{"id":37908,"date":"2025-09-22T10:02:39","date_gmt":"2025-09-22T14:02:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/sin-categoria\/bell-leads-gibbs-sweep-in-nascar-playoffs-epic-triumph-6\/"},"modified":"2025-09-22T10:02:39","modified_gmt":"2025-09-22T14:02:39","slug":"bell-leads-gibbs-sweep-in-nascar-playoffs-epic-triumph-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/nascar\/bell-leads-gibbs-sweep-in-nascar-playoffs-epic-triumph-6\/","title":{"rendered":"Bell leads Gibbs sweep in NASCAR playoffs: Epic triumph!"},"content":{"rendered":"BRISTOL, Tenn. \u2013 Joe Gibbs Racing dominated the first round of the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs, with Christopher Bell securing the victory at Bristol Motor Speedway.\n

Bell Wins in Bristol<\/h2>\nBell, after a comeback from fourth position, led the last four laps of the 0.533-mile oval, breaking a streak of 24 races without a win and adding his fourth win of the season.

\u201cIt wasn’t easy in the end, but we did it,\u201d commented Bell, who led only 12 laps in his thirteenth career victory. \u201cWe know any week could be ours, and it hasn’t been for a long time. But Bristol, tonight is ours!\u201d<\/p>Christopher Bell<\/cite><\/blockquote>He joined his JGR teammates, Denny Hamlin and Chase Briscoe, as playoff winners in the first round, which concluded in Bristol. Alex Bowman, Austin Dillon, Shane van Gisbergen, and Josh Berry were eliminated from championship contention.

\u201cVery excited for the start of the playoffs,\u201d declared team owner Joe Gibbs.<\/p>Joe Gibbs<\/cite>Bell finished 0.343 seconds ahead of Brad Keselowski, who was looking to end a 51-race winless streak.

\u201cIt\u2019s the story of our season,\u201d Keselowski said. \u201cA 50-50 opportunity on the restart, and I got the lane that couldn\u2019t get going. It\u2019s frustrating. We had a great car, great strategy and on the last restart, we rolled the dice and nothing good came out.\u201d<\/p>Brad Keselowski<\/cite><\/blockquote>Zane Smith finished third, followed by Ryan Blaney and Joey Logano.There was a record 14 yellow flags for 137 laps, as drivers and teams struggled to control a new tire on the right side with excessive wear, which required more pit stops.The playoff drama intensified with 40 laps to go when a fire broke out on Austin Cindric’s No. 2 Ford. His team managed to extinguish the flames, but Cindric lost several laps in the pits and reappeared outside the top 30.His thirtieth position was still enough for the twelfth and last transfer spot to the second round.\u201cMoving forward,\u201d Cindric said after finishing 30th. \u201cI believe in this team. I believe in myself. I haven\u2019t been driving as well as I am right now in the Cup Series.\u201dBowman got to second after recovering from a spin on lap 100. He would have overtaken Cindric with a win, but finished eighth and was 10 points short of advancing.

\u201cI don’t think you can point to anything that cost us,\u201d said Bowman, who benefited from a pit crew overhaul after suffering disastrous stops in the last two races. \u201cOur backs were against the wall coming here. We knew it was going to be a difficult thing to do.\u201d<\/p>

Looking for his first Cup victory, Ty Gibbs led 201 of 500 laps, but made a mistake trying to pit for his final green-flag stop, losing a lot of time in his No. 54 Toyota.<\/p>\n

Shocking Exit<\/h2>\n

With smoke coming from the cockpit and flames coming from his right front tire, Berry made a striking exit as the first driver eliminated. The Wood Brothers Racing driver qualified tenth and got up to third before a fire broke out on his No. 21 Ford.<\/p>

\u201cMan, very disappointing,\u201d said Berry. \u201cThat was going to be a lot of fun. We were moving forward. It’s been a couple of tough weeks, but it hasn’t been for performance. We executed well and ran well, we just haven’t had the results.\u201d<\/p>Josh Berry<\/cite><\/blockquote>Berry, whose playoff debut began with a crash in the first round of the Southern 500, finished last in all three races of the first round. “I don’t think you can script three last-place finishes the way we’ve gotten them,” he said.\n

An Unusual Vent<\/h2>\nBell, known for his calmness, lashed out at his team and strategy with a diatribe full of vulgarities after finishing seventh in the previous race at Gateway. Bell, who hasn’t won in 24 races and hasn’t been in the top five since July, said he was frustrated after seeing his teammates Denny Hamlin and Chase Briscoe win the first two playoff races.

\u201cIf I were constantly leading laps and in a position to win, then I would never be frustrated,\u201d Bell said. \u201cBut the fact is, I haven\u2019t been in a position to win races, I haven\u2019t led laps. My teammates are leading almost every lap, and they\u2019re getting the results. It\u2019s less about winning races and more about being in a position to do well, and we haven\u2019t had that.\u201d<\/p>Christopher Bell<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n

Next stop<\/h2>\nThe NASCAR Cup Series playoffs will open the second round on Sunday, September 21st at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. It’s the first Cup race on the 1.058-mile oval since June 2024 and the first playoff race in Loudon, New Hampshire, since September 2017.","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BRISTOL, Tenn. \u2013 Joe Gibbs Racing dominated the first round of the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs, with Christopher Bell securing the victory at Bristol Motor Speedway. Bell Wins in Bristol Bell, after a comeback from fourth position, led the last four laps of the 0.533-mile oval, breaking a streak of 24 races without a win […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[184,8696,182,104],"class_list":{"0":"post-37908","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-nascar","7":"tag-bristol","8":"tag-christopher-bell","9":"tag-nascar","10":"tag-playoffs"},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37908\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}