LOUDON, N.H. – Christopher Bell was unmatched en route to victory in Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series ROXOR 200 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
Bell started second and took the lead from polesitter Cole Custer on the opening lap. He was rarely challenged throughout the 200-lap event, leading 186 laps en route to the dominant victory in his Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota Supra.
“I just had a really good race car,” said Bell, who is undefeated in two NASCAR Xfinity Series starts at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in his career. “I’m very thankful to be able to drive these Supras for Joe Gibbs Racing and all of our partners.”
Not even a the final caution flag of the afternoon with 47 laps left when Harrison Burton was spun into the outside wall by Paul Menard could slow Bell down. On the ensuing restart with 42 laps left Bell steadily pulled away from the field, easing out to a 4.068-second victory at the checkered flag.
“I just can’t say enough about this team. It’s so, so fun to be able to drive for this groups of guys,” Bell added. “All of our partners at Rheem, Ruud, Toyota, Toyota Racing Development, they’re the ones that make this happen. I’m really thankful to be able to drive for them. They give me race cars that are as fast as this one here.”
Custer, who had won two of the last three Xfinity Series races entering Saturday’s event at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, finished a distant second behind Bell at the checkered flag.
“There at the end I felt like we had a car that could compete with him (Bell), but I just wasn’t driving the car right at the start of the race and I got us behind on adjustments,” Custer said. “From there, we were kind of playing catchup. They gave me a really fast car and I think I learned a lot, but I wish we would have won. I learned a lot though and I’ll be better next time. I knew I wasn’t the best here, so I thought there was stuff I had to learn. I thought I had a good idea of what I needed to do, but there was still a little bit of a learning curve during the race.”
Justin Allgaier earned his best finish at New Hampshire Motor Speedway with a third-place effort, followed by Tyler Reddick and Menard.
Chase Briscoe, Ryan Truex, Ryan Sieg, stage one winner Brandon Jones and Noah Gragson completed the top-10.