Christopher Bell earned a victory in Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series U.S. Cellular 250 presented by The Rasmussen Group at Iowa Speedway, becoming the first Xfinity regular since Dale Earnhardt Jr. in 1999 to collect three consecutive race wins. But it wasn’t smooth sailing for Bell at the end of the race. Bell looked to be cruising to the victory. His lead was 5 seconds until a caution that happened directly in front of his No. 20 Toyota derailed that comfort with 14 laps to go. The spinning No. 60 Ford of Chase Briscoe nearly took out Bell’s car, which somehow remained largely undamaged and was able to maintain control of the ensuing two restarts as the leader. It got worse for Bell on the first restart attempt of NASCAR overtime, losing the lead to Justin Allgaier as drivers made it four-wide in a frantic dash into Turn 1.
After a 17-minute red flag for an incident involving Matt Tifft and Max Tullman set up a second overtime, which bunched up the field for one final restart, Bell was aggressive once the green flag waved. Bell dipped low on Allgaier in Turn 3 and the two made contact while racing side-by-side to the white flag. Bell made the pass in Turn 1 on the last lap and pulled away from Allgaier for the checkered flag, leading 94 laps en route to his fifth career NASCAR Xfinity Series triumph.
Allgaier wasn’t happy with Bell’s tactics, making his opinions known after getting out of the car. “He lifted me up at the start and lifted me off of Turn 2 and then tried to put me in the fence,” Allgaier said. “Yeah, I’m salty.”
Next up for the NASCAR Xfinity Series is Watkins Glen International on Saturday, August 4 (2:00 p.m. CT, NBC).