Christopher Bell triumphs Bass Pro Night Race, dedicates victory to late political activist Charlie Kirk

Christopher Bell survived a chaotic Bass Pro Shops Night Race and came out on top after a late-race charge. On a solemn note, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver went on to dedicate his win to the memory of Charlie Kirk.

Bell began Saturday's race at ninth and fell out of the top-10 during both stages. However, a chaotic outing reminiscent of the 2024 Spring Bristol race saw teams scrambling for tires.

The 500-lap event saw 36 lead changes among 14 drivers, and Bell ran 117 laps among the top 5 after 12 pit stops. The No.20 driver took the lead with 3 laps to go and kept his position till the checkered flag, edging out Brad Keselowski with a narrow margin of 0.343 seconds.

In a post-race interview with NBC Sports, Bell broke down the day's events, saying,

"All night long, I don’t know, old tires just really, really pushed up in the middle of the corners so I was hoping that those guys on old tires would push up and they did. I was able to get by or get underneath Bowman. It wasn’t pretty there at the end, but we got her done." "So most importantly this week’s obviously been a very tough week, and there’s a lot on our mind and just this one’s for Charlie. We just know that any given week, it could be us, and it hadn’t been us for a long time. But Bristol, baby! Tonight, it does!," Christopher Bell added.

Charlie Kirk was a political activist who was shot during an event at Utah Valley University on Wednesday, September 10. The assassination has drawn widespread condemnation of political violence across the country. Notably, Richard Childress Racing's Kyle Busch honoured Kirk with a special decal on his No.8 Chevy.

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Christopher Bell addresses his radio outburst at Gateway

Last weekend at Gateway, Christopher Bell placed among the top-10, but was left frustrated since his teammates, Denny Hamlin and Chase Briscoe, won back-to-back playoff races. He took out his frustration on the team radio and called for changes in the No.20 team's approach.

Heading into the weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway, Bell explained his reasoning and said (via X/Bob Pockrass),

"If your teammates are out there winning races and leading laps that shows that you know the cars are capable, we have the equipment and I haven't been leading laps and I haven't been winning races. So you know, there's obviously something going on that's keeping us from doing that."

Christopher Bell can now celebrate a much-needed win after his three-race sweep early in the season. He currently ranks fourth in the newly reset points standings, and has a 20-point cushion over the cutline and trails Denny Hamlin, Kyle Larson, and William Byron.

Alex Bowman, Austin Dillon, Shane van Gisbergen, and Josh Berry were eliminated following the race at Bristol Motor Speedway.

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Edited by Anisha Chatterjee