Christopher Bell Leads Once for Homestead Victory

Christopher Bell, driver of the #20 Rheem/Watts Toyota, celebrates in victory lane after winning the NASCAR Cup Series 4EVER 400 Presented by Mobil 1 at Homestead-Miami Speedway on October 22, 2023 in Homestead, Florida. (Photo by James Gilbert/Getty Images)

(HOMESTEAD, FL – OCT 22, 2023 – RIS) Christopher Bell only led one time in winning the 4EVER 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, taking the lead from William Byron on lap 252 and leading the final sixteen rounds of the mile and a half track to lock into the championship four. 

Bubba Wallace and pole winner Martin Truex Jr ran out to the lead, battling each other until Wallace got ahead with Brad Keselowski close to Truex’ bumper in third. The lead battle swapped positions with Truex getting around Wallace while William Byron and Kyle Larson drafted around Keselowski into third and fourth on the field, with Wallace getting scored in fourth as Keselowski used the outside line to sweep into third place, over four tenths of a second behind Truex with Byron just a few hundredths back. 

Byron moved into the lead, using the bottom line on the track.

Lap 30 saw pit stop cycling begin with Kyle Busch the first car to stop. After the cycle ended, Keselowski held the lead, followed by Larson and Byron, with Ryan Blaney and Truex completing the top five. Logano pitted last, running long in the hope that fresher tires would gain enough speed over the rest of the field to overcome the penalty of starting last after a crash in practice kept him from making a qualifying effort and starting last on the field.

A patient Larson got around Keselowski for the lead after chasing for 13 laps and Ryan Blaney raced next to Byron for third with the pair using different lines on the track until Blaney finally eased ahead and Byron moved to the top line, riding the wall like Blaney had done to gain the position.

Stage One ended under caution when Ricky Stenhouse Jr spun after hitting the wall and breaking the right rear toe link. This gave Larson, Keselowski, Blaney, Byron and Truex the top five positions, with Hamlin, Reddick, Austin Dillon, Christopher Bell and Ty Gibbs the rest of the top ten. Keselowski, Dillon and Gibbs were the only drivers not in contention for the Playofs slots exiting the weekend. Chris Buescher was the only Playoffs contender failing to score stage points in the first stage.

Larson’s pit crew sent him out with the lead and Keselowski’s better pit stall position let him follow Larson onto the track in second place, just ahead of William Byron, with Michael McDowell following Martin Truex in fifth on the track.

Larson and Byron moved around Keselowski for several laps before Keselowski retook second place with Byron easing back to a 2.4-second gap behind leader Larson. More green flag pit stops had Hamlin again stay out for a longer stint than most other racers, the strategy thought is that he will have faster lap times later in the rest of the stage. Hamlin pitted at midway in the stage, ceding the lead to Larson, Keselowski, Blaney and Byron. Hamlin’s strategy paid off, at least for the time being, as his lap times on fresher tires, were nearly a half-second quicker than Larson’s in the lead.

Blaney and Byron got around Larson before the end of the stage, with Blaney taking the leader points, Byron second and Larson third, followed by Denny Hamlin, Keselowski, Truex, Reddick, Gibbs, Austin Dillon and Joey Logano in the top ten positions at the green and white checkered flag. 

Blaney and Byron led off of pit road, followed by Keselowski, with Hamlin and Larson balancing out the top five. Byron and Blaney took off from the field with Byron trying to use the inside line and easing in front of Blaney for the lead but Blaney returned the favor on the next lap, running side by side until Blaney moved to the bottom of the track to take the lead. 

Larson raced to within three-fourths of a  second of Blaney, getting around Hamlin and exploring different lines around the track. Keselowski led the pack onto pit road for green flag stops, then Larson, following Blaney onto pit road, slid into the sand barrels trying to avoid running over Blaney as they entered the pits. He made light contact with Blaney but the real damage was done by hitting the barrels with his right-hand headlight area. Larson drove into the garage, his race ended as Blaney became the only car on the lead lap with his pit stop already completed. This moved Hamlin and Byron into the top two positions as a red flag flew for a few minutes to allow the track to be cleaned of the plastic and sand from the barrels and new barrels placed to guard the end of the pit wall. Larson sounded contrite and apologetic when interviewed after the incident, saying that he hoped it did not adversely affect Blaney’s race.

