Winners: Christopher Bell (Cup); Austin Hill (Xfinity); Kyle Busch (Trucks)
NASCAR Cup
Christopher Bell Holds Off Hocevar & Larson
Christopher Bell prevailed in overtime to claim the victory in Sunday’s Ambetter Health 400 at Atlanta Motor Speedway – officially leading only the final lap and getting the photo nod in a three-wide run as a caution flag came out on the last lap to end the NASCAR Cup Series race.
It marks the second year that this race featured a three-wide run to the end. This time Bell was out front over second-year driver Carson Hocevar and 2021 series champion Kyle Larson as the final yellow flag flew. It was the the 10th career series victory for Bell, a 30-year-old Oklahoma native, and his first on a drafting-type track like Atlanta, Daytona or Talladega. It also marked the first victory for Joe Gibbs Racing since June of last year.
“I’ll tell you what, that right there is what you dream of,” an elated Bell said afterward. “To be able to restart on the first or second row on a restart at a speedway, you never know how those things are going to play out.
“But,” he added looking directly into the FOX television cameras with a huge smile, “I’ll be the first to tell you, ‘I love superspeedways.’
“I don’t know,” he conceded, “but this style of racing has always been a little bit of a struggle for me. Throughout the beginning of the day, obviously today we were just stuck way in the back. But [crew chief] Adam [Stevens] and these boys just did an incredible job of getting this thing fixed up so I could just hold my foot down and you’ve got to be able to just stay in the throttle and that last half of the race we ran our best.”
Had to soak that first AMS win in a little while longer#Ambetter400 pic.twitter.com/aFjrSxqZWz
— Atlanta Motor Speedway (@ATLMotorSpdwy) February 24, 2025
Pole: Ryan Blaney
Click Here for Race ResultsNASCAR Xfinity
Austin Hill Dominates, 3rd Consecutive Win
The Atlanta Motor Speedway is Austin Hill’s home track after all — and the Georgia native proved again Saturday night that he absolutely “owns it.”
Hill dominated the NASCAR Xfinity Series’ Bennett Transportation & Logistics 250 on the Atlanta high banks — leading 146 of the 163 laps to claim his first victory of the early 2025 season, driving the No. 21 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet sponsored by the race’s title partner.
“Thank you to Parker Retzlaff for giving me that push, and then once I got clear and into [Turn] 1, I was just wide open and I was hoping they weren’t going to build up momentum,””Hill said, adding, “To be able to do this is something special.”
Brought the heat to Hotlanta. đ„ pic.twitter.com/PKcRsiMGcE
— NASCAR Xfinity (@NASCAR_Xfinity) February 23, 2025
Pole: Jesse Love
Click Here for Race ResultsNASCAR Trucks
Kyle Busch Wins Truck Series Thriller
With seven previous Atlanta Motor Speedway trophies in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series already on his mantel, Kyle Busch was the odds-on favorite for Saturday’s Fr8 Racing 208. The veteran did not disappoint.
Pulling ahead of Stewart Friesen about 20 yards from the finish line, Busch’s No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet held on for a slight .017-second win as the two passed side-by-side under the checkered flag. It was Busch’s record eighth series victory at the track. He led a race-high 80 of the 135 laps but definitely earned his hardware this weekend with a half-dozen trucks going door-to-door with the two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion in the closing 20 laps.
“Awesome run for this Spire Chevrolet and everybody at [sponsor] Gainbridge,” Busch said, thanking the fans in the grandstands for coming out in the cloudy 50-degree Atlanta weather.
“Just trying to make sure I stayed as far forward as I possibly could,” Busch said of how he held off the field in the closing laps. “Those guys would cycle to me and get to the next one in front, next one in front of me and I just made sure to keep battling back and got back to the front so I could control it the best I could. That inside [lane] was good, they were rolling forward so it made for a heck of a race.”
“I’m proud we had a heck of a race there to the finish and it wasn’t single-file. There was some mixing it up for these fans out here to see a cool show.”
Right to the line for the win! pic.twitter.com/MraNxCERXm
— NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Trucks (@NASCAR_Trucks) February 22, 2025
Connor Mosack
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