NXS: Christopher Bell Wins U.S. Cellular 250 at Iowa Speedway

Christopher Bell went to victory lane at Iowa Speedway in a thrilling finish on Saturday in the No. 20 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing. Bell, racing side-by-side for the lead with Justin Allgaier at the end of the event, scored his third NASCAR XFINITY Series race win in a row and his fourth win of the year. The Oklahoma native won by 0.421 seconds over Allgaier.

Allgaier took the lead away from Christopher Bell on lap 250 — the scheduled race distance. The caution flew for an incident and gave Allgaier the lead for the restart. With two laps remaining, Bell passed leader Allgaier for the top spot and was gone from there.

Bell, who led 94 of the 257 circuits and winner of stage two, will leave Iowa Speedway with 12 top five and 12 top 10 finishes through 19 completed races in 2018.

Allgaier will take home his ninth top five finish of the season in the No. 7 BRANDT Chevrolet for JR Motorsports. The No. 7 Chevrolet finished stage one sitting sixth and stage two sitting third.

Kyle Benjamin rounded out the top three finishers at Iowa Speedway in his second NASCAR XFINITY Series start of the year. Benjamin, driving the No. 18 Toyota Service Centers / Mobile 1 Toyota, finished eighth in his last start at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Ross Chastain and John Hunter Nemechek rounded out the top five.

Pole sitter Elliott Sadler took home the sixth-place finish in the No. 1 U.S. Cellular Chevrolet. Sadler led the field for the first 26 laps before Cole Custer took that spot away. The Virginia native will have 10 top five and 16 top 10 finishes going into Watkins Glen International next week.

Ryan Reed, Ryan Truex, Cole Custer and Chase Briscoe rounded out the top 10.

The caution that extended the U.S. Cellular 250 involved the No. 0 of Garrett Smithley in turn four. Smithley went on to finish 25th after starting 24th on the leaderboard.

A second incident in overtime on lap 251 involved a 17-minute and 18-second red flag period. This yellow flag involved the No. 2 Chevrolet of Matt Tifft and the No. 26 Ford of Max Tullman in turn one. Tifft finished 26th while Tullman finished 30th due to an accident.

The NASCAR XFINITY Series will move on to Watkins Glen International on August 4th. NBCSN, along with MRN radio, will carry the Zippo 200 live at 3:00 p.m. ET.

Brett Winningham
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