliott was on the pole for this race, and last week’s winner Michael McDowell started second. Erik Jones (engine change), Justin Haley (inspection failure), and Garrett Smithley (unapproved adjustment) all had to start the race in the back.

McDowell did not get off to a good start shortly after the green flag waved. He had a tire go down before heading into turn one, causing him to go wide before going into the grass. Parts of the tire went onto the track bringing out the first caution of the race. In a separate incident, just ahead of McDowell, Kyle Busch also had damage to the front of his car when he went in the grass after making contact with Chase Briscoe.

The race would resume on the third lap with Elliott still in the lead. Problems continued for Briscoe and McDowell when they both spun on the front chicane. Many drivers were locking up the brakes in the early stage of the race, causing their tires to blow. Erik Jones was the latest as his car cut a left rear tire with eleven laps to go in stage one. Brad Keselowski also blew a tire after locking up the brakes at the front chicane with five laps to go. The second caution was out shortly after for debris.

During the caution, Matt DiBenedetto’s car also cut a right rear tire, and his right rear quarter panel was gone. There were no replays as to how DiBenedetto’s right rear quarter panel came off. Everyone went to pit road, and the race resumed with three laps to go with Christopher Bell as the new leader. Elliott would regain the lead and win stage one.

Teams that pitted on the last caution stayed out while others went to pit road to top off and change tires. The race resumed on lap 20 to start stage two. Quin Houff was the first car out of the race with engine failure. The race was going smoothly without a caution until Ryan Blaney hit Ross Chastain at turn six, sending him hard into the outside wall as the fourth caution came out. Chastain’s day was done, and he would finish 39th. All but five cars went to pit road, and the new leader was AJ Allmendinger, with Kyle Larson second.

The race would resume on lap 29. In two laps, Denny Hamlin made his way to the front to take the lead away from Allmendinger on the dogleg. Hamlin would lead the last four laps to win stage two. Most drivers headed to pit road during the caution. Unfortunately, for Allmendinger, he had to go to the back for being too fast entering pit road.

Daniel Suarez was the new leader as the final stage was underway on lap 38. On the same lap, Kurt Busch, who was on newer tires, took the lead from Suarez. However, a lap later, Busch got loose at the dogleg and went on the grass. By the time he got going again, he was in 27th place and the new leader was Christopher Bell. Two laps later, Chase Elliott would get the lead back from Christopher Bell.

Kurt Busch was quietly making his way back upfront. He did tap Keselowski, which caused him to spin, leaving turn two. With 20 laps to go, teams went to pit road for their final stops of the day. Sprinkles began to fall on the track three laps later. They were light and hit some parts of the track, not all. NASCAR put out a caution, wiping Elliott’s huge lead. Many drivers on the in-car radio knew why they did. Kyle Busch said to his crew chief, “I don’t know why we had a yellow; I think it’s because of the show.” Chase Elliott even disagreed with the decision. Was it an entertainment caution?

Caution for rain. Eddie D'Hondt: "Caution for weather. Speedway 2." Chase Elliott: "No, it's not. — Matt Weaver (@MattWeaverAW) February 21, 2021

The NASCAR officials radio told the teams that red lights and wipers were not required during the caution. Then why did they put the caution out in the first place? Joey Logano and Chase Briscoe were the only drivers to stay out. At the same time, everyone else went to pit road during the caution. Teams did not put-on wet tires as the sprinkles stopped and the track dried quickly. Chase Elliott had a bad pit stop and would restart 15th.

The race resumed with twelve laps to go. There were two separate incidents on the restart. First, Tyler Reddick ran into some infield signage and cut a tire down before his car caught on fire. The other incident occurred when Cory LaJoie pushed Elliott off the track. Chase did a fantastic job saving the car. Had he not saved the car, it would’ve ended under different circumstances. Elliott would use a car in front of him to get the grass off his grill.

This is one of the most incredible saves we've ever seen.@chaseelliott | @DAYTONA pic.twitter.com/SNnUNUnBcW — NASCAR (@NASCAR) February 21, 2021

Logano was now the leader when the race resumed with ten laps to go. Martin Truex Jr’s car wheel hopped into turn one and spun. The other cars did a good job avoiding him. A lap later, the caution would come out for the fifth time when Chase Elliott returned the favor to Corey LaJoie. While no reply was shown, both cars had damage.

The race would resume with eight laps to go with Logano still in the lead. Kyle Larson was making a run to the front, but his car wheel hopped, and Larson went into the tire wall. Kyle Busch continued to have problems. It looked like he cut the left front tire and was glued to Chris Buescher’s car. Buescher also had Austin Dillon on the other side, and once he was able to get away, Dillon hit Busch, sending Busch too close to the wall with no caution coming out.

Chase Elliott was making his way back to the front. He was in fourth place trying to get by Keselowski heading into turn six before Denny Hamlin spun him, effectively ending his chances at winning. With two laps to go, Christopher Bell passed Logano for the lead as they came to the white flag. Bell would go on to win his first Cup Series race by 2.119 seconds. With the win, Toyota swept the weekend, with Ben Rhodes winning on Friday and Ty Gibbs winning on Saturday.

The rest of the top ten finishers were Joey Logano second, Denny Hamlin third, Kurt Busch fourth, Brad Keselowski fifth, Kevin Harvick sixth, AJ Allmendinger seventh, Michael McDowell eighth, Ryan Preece ninth, and Alex Bowman tenth. There were eight cautions for twelve laps, twelve lead changes, and Chase Elliott led the most laps with 45.

The Cup Series now heads south of Florida to Homestead-Miami Speedway next Sunday, February 28th, at 3:30 pm on FOX.

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