2025 Bristol Night Race results: Christopher Bell survives last lap bump and run to win thriller

By: CBS Sports Posted On: September 14, 2025 View: 0

BRISTOL, Tenn. -- In a race that saw Thunder Valley get lit up as man and machine wore out, Christopher Bell won the Bass Pro Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway in an exciting finish. Bell's win is his fourth of the season and the third in a row to open the playoffs for Joe Gibbs Racing, but it marks Bell's first win in a points-paying Cup race since Phoenix in March.

At the outset of the race, a new right side tire compound delivered on its promise for aggressive levels of wear and falloff, resulting in an action-packed affair that saw swift and sudden plot twists throughout and a total of 14 cautions, the most in any Bristol Night Race in 20 years. The final caution, triggered when contact with Cole Custer sent Bubba Wallace into the wall, created a split in strategies where race leader Brad Keselowski, Bell and others pitted for what fresh tires they had left while Carson Hocevar, Zane Smith and Alex Bowman -- in a situation where he had to win to advance in the playoffs -- stayed out for the final few laps.

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With fresh right side tires, Bell made quick work of the drivers on old tires, setting up a final lap where Keselowski took one final shot at Bell, charging into the final corner and hitting Bell in the rear bumper to try and move him out of the way. But the bump and run was all for naught, as Bell was able to hang on and get back to the checkered flag to take the win, bouncing back one week after he had lashed out in frustration at his crew over their late-race strategy at Gateway.

"I was nervous on the twos. I didn't know if I wanted to be on the bottom or the top (for the restart), and whenever Brad picked the top didn't really give me an option. I had to pick the bottom," Bell told USA Network after the win. "All night long, I don't know, old tires just really, really pushed up in the middle of the corners, so I was hoping that those guys on old tires would push up, and they did. I was able to get by or get underneath them. It wasn't pretty there at the end, but we got her done.

"... We just know that any week, any given week, it could be us, and it hadn't been us for a long time. But Bristol, baby, tonight it's us!"

Keselowski had to settle for second, followed by Smith, Ryan Blaney, Joey Logano, Corey Heim -- who earned his first top 10 in just his seventh career Cup start -- Hocevar, Bowman, Chase Briscoe and Ty Gibbs. Gibbs led the most laps with 201, but saw his chances of getting his first Cup win disappear when he missed the entry to pit road late in the race and then had right front tire problems.

Bowman headlined the four drivers attempting to claw their way back above the cut line in Saturday night's first round elimination race, but he, Shane van Gisbergen, Austin Dillon and Josh Berry -- after a fiery exit when his right front ignited and engulfed his car in smoke and flames -- were all eliminated from the playoffs at the end of the Round of 12. Austin Cindric, who withstood a late race tire fire of his own (which helped Chase Elliott, who failed to finish after a hard crash in turns 3 & 4), was able to hang onto the final spot above the cut line after having entered the night 12th in the playoff standings.

Denny Hamlin will begin the Round of 12 at New Hampshire at the top of the playoff standings with a 26 point advantage on the cut line, followed by William Byron and Kyle Larson (+24), Christopher Bell (+20), Ryan Blaney (+19), Chase Briscoe (+10), Chase Elliott (+5) and Bubba Wallace (+1). Austin Cindric (-1), Joey Logano (-2), Ross Chastain (-2) and Tyler Reddick (-3) will all begin the second round below the cut line to make the Round of 8.