After a twelve minute, 35 second red flag, Denny Hamlin led the pack off of pit road after the yellow flag replaced the red. Blaney held the lead, having been the first car to stop before the incident.

Hamlin jumped around Blaney but JJ Yeley spun and hit the inside back straight wall, along with John Hunter Nemechek, causing an immediate caution and giving Martin Truex Jr a boost after being trapped a lap down when he had pitted just before the incident with Larson. The Yeley incident began with Ross Chastain seemed to bounced off the outside wall and into Yeley. Truex pitted for new tires and lined up as a lead lap car for the restart. Hamlin, Blaney, Byron and Bell headed the field of Playoffs drivers, with retiring Harvick fifth. The “4EVER 400” race name is a tribute to Harvick’s career.

A long tire and fuel stint of 38 laps loomed as the race restarted and Bell dove down to the inide for the lead with Byron the inside of a three-wwide for second place and the drived up to take second place with Hamlin slipping and forcing Blaney to lift, almost costing them both positions. Hamlin’s car broke something entering the first turn, slamming into the outside wall and causing another caution. During the caution, Truex reported that his engine was blowing up and TV showed smoke and possibly fluid coming out of the tailpipes before the car got shut off and pushed behind the wall with the two Joe Gibbs Racing cars falling out at essentially the same time.

Byron, Blaney, Bell and Harvick led at the restart with Blaney and Byron side by side for the lead with Byron moving into the lead and Bell moving to the inside of Blaney to take second place as Logano and Wallace moved up in the field. 

Bell eased ahead of Byron with fifteen laps remaining, going on to pull away from Byron by over a quarter second in only a half lap. At the ten lap mark, Bell’s lead over Byron was three-fourths of a second, with a similar gap between Byron and Blaney but Blaney had the fastest lap times of any car on the track. Blaney dove deep into the third turn and held the line to take second from Byron, setting off in pursuit of Bell for the lead with six laps left. Tyler Reddick got around Byron for third place on the same round, with Blaney gradually closing on Bell with every turn.

Blaney’s speed edge on Bell disappeared with three laps left and Bell’s lead opened up to a second and three-fourths at the white flag as he went on to lock into the ‘Championship Four’ by taking the checkered flag ahead of Blaney, Reddick, Byron and Allmendinger. Bubba Wallace ran sixth, with Ty Gibbs seventh as the rookie in the field.

“I've got the best team behind me. Honestly, I don't know, man. That race was a whirlwind. I was ready to throw the towel in there in the second stage. I got frustrated on the radio. Adam (Stevens, crew chief) kept after it. Adam (Stevens, crew chief), Tyler (Allen, engineer) , William (Hartman, engineer), the guys back at the shop were working over the adjustments and gave me what I needed. Whenever we got some clean air, this thing was really good. I cannot say how proud I am to be here with our partners, with Rheem and DeWalt, driving these Toyota Camrys. I've been with Toyota since day one. Thank you, everyone, that's supported me. This is better than a dream come true.”

“I let my emotions get to me, that’s for sure,” Bell said. “Normally, I don’t do that. But yeah, that was frustrating. It's no secret this track hasn’t been my favorite. The first stage, I thought we were onto something. Started 14th and got all the way up to ninth, I thought if we can improve just this much, we’d have a great day. And then, it went the opposite as soon as we got to stage two. I have no idea what adjustments Adam made. We threw the kitchen sink at it, as we went from being one of the worst cars on the track to being one of the best at the end. Adam and the engineers back at the shop have the magic. What they can do on the pitstops, it’s pretty incredible the turnaround we had today.

“It’s pretty sweet. I don’t know if last week any bearing on it, but we’ve had two good races in a row now. Have some momentum going. It’s all about Phoenix and now we have some more time to prepare for it.

“It’s going to be very relieving going into Martinsville. I looked at this round as a must-win every race. We had three opportunities to get to Phoenix. I was pretty vocal after last week, thinking that was our chance. Fortunately, we got it done this week.”

Unofficial Results, 4EVER 400, Homestead-Miami Speedway
Pos, Driver, Car, Delta, Laps, Last Lap, Best Time, Best Speed, Best Lap, Last Pit
1) Christopher Bell (P), No. 20, --, 267, 34.983, 32.526, 166.021, 244, 10.977
2) Ryan Blaney (P), No. 12, 1.651, 267, 34.914, 32.695, 165.163, 174, 9.910
3) Tyler Reddick (P), No. 45, 2.870, 267, 35.263, 32.790, 164.684, 2, 10.310
4) William Byron (P), No. 24, 3.700, 267, 35.194, 32.545, 165.924, 244, 9.909
5) AJ Allmendinger, No. 16, 3.920, 267, 35.177, 33.038, 163.448, 231, 10.610
6) Bubba Wallace, No. 23, 5.357, 267, 35.237, 32.678, 165.249, 2, 10.477
7) Ty Gibbs #, No. 54, 5.687, 267, 35.065, 32.723, 165.022, 87, 9.910
8) Joey Logano, No. 22, 6.279, 267, 35.171, 32.917, 164.049, 244, 10.610
9) Aric Almirola, No. 10, 6.666, 267, 34.987, 32.894, 164.164, 231, 9.943
10) Austin Dillon, No. 3, 7.108, 267, 34.777, 32.895, 164.159, 2, 14.247
11) Kevin Harvick, No. 4, 7.194, 267, 35.031, 33.227, 162.518, 231, 10.410
12) Austin Cindric, No. 2, 8.883, 267, 35.093, 33.174, 162.778, 244, 10.110
13) Ryan Preece, No. 41, 9.935, 267, 34.960, 33.231, 162.499, 244, 10.043
14) Erik Jones, No. 43, 12.015, 267, 35.210, 33.391, 161.720, 244, 16.550
15) Chase Elliott (P), No. 9, 12.661, 267, 35.557, 33.336, 161.987, 244, 10.210
16) Daniel Suarez, No. 99, 13.277, 267, 35.197, 33.510, 161.146, 35, 13.180
17) Chase Briscoe, No. 14, 13.445, 267, 35.161, 33.368, 161.832, 244, 9.576
18) Kyle Busch, No. 8, 13.783, 267, 35.310, 33.068, 163.300, 231, 11.044
19) Alex Bowman, No. 48, 14.232, 267, 35.300, 33.316, 162.084, 244, 10.644
20) Corey LaJoie, No. 7, 14.789, 267, 35.299, 33.128, 163.004, 87, 10.210
21) Chris Buescher (P), No. 17, 14.949, 267, 35.142, 33.339, 161.972, 230, 11.411
22) Michael McDowell, No. 34, 16.399, 267, 35.472, 33.069, 163.295, 2, 11.578
23) Justin Haley, No. 31, 17.958, 267, 36.179, 33.419, 161.585, 173, 12.345
24) Ty Dillon, No. 77, -1, 266, 35.274, 33.594, 160.743, 230, 45.712
25) Todd Gilliland, No. 38, -1, 266, 35.506, 33.560, 160.906, 229, 12.245
26) Ryan Newman(i), No. 51, -3, 264, 35.499, 33.707, 160.204, 35, 11.712
27) Ricky Stenhouse Jr., No. 47, -4, 262, 35.184, 33.502, 161.184, 2, 10.444
28) Brad Keselowski, No. 6, -6, 261, 37.330, 32.770, 164.785, 87, 38.004
29) Martin Truex Jr. (P), No. 19, -30, 237, 85.087, 32.709, 165.092, 87, 15.000
30) Denny Hamlin (P), No. 11, -31, 236, 61.274, 32.951, 163.880, 231, 149.590
31) Ross Chastain, No. 1, -46, 221, 72.212, 32.927, 163.999, 87, 622.325
32) John Hunter Nemechek(i), No. 42, -49, 218, 86.945, 33.798, 159.773, 2, 11.778
33) JJ Yeley(i), No. 15, -49, 218, 85.104, 33.760, 159.953, 2, 12.746
34) Kyle Larson (P), No. 5, -53, 214, 213.063, 32.580, 165.746, 87, 117.167
35) Josh Bilicki(i), No. 78, -66, 201, 39.498, 34.051, 158.586, 36, --
36) Harrison Burton, No. 21, -102, 165, 89.123, 33.475, 161.314, 34, --

