Second Place No Longer, Bell's a Southern 500 Winner!

Christopher Bell waves to the fans at Dover prior to the All-Star race. (Justin Horacio | Motorsports Today)

DARLINGTON, S.C. - Christopher Bell is a brides maid no longer! After finishing 2nd a total of seven times in 2026, the driver of the Mobil 1 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing finally ended a 33 race winless drought earning his win in dramatic fashion at Darlington Raceway. Bell's Southern 500 win wasn't only crew chief Adam Steven's first at Darlington, but also was Bell's second career Crown Jewel victory!

HOW IT HAPPENED:

After rain postponed both practice and qualifying, it was 23XI's Tyler Reddick who started on the pole with owner Michael Jordan in attendance. Reddick was the class of the field in the opening stage as he earned his second stage win of the season in the first stage, but similar to the O'Reilly race the night before, the race develped in stages.

On lap 107, the Cup Series saw a first as its new rule of the stage ending in the final ten laps if a caution was thrown came in effect after Brad Keselowski went for a spin after contact with Carson Hocevar.

With the yellow, Reddick was deemed the stage winner and had a good enough of a pit stop to maintain the lead to start stage two.

But similar to Justin Allgaier the night previous, compounded mistakes led to the 45 losing the lead. On lap 189, Reddick's hopes controlling the race were shattered. During the green flag cycle, Reddick's crew did not fully tighten his left front tire, causing him to back up and get it re-tightend.

This caused Reddick to fall back to the back half of the top ten, where it took most of stage three for him to recover from. Reddick ended stage two in 9th and finished the race in 3rd, but simply never led a lap again.

As for the stage two winner, it was Christopher Bell who showed significant long run pace and capitalized on Chase Briscoe having to save fuel to grab the lead. For Briscoe, his hopes of winnning a third straight 500 were nearly dashed as he ran out of fuel coming to the line of the stage end.

Along with the running out of fuel, Briscoe also had radio issues with crew chief James Small, causing him to stay out another lap while sputtering before ultimatley pitting before pit road opened. Briscoe would be penalized as a result, and restarted stage three in 20th at the rear of the field.

Unlike Reddick though, Briscoe was able to rebound and put himself in the mix for the win. On lap 332, Briscoe powered around his teammate of Bell taking the lead. What held Briscoe back from the win? Simply restart misfortunate and a mix of strategy losing him the lead as he and all but four cars on the lead lap opted to take fresh tires.

As for the restart and why it happened? Well, that was the result of a drizzle that began occuring slightly after William Byron suffered a mechanical issue bringing out the yellow on lap 317. The race went back green on lap 331, but the caution was quickly back out on lap 335.

After the cars were parked in pit road for a brief hold for the drizzle to pass, the field paced around a few more times before opening pit road on lap 340. Thats where Briscoe lost the lead as he opted to pit.

On the restart, Briscoe opted to start on the bottom side in 5th, but the top side advantage for teamamte Christopher Bell was the dominant lane on the restart, and Bell got the jump of everyone on the fresh tires.

As for the leader? Well that was none other than Kyle Larson, who led the opening 46 laps of stage three. Similar to Briscoe and Reddick, he had trouble on pit road fading to the back of the top ten, meaning another strategy was needed to be played to give him a chance at getting the win.

For Larson, he held Bell off tough leading for a total of 16 laps in the final stretch, but with 12 laps to go on lap 356, Christopher Bell was to not be denied and powered around Larson never looking back.

It may have have taken him 358 days, but Christopher Bell finally finished the job, earning his first win of 2026 in dramatic fashion!

OTHER NOTES:

The win was huge for Joe Gibbs Racing, as this marked the first time since 2019 where the organization saw all four of its cars win a race in the same season. The parallel there you ask? Adam Stevens went on to win the championship with Kyle Busch. Perhaps this is the beginning of a third for him?

For Joe Gibbs Racing the day wasn't all rainbows and sunshine as championship favorite Denny Hamlin had a great car, but faced bad luck. After a pit road miscue where his right rear tire was not tightened and the team needed to fix it during the stage two break, Hamlin lost signifcant track position knocking him nearly out of the top twenty.

As a result, Hamlin found himself tangled in a mess and paid the price as coming out of turn four, Michael McDowell turned him into the outside wall causing front end damage hurting the pace of Hamlin's car.

Over the course of the stage Hamlin faded as far back as 30th and even lost a lap to Kyle Larson when he was leading early on in the third stage. But to Hamlin's luck, a wave around, an opportunity to fix damage, and a late tire advantage, allowed the veteran to score an 18th place finish. Hamlin leaves Darlington only twelve points ahead of Christopher Bell.

The Josh Berry revenge tour hit yet another milestone as he became the first driver in Wood Brother Racing since David earson in 1976 to earn six consecutive top ten finishes. Berry finished the Southern 500 in 7th, and found himself in potential prime position of a win in the early portions of the final stage. Its a huge miltstone that should not be underlooked, as Berry is proving his worth in hope of finding a cup series ride in 2027.

Lastly, the Southern 500 could not end with a little bit of drama. As mentioned earlier in the race both Brad Keselowski and Carson Hocevar had a tangle to end stage one. After the race, Hocevar would not comment much on the incident, but Brad Keselowski was infuriated and said to the media that "His day's coming and its coming hard. Watch out Carson."

Carson's response was that he will "tighten his belts". Off the heels of drama the previous night with Corey Day and William Sawalich, the adrenaline and emotion is high in The Chase and these run in's will be a storyline to follow as the remainder of the Chase chugs along!

UP NEXT:

The NASCAR Cup Series heads midwest for a crucial race at World Wide Technology Raceway! Last season, it was Denny Hamlin who was the car to beat as he 75 laps from the pole in route to the victory. Hamlin will seek redemption after a tough Southern 500 weekend. Race coverage can be found on USA and MRN with the green flag slated for 3:00 P.M. ET.

Motorsports Today will have weekend coverage at the track so you do not want to miss it! You can keep up with us on X, Instagram, Tiktok, Youtube, and right here on MotorsportsToday.net!