Brad Keselowski drops raw reaction to Bristol's final restart showdown with Christopher Bell

Brad Keselowski left Bristol Motor Speedway on Saturday night with mixed emotions after coming up just short in a late duel with Christopher Bell. The RFK Racing driver lined up with a shot to win the Bass Pro Shops Night Race, but walked away frustrated with how the final restart unfolded.

Bell, who was fifth with four laps remaining, charged forward on fresh right-side tires and survived a last-lap bump from Keselowski to seal his fourth victory of the season. The win meant Joe Gibbs Racing has now won all the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs Round of 16 races.

Brad Keselowski, who finished 0.343 seconds behind Bell, gave an unfiltered assessment of the chaotic final laps (via Noah Lewis):

"Someone pulled out in front of me there and stopped who I was leading and I bumped into him and caused some kind of chain reaction, but caught the yellow. Still going to be fine. And on the restart, the 77 (Carson Hocevar) spun his tires and the 38 (Zane Smith) cleaned him out, and basically just all Chris (Bell) had to do was turn left. I had a shot at him down here on the last lap, and I hit him but it just didn’t do anything." (0:46 onwards)

The closing laps saw both veterans lean hard into Bristol’s trademark bump-and-run. Bell picked the bottom lane after Brad Keselowski opted for the top, a decision that ultimately swung the race.

"Well, I’ll tell you what, I was nervous on the two. I didn’t know if I wanted to be on the bottom or the top, and whenever Brad picked the top didn’t really give me an option. I had to pick the bottom," Bell admitted post-race.

The two Camrys rubbed doors on the final lap, but Christopher Bell’s line stuck, denying Keselowski a first win of the year. Behind them, non-playoff driver Zane Smith scored a surprising third, followed by Ryan Blaney and Joey Logano for Team Penske.

For four playoff drivers, the night meant elimination. Alex Bowman, Austin Dillon, Shane van Gisbergen, and Josh Berry dropped out of the Round of 16 as the field narrowed to 12. Bowman came closest, missing the cut by just ten points.

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Brad Keselowski on how tire wear dictated Bristol’s race

Brad Keselowski (6) during the NASCAR Cup Series Bass Pro Shops Night Race. Source: Getty

Beyond the finish, the story of the night was tire wear. Goodyear introduced a softer right-side compound, hoping to restore Bristol’s reputation as a driver’s track. The result was a throwback-style short-track race where tire management became as important as speed.

Brad Keselowski didn’t hold back in describing the effect (via Noah Lewis):

"There’s a lot happened tonight. First, Goodyear, the tire worked. The temperature dropped to the threshold and we got a tire wear race. It’s so freaking… There’s some scientist somewhere that could have a big study on this one. How like a 5° swing of track temp changes it so dramatically. But, I thought it was actually a really good race because of the tire wear. The bottom was dominant. A lot of bump-and-run passes. It felt like Bristol from 1995, in that regard."

NASCAR officials echoed that sentiment. Elton Sawyer, senior vice president of competition, said the softer tire was designed to “put tire management back in the driver’s hands”, pointing to races earlier this year at Richmond and Watkins Glen as examples of how tire fall-off can improve competition.

The numbers backed up the unpredictability. Saturday’s 500-lap event featured 36 lead changes, the third-most ever at Bristol, along with 14 cautions, the most since 2020. The swings in track position kept the race wide open until the final green-flag laps.

As the playoffs shift to the Round of 12, Bristol’s tire-wear battle will be remembered as a night when NASCAR’s old-school flavor returned and when Brad Keselowski came agonizingly close to rewriting the script.

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Edited by Tushar Bahl