CHRISTOPHER BELL WINS THE SOUTHERN 500 TO START THE NASCAR CHASE

Christopher Bell passