NASCAR Xfinity Series: Christopher Bell wins 2018 Go Bowling 250

Christopher Bell opened up the first round of the 2018 NASCAR Xfinity Series playoffs by winning the Go Bowling 250 at Richmond Raceway.

Joe Gibbs Racing’s Christopher Bell, who won four races in the 26-race 2018 NASCAR Xfinity Series regular season, opened up the first of three rounds of the playoffs, the round of 12, by winning the Go Bowling 250 at Richmond Raceway to lock himself into the second round, the round of 8.

Bell won the 250-lap race around the four-turn, 0.75-mile (1.207-kilometer) Richmond Raceway oval in Richmond, Virginia by 0.566 seconds in his #20 Toyota over Chip Ganassi Racing’s Ross Chastain, who was the highest finishing Chevrolet driver of the race in second place in his #42 Chevrolet.

Bell started the race from the pole position, something that he had not done in any of the five Xfinity Series races that he had won prior to today.

More from Xfinity Series

Five Chevrolet drivers representing two teams rounded out the top seven. Richard Childress Racing’s Daniel Hemric and Matt Tifft finished in third and fifth place in their #21 Chevrolet and #2 Chevrolet, respectively. JR Motorsports’ Dale Earnhardt Jr., Elliott Sadler and Tyler Reddick finished in fourth, sixth and seventh in their #88 Chevrolet, #1 Chevrolet and #9 Chevrolet, respectively.

Joe Gibbs Racing’s Brandon Jones and Richard Childress Racing’s Shane Lee finished in eighth and ninth place in their #19 Toyota and #3 Chevrolet, respectively. Roush Fenway Racing’s Ryan Reed was the highest finishing Ford driver of the race. He finished in 10th in his #16 Ford.

Tifft, who took the lead from Earnhardt Jr. in the pits during the penultimate caution flag period and the final round of pit stops of the race, led on the final restart with 14 laps to go, but Bell passed him coming out of turn two and never looked back. This restart took place as a result of a wreck involving playoff drivers Reed, Austin Cindric, Cole Custer and Justin Allgaier.

The race featured a total of 11 lead changes among five drivers. Aside of Bell, who led 67 laps, four other drivers led at least one lap of the race. Those drivers were Hemric, Earnhardt Jr., Tifft and Allgaier. Earnhardt Jr. led more laps than anybody else in the field with 96 laps led. Hemric won stage one and Earnhardt Jr. won stage two.

The race also featured a total of five caution flag periods, of which two took place as a result of the endings of stages one and two and three took place as a result of on-track incidents. These five caution flag periods spanned 40 laps. A total of 31 of the 40 drivers who started the race finished it, and 19 of those 31 drivers finished it on the lead lap.

Here are the full race results of the 2018 Go Bowling 250 at Richmond Raceway.

Race Results

1st – Christopher Bell

2nd – Ross Chastain

3rd – Daniel Hemric

4th – Dale Earnhardt Jr.

5th – Matt Tifft

6th – Elliott Sadler

7th – Tyler Reddick

8th – Brandon Jones

9th – Shane Lee

10th – Ryan Reed

11th – Ryan Truex

12th – Spencer Gallagher

13th – Austin Cindric

14th – Michael Annett

15th – Cole Custer

16th – Jeremy Clements

17th – Ryan Sieg

18th – Ryan Preece

19th – Mason Diaz

20th – David Starr

21st – Alex Labbe

22nd – Joey Gase

23rd – Ray Black Jr.

24th – Garrett Smithley

25th – J.J. Yeley

26th – Chad Finchum

27th – Matt Mills

28th – Katherine Legge

29th – Bayley Currey

30th – Josh Bilicki

31st – Quin Houff

32nd – Justin Allgaier

33rd – Spencer Boyd

34th – Ty Majeski

35th – Mike Harmon

36th – Carl Long

37th – Vinnie Miller

38th – Timmy Hill

39th – Jeff Green

40th – Morgan Shepherd

Next. Top 10 NASCAR drivers of all-time. dark

The second of seven races on the 2018 NASCAR Xfinity Series playoff schedule is the Drive for the Cure 200 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway roval in Concord, North Carolina. This race is scheduled to take place on Saturday, September 29, and it is set to be broadcast live on NBC Sports Network beginning at 3:00 p.m. ET.

Home/Xfinity Series