By: Zach Arnold

LOUDON, N.H. — Christopher Bell found himself in victory lane at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, yet again on Saturday afternoon. Bell has put together quite the resume up in the northeast, as he has one NASCAR Cup Series victory and four NXS series wins on the one-mile track.

Bell’s win on Saturday did not come at ease; if anything, late race cautions helped him get in the position to steal the win during a NASCAR Overtime restart. The No. 20 Toyota approached the final lap from the third place, forcing a three-wide entry into turn one with Sheldon Creed and Cole Custer. Bell cleared the two competitors off of turn two and held the lead, crossing the finish line first. 

When you look at the stats on paper, Bell did not have the strongest car all day; Cole Custer led the most laps throughout the race, with 111, and Bell only led 42. Before the final green flag pit stop cycle, Custer earned himself a fairly safe lead of up to 3.5 seconds. Armani Williams, driver of the No. 6, spun out after the cycle changing the outlook for the rest of the race as the caution flag flew and reset Custer’s lead to a restart. 

Custer lost the race on the final restart and seemed disappointed post-race, “Just to have it ripped away with two laps to go…just really sucks. We will keep knocking on the door, and we will get one. [a win],” he said. Custer built himself with a safe look to make the playoffs without earning a win, +205 points on the cutline. 

Sheldon Creed finished runner-up, once again. This second-place finish is his tenth time finishing one spot behind the winner. He is still looking for his first NXS victory. ” I thought I did all the right things to get next to Custer and be clean about it, obviously the No. 20 was able to get inside both of us down the front stretch, I still thought I was in the best place to be,” Creed says.

Creed also spoke on having ten second-place finishes, in saying, ” What is that, ten second-place finishes? I don’t want to call it frustrating, still good finishes, so going to keep working hard, we have been in the mix the last four weeks in a row.” 

The NASCAR Xfinity Series heads to Nashville Superspeedway next week for the Tennesee Lottery 250, tune in to USA Network at 5:00 pm next Saturday, June 29th to catch the action.