66 Minutes Encapsulates The Chaos Of The NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs
66 minutes is all it took for the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs to change entirely. Martin Truex and Denny Hamlin? Mechanical Failures. Ryan Blaney? 15 point swing in his favor with a P2 finish. Christopher Bell? Locked into the Championship 4. 66 minutes is all it took. Blaney and Bell battled for the win late, after Kyle Larson, the dominant car of the day, decided to create a manmade beach on the front straightaway, crashing into the sand barrels coming onto pit road. From there, it was anybody’s race, and Christopher Bell, who at one point ran 18th with a car that was extremely loose, was in the catbird’s seat, watching as the laps ticked down. He did enough to hold off Ryan Blaney and lock himself into the Championship 4 for the 2nd year in a row. It’s the 4th clutch win in the last 2 years for Bell, who is proving to be the present and future for Joe Gibbs Racing, who desperately needs a long term plan with the eventual retirement of the aforementioned Truex & Hamlin.