Ambetter Health 400: Christopher Bell earns first drafting track win at Atlanta

HAMPTON, Ga. — Christopher Bell only led a single lap in the Ambetter Health 400, the last lap, which helped the Joe Gibbs Racing driver earn his 10th career NASCAR Cup Series win at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

The driver of the No. 20 DEWALT Toyota now holds 10 wins at nine different tracks in the Cup Series. Bell, who just earned his first career victory at a drafting-style track, was super excited to pick up an early season win in the Peach State.

“I’ll tell you what, that right there is what you dream of, to be able to restart on the first or second row in a green/white checkered in a speedway,” Bell said. “You never know how those things are going to play out, but I’ll be the first to tell you, I love superspeedways (laughing). This style of racing has just always been a little bit of a struggle for me, and throughout the beginning of the day, we obviously were just stuck way in the back.

“Adam and these boys back here, they did an amazing job getting this thing fixed up to where I could just hold my foot down. That’s what it’s all about, you have to be able to stay in the throttle, and that last half of the race we were at our best.”

Spire Motorsports driver Carson Hocevar earned his best career finish since becoming a full-time Cup Series driver last season. The 2024 Rookie of The Year Award winner may have made some enemies throughout the race with his aggressive driving tactics, but the 22-year-old fought hard for a second-place finish in Georgia.

In his post-race interview, Hocevar made it a point to apologize for his on-track actions.

“First off, apologies to Larson and HMS, Mr. H, everybody,” Hocevar said. “They help us out a lot, and I didn’t realize we weren’t racing back to the line. The last two nights were kind of that way. I hit the 20 (Bell) to get him out of the way and fill the middle. A little bit longer, maybe we win the race. Big thanks to Spire Motorsports, Chevrolet, everybody, Delaware Life. I normally ride in the back and run last, and I tried to get a good, decent finish. For how bad we were at Daytona, I was not riding.

“Yeah, I mean, there’s some stuff I got to learn and clean up a little bit, but I feel like we put ourselves in the perfect opportunity to try and win a race. I’ve never had that opportunity really before, especially on a superspeedway. So just a big day today for everybody at Spire Motorsports. They deserve all the praise. I just get to hold the wheel and run wide open and just try to put myself in a decent spot. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the best spot, but it was just is one spot short.”

Kyle Larson, the 2021 Cup Series champion, arguably had his best performance ever on a drafting track. After earning his first career stage win on a drafting-style track, Larson seemed to have control of the race whenever he got to the front. However, the driver of the No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet ended the day in third place when all was said and done.

“I think if I didn’t let the No. 20 (Bell) get to my outside, I would have had an opportunity, but he would probably split to my inside into (turn) one and clear me,” Larson said. “If I don’t hesitate, the wreck probably doesn’t happen. So yeah, I don’t know… I haven’t seen a replay yet. But yeah, bummer not to get a win. I’m proud of the effort today by this No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevy team. We had a lot of fun. It was super intense. It was my first legit finish here at Atlanta Motor Speedway since the reconfiguration, so I’ll take it.”

Results from the 2025 Ambetter Health 400 at Atlanta are listed below:

Other Race Facts

Michael McDowell had the most eventful day as the driver of the No. 71 Group 1001 Chevrolet came back from being six laps down to finish on the lead lap in 13th place. McDowell received the free pass six times which is tied for the most ever in a NASCAR Cup Series race (Jamie McMurray at Talladega 2014; Noah Gragson at Bristol Dirt in 2022), according to Trey Ryan from NASCAR Insights.

In addition, McDowell is now the only driver in the Cup Series field not to be involved in an incident so far in 2025.

Bubba Wallace and Kyle Larson tied for the most points scored in the Ambetter Health 400 (44 points) despite Larson finishing third and Wallace finishing ninth. Wallace’s 16 stage points were the most among the drivers.

Chase Elliott was involved in a crash that seemingly was going to end his day. However, the 2020 Cup Series champion made up multiple laps and finished in 20th place at his home track.

Legacy Motor Club driver John Hunter Nemechek’s 2025 season is off to a strong start with back-to-back top 10s. The driver of the No. 42 Dollar Tree Toyota already has half as many top 10s as he did last season.

There were 50 lead changes among 15 drivers, which is a new record for Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Bell’s victory gave Toyota its first win at Atlanta since 2013 and it was also Joe Gibbs Racing’s first Cup Series victory since Bell won at New Hampshire last summer on June 23, 2024.

Kaulig Racing’s AJ Allmendinger collected the bonus point for setting the Xfinity Fastest Lap of the race.

GRID RANKING

 

For now, William Byron, the 2023 NASCAR GRID Rating Champion, and Atlanta race winner Christopher Bell will lead the Cup Series rating, followed by Tyler Reddick, Carson Hocevar and Ryan Blaney.

The next race on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix at Circuit of The Americas on Sunday, March 2. Coverage will begin at 3:30 p.m. ET on FOX.

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