NASCAR Cup Series Food City Dirt Race
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The stats will show that Christopher Bell went unchallenged, leading the final 100 laps of Sunday's Food City Dirt Race in the NASCAR Cup Series before a last-lap wreck ended the race under caution. But holding onto that lead out front was far tougher than it looked, especially with fellow dirt expert Tyler Reddick breathing down Bell's neck on fresher tires.

"The laps just felt like they were taking forever to tick by," Bell explained after the race. "The cushion was very unforgiving to run... it was so hard to get the car through the corner and not make a mistake."

Bell persevered, a changing-of-the-guard moment for a Joe Gibbs Racing team who won this very race with Kyle Busch a year ago. 

Now, Busch is over running for Richard Childress Racing, who produced one of Bell's strongest challengers on Sunday in Austin Dillon. Up until Bristol, it was Kyle Busch 1, JGR 0 after the divorce that rocked NASCAR after 2022. JGR entered rebuild mode this year with rookie Ty Gibbs replacing Busch; they're also recovering from tragedy after Ty's dad, Coy Gibbs, died of a heart attack less than 24 hours after his son won the NASCAR Xfinity Series title last November at Phoenix Raceway.

The changes led to an evolution within Toyota's program. For the first time since they emerged on the Cup level in 2007, it was Hamlin's 23XI Racing team, not JGR, who earned the first victory of the year with Reddick at Circuit of the Americas. That's where the excitement is these days, a team co-owned by Michael Jordan and whose second driver is the lone Black Cup full-timer and one of the sport's most popular personalities in Bubba Wallace.

JGR, meanwhile, has been dealing with a few bumps in the road.

Hamlin cost himself 25 points after admitting he wrecked Ross Chastain intentionally during the final laps at Phoenix in March. Then Martin Truex Jr. made waves last week when his beef with crew chief James Small over poor Richmond Raceway strategy went public.

Enter Bell, the unassuming yet rising leader of the pack for JGR at age 28. His victory Sunday was the fourth straight for anyone within this four-car organization. No other JGR driver has reached victory lane in Cup since Hamlin won the Coca-Cola 600 last May. It's also Bell's fifth career victory in 116 career starts, the second-most for any active Cup driver at this stage of his career behind Brad Keselowski.

Can that translate into lifting JGR back into the top tier?

Bell's not the most media savvy guy, as he is rather quiet and unassuming. But he doesn't have to be the most outgoing type if the results on the racetrack keep speaking for themselves.

Traffic Report

Green: Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. -- Let's give props to the driver of single-car JTG Daugherty Racing, who has kept up the momentum after pulling an upset in February's Daytona 500. A fourth-place finish at Bristol Dirt maximized his experience on this track type, leaving him a credible 13th in points with two top-five results this early in a season for just the second time in his decade-long Cup career.

Yellow: Austin Dillon -- A third-place run for Dillon was exceptional, easily his best on Bristol Dirt for an event the driver called "one of the coolest races he's ever run." But for someone who gets a handful of opportunities to steal a win and a coveted playoff spot, the night felt like an opportunity lost. Dillon had the fastest car much of the night, just not at the right time to get up front down the stretch.

Red: Legacy Motor Club -- What in the world is going on with the team now co-owned by Jimmie Johnson? Erik Jones, a trendy playoff pick after winning September's Southern 500 at Darlington, struggled to 14th at Bristol and has just one top-10 finish all year. Rookie teammate Noah Gragson is enduring his own rough transition, finishing some 45 laps down after wrecking for back-to-back finishes outside the top 30. The two of them are a combined 147 points out of playoff position just eight races into 2023.

Speeding Ticket: NASCAR officiating -- During a five-lap stretch at Bristol Dirt, AJ Allmendinger hit the wall, Joey Logano covered the track in smoke with a broken A frame and Michael McDowell pulled a full 360-degree spin. None of those things triggered a caution flag.

Instead, as the night wore on it felt like race control started to hesitate after early yellows for single-car spins threatened to fill this race with 30 cautions. But to change the rules surrounding a subjective decision, smack in the middle of an event, is the definition of inconsistency.

Oops!

The big beef this week comes courtesy of Ryan Preece and Kyle Larson.

Larson started it by pushing into the No. 41 Ford and nudging Preece into the wall while battling inside the top 10. The resulting contact led to a nasty on-track exchange before Preece's right rear toe link bolt broke because of the incident, leading to a spin that ultimately took him out of contention.

Later, Larson slid back through the field due to his own crash and that's where Preece sought revenge. Making contact on the backstretch, Preece claimed he was "too loose" as he slid into Larson on a straightaway, ensuring the No. 5 Chevrolet's day was done.

"[Preece] had a pretty short temper, obviously," Larson said afterwards. "He tried to crash me after that, tried to swerve at me under yellow... thought he would chill out but obviously didn't and ran me in the fence and ended our day. It is what it is."

Check out the full comments from both drivers and judge for yourself who's at fault. Hamlin's penalty for admitting an intentional wreck earlier in the year may have contributed to Preece being tight-lipped.