How Christopher Bell completed Toyota’s Round of 16 sweep at Bristol

After hitting 200 NASCAR Cup Series victories at Gateway last week, Toyota’s already gotten started on their quest for 300. After a frantic battle in Saturday night’s Bass Pro Shops Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway, Christopher Bell came out on top for his 13th career win.

The victory also meant Joe Gibbs Racing and Toyota won all three races in the Round of 16. Chase Briscoe began the playoffs by winning Darlington, then Denny Hamlin won at Gateway the following week. It was the eighth time since the introduction of the playoff format in 2014 that a single manufacturer claimed every race in a given round.

Chevrolet swept the 2014, 2015, and 2021 Rounds of 8 as well as the 2024 Round of 12; Ford did so at the 2015 Round of 12 and 2020 Round of 16; and Toyota was previously perfect in the 2017 Round of 16. JGR was also responsible for the aforementioned Toyota sweep, one of two teams to win all three races alongside Hendrick Motorsports in contributing to Chevy’s 2015 Round of 8.

Despite fears of a 2024 spring race repeat wherein tyre wear was virtually nonexistent, Goodyear’s soft tyre combo ended up providing much more than expected. Most right-side tyres started to degrade before the race even reached Lap 25, while Bell recalled he had already run out of fresh sets by just Lap 45.

Unlike last year’s race, where they struggled to decide whether to wave the yellow flag at each little tyre failure, NASCAR opted to let the race continue so long that the victim was not crashing. Bell was receptive to this decision, praising NASCAR doing “a great job of just letting the race play out, and they got a great product from it.”

Ironically, despite turning a blind eye to tyre punctures, Race Control was still very busy pressing the caution button. 12 yellow flags were flown for genuine accidents, including a late crash involving Bubba Wallace and Cole Custer with less than ten laps to go that set up a four-lap dash to the finish.

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Brad Keselowski was Bell’s main rival for the race win as both were on fresher tyres than their adversaries. Keselowski chose to restart the race on the outside line while Bell did so on the bottom, and other drivers on older tyres filed in behind Keselowski. Taking the green flag on the inside proved to be the right call, even if Bell had to fight for it.

“It was super hard to get the car to stick around the bottom,” Bell explained. “[The other cars] just kind of slid up, and it was a perfect storm for me. Once I got the lead, it wasn’t the prettiest thing those last couple laps. I started really struggling to hit the line and I was sliding around a lot, and Brad was able to run right up to me.

“It was too close for comfort inside the car, but that’s what makes it a really good race.”

Berry eliminated after historically abysmal round

While Bell and 11 other drivers advanced to the Round of 12, Bristol was the end of the road for Alex Bowman, Shane van Gisbergen, Austin Dillon, and Josh Berry.

Although Bowman finished a solid eighth on Saturday, he effectively needed to win to advance because of dismal showings in the first two Round of 16 races. His pit crew took most of the blame for the failures: a disastrous pit stop at Darlington turned him into a nonfactor as he finished 31st, and another poor showing at Gateway kept him mired back in 26th.

Van Gisbergen, despite being tied with Hamlin for the most regular season wins, stood little chance as a rookie still trying to find his way around ovals. He quietly finished 32nd, 25th, and 26th in the three races of the opening round. While his slim championship hopes are officially gone, he can still be pleased about a four-win season and Rookie of the Year honours.

Dillon failed to finish higher than 18th at Gateway, which was sandwiched between a 23rd at Gateway and 28th at Bristol.

Meanwhile, Berry was by far the biggest loser of the first round. As someone racing for a small family-run team, it was unlikely he could win the title, but even then he never had a chance to show what he was capable of. In an unusually catastrophic showing, he ended up finishing last in all three races. Berry crashed out at Darlington and Gateway, leaving him 16th and at the bottom of the standings going into Bristol. Although he qualified well in tenth, he was required to win if he wanted to stay alive.

Unfortunately, his car only lasted about 75 laps before the engine grenaded and his car burst into flames. As the only driver to not even complete triple-digit laps, he was once again dead last for the third straight race.

The only bright spot in his Round of 16 was securing the fastest lap at Darlington, meaning he earned two points there rather than one for finishing last. The four points scored in the round tied him with Erik Jones in the 2019 Round of 16 for the fewest by any playoff driver, though one of Jones’ finishes was actually a fourth that turned into 38th because he was disqualified.

“We’ve qualified well. We’ve had good cars. We just haven’t had the good finishes,” said Berry. “That’s just part of it. I don’t think you could ever script three last-place finishes in the ways that we’ve gotten them over the last few weeks.”

“It’s hard to put into words, but I’d be way more disappointed if we just ran like crap for three weeks. We’ve been up front. We’ve qualified well. We had the issue at Darlington, bottoming out. Last week, we get clipped by the #9 (Chase Elliott) and then tonight the car catches on fire. It’s nothing that we’re doing on our own.

“The cars have been fast and the performance has been good. If we just had a little bit of luck, I feel like we could be in a much better situation. Honestly, I think the way that was playing out, we would have 100 percent had a chance to win tonight.”

NASCAR 2025 Bass Pro Shops Night Race – Results