Race Time: 03:11:54
Avg Speed: 126.230 mph

Leaders
Car, Times Led, Laps Led
20, 2, 26
12, 5, 53
45, 1, 1
24, 4, 25
23, 1, 9
6, 4, 16
19, 2, 11
11, 4, 31
5, 3, 96

Lead Changes
Car, Start, End, Total Laps
19, 0, 1, 2
23, 2, 10, 9
19, 11, 19, 9
24, 20, 32, 13
45, 33, 33, 1
11, 34, 40, 7
6, 41, 53, 13
5, 54, 80, 27
6, 81, 81, 1
5, 82, 114, 33
6, 115, 115, 1
11, 116, 125, 10
5, 126, 161, 36
12, 162, 167, 6
6, 168, 168, 1
12, 169, 173, 5
24, 174, 174, 1
12, 175, 212, 38
11, 213, 218, 6
12, 219, 221, 3
11, 222, 229, 8
20, 230, 239, 10
24, 240, 242, 3
12, 243, 243, 1
24, 244, 251, 8
20, 252, 267, 16

Cautions
No., Lap, Beneficiary, Reason
1) 76, 34, No. 47 Spin Backstretch/Stage 1 Conclusion
2) 165, 99, Stage 2 Conclusion
3) 212, 6, No. 5 Incident Pit Road Entrance [Red Flag: 00:12:35]
4) 216, , 
5) 221, 48, No. 15, 42, 6, 1 Incident Backstretch
6) 235, 99, No. 11 Incident Turn 1

Pos, Starting Pos, Driver, Car, Final Status, Laps Completed, Laps Led, Points
1) 13, Christopher Bell, No. 20, Running, 267, 26, 42
2) 10, Ryan Blaney, No. 12, Running, 267, 53, 53
3) 3, Tyler Reddick, No. 45, Running, 267, 1, 42
4) 7, William Byron, No. 24, Running, 267, 25, 49
5) 25, AJ Allmendinger, No. 16, Running, 267, 0, 32
6) 2, Bubba Wallace, No. 23, Running, 267, 9, 31
7) 9, Ty Gibbs, No. 54, Running, 267, 0, 34
8) 36, Joey Logano, No. 22, Running, 267, 0, 30
9) 30, Aric Almirola, No. 10, Running, 267, 0, 28
10) 6, Austin Dillon, No. 3, Running, 267, 0, 32
11) 22, Kevin Harvick, No. 4, Running, 267, 0, 26
12) 26, Austin Cindric, No. 2, Running, 267, 0, 25
13) 29, Ryan Preece, No. 41, Running, 267, 0, 24
14) 19, Erik Jones, No. 43, Running, 267, 0, 23
15) 16, Chase Elliott, No. 9, Running, 267, 0, 22
16) 14, Daniel Suárez, No. 99, Running, 267, 0, 21
17) 21, Chase Briscoe, No. 14, Running, 267, 0, 20
18) 18, Kyle Busch, No. 8, Running, 267, 0, 19
19) 12, Alex Bowman, No. 48, Running, 267, 0, 18
20) 20, Corey Lajoie, No. 7, Running, 267, 0, 17
21) 17, Chris Buescher, No. 17, Running, 267, 0, 16
22) 15, Michael Mcdowell, No. 34, Running, 267, 0, 15
23) 27, Justin Haley, No. 31, Running, 267, 0, 14
24) 33, Ty Dillon, No. 77, Running, 266, 0, 13
25) 32, Todd Gilliland, No. 38, Running, 266, 0, 12
26) 34, Ryan Newman, No. 51, Running, 265, 0, 0
27) 23, Ricky Stenhouse Jr, No. 47, Running, 263, 0, 10
28) 4, Brad Keselowski, No. 6, Running, 262, 16, 24
29) 1, Martin Truex Jr, No. 19, Engine, 237, 10, 19
30) 11, Denny Hamlin, No. 11, Accident, 236, 31, 19
31) 8, Ross Chastain, No. 1, Accident, 221, 0, 6
32) 24, John H. Nemechek, No. 42, Accident, 218, 0, 0
33) 31, JJ Yeley, No. 15, Accident, 218, 0, 0
34) 5, Kyle Larson, No. 5, Accident, 214, 96, 21
35) 35, Josh Bilicki, No. 78, Accident, 201, 0, 0
36) 28, Harrison Burton, No. 21, Overheating, 165, 0, 1