NASCAR: Christopher Bell wins with last-lap pass at Atlanta

Christopher Bell won Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Atlanta with a last-lap pass before a crash on the backstretch.

Bell passed Kyle Larson on the last lap and finished ahead of Larson and Carson Hocevar as Josh Berry got crashed on the final lap when he was squeezed in the middle of a three-wide scenario. The caution came out before the finish line a day before NASCAR race control didn’t throw a caution for a large crash on the final lap in the Xfinity Series.

In the drivers’ meeting ahead of Sunday’s race, NASCAR admitted it erred in not throwing the caution on Saturday because of the size of the crash. The Daytona 500 also ended under green after a crash on the backstretch on the final lap.

The win is the 10th of Bell’s Cup Series career and his first at a drafting track.

The final lap was his only lap led as well. As Ford drivers got nine of the top 10 starting positions in qualifying, Toyota drivers qualified far behind and clearly had cars set up for maneuverability. Bell used that to his advantage as he worked his way up to the front in the final stage to set himself up for the win.

Bell passed Larson on a green-white-checker finish that was set up by a crash at the front of the field. Larson tried to move up ahead of Austin Cindric while making a pass for the lead but wasn’t clear. That forced Cindric into the wall, and Larson’s teammate and Daytona 500 winner William Byron then slid up into Cindric. That sent both Byron and Cindric crashing into the inside wall.

Hocevar ended up getting a career-best finish of second after he drew the ire of several drivers throughout the race. Ryan Blaney went spinning off his bumper in the final stage and was one of multiple drivers to talk to Hocevar on pit road after the race.

Blaney came back to finish fourth thanks to the fresh tires his team put on his car after that spin.

Race results

1. Christopher Bell

2. Carson Hocevar

3. Kyle Larson

4. Ryan Blaney

5. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

6. Denny Hamlin

7. Kyle Busch

8. Ross Chastain

9. Bubba Wallace

10. John Hunter Nemechek

11. Joey Logano

12. Zane Smith

13. Michael McDowell

14. AJ Allmendinger

15. Todd Gilliland

16. Austin Dillon

17. Riley Herbst

18. Chase Elliott

19. Ryan Preece

20. Tyler Reddick

21. Chase Briscoe

22. BJ McLeod

23. Shane van Gisbergen

24. Justin Haley

25. Josh Berry

26. Alex Bowman

27. William Byron

28. Austin Cindric

29. Ty Dillon

30. Chris Buescher

31. Erik Jones

32. Ty Gibbs

33. Daniel Suarez

34. Noah Gragson

35. Cody Ware

36. Cole Custer

37. JJ Yeley

38. Corey LaJoie

39. Brad Keselowski