DARLINGTON, S.C. — Christopher Bell is no longer the driver who only scores runner-up finishes in 2026. He has kicked off the Chase by scoring his first career crown jewel win.
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Bell, who has finished second in seven races this season, chased down and passed Joey Logano and Kyle Larson with 26 laps remaining in Sunday night's Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway. He passed Logano with 22 laps left and then passed Larson with 12 laps left.
He then held off teammate Ty Gibbs in the closing laps to score his first win of the season. Bell won the Southern 500 for the first time in his career, and he jumped from sixth in the standings to second.
Now, he is only 12 points back of Denny Hamlin with nine more races remaining in the Chase. This comes after he started the Chase 50 points back.
He also now has two crown jewel wins in his possession — the 2024 Coca-Cola 600 and the 2026 Southern 500.
Christopher Bell is a Southern 500 winner! pic.twitter.com/Yb6Uc79gnh
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) September 7, 2026
"I mean, it's just incredible," Bell said in response to a question from FanBuzz. "Yeah, the Southern 500 has always been my golden ticket.
"You know, the Daytona 500 is a huge race, but it's not a driver's track. There's a lot of things that go into that outside of your control. The Southern 500 is the ultimate driver's race.
"Between this one and Charlotte, I'm tickled to death. So I'm really just blessed, blessed to be here, for sure."
Of course, this was not a simple, easy cruise to the win for Bell and the No. 20 team. They had to recover from a bad pit stop after stage 2 that lost them approximately 13 spots.
The No. 20 team then slightly fell victim to pit strategy during the final pit stop with 27 laps remaining in race.
Chase Briscoe had the lead when the caution flew for rain. Bell ran in second place with Larson behind them. Once pit road opened, Briscoe and Bell headed to their respective stalls for fresh tires.
Larson stayed out on tires with approximately four green flag laps of wear. Austin Cindric, Logano, and Ryan Preece followed. This dropped Bell to sixth in the running order for the restart. He had to line up on the third row instead of on the front, and it created questions about whether he could get back into contention for the win.
Yet, the Oklahoma native achieved this. He moved into third place on the restart after passing Preece and Cindric. From that point on, he just had to chase down Logano and Larson using the long run speed that had helped him score 17 stage points earlier in the night. He also scored the Xfinity Fastest Lap in the process.
"I wasn't really concerned about the cars that stayed out," crew chief Adam Stevens said after the race. "I was more concerned that we were going to have a handful or more on (right-side tires), and I thought that could be trouble.
"But our long-run pace was so good, I didn't want to do anything to really jeopardize that. And thankfully, it played out with the decision making that it did for the field. And I felt pretty confident in our situation as long as we had a good restart."
This win marked a milestone in a season in which Bell has fractured his wrist, missed out on several wins for various reasons, and watched the rest of his teammates celebrate.
Now that he has the win and greater control of his future, he can go on offense. He can focus on chasing down Hamlin over the final nine races of the season, starting next Sunday at World Wide Technology Raceway.
"It's been too damn long!" Bell screamed after celebrating with a burnout. "Oh, my gosh, man. I'm just so, so proud of all of these guys. All the mechanics, all of the pit crew members. They deserve it more than anyone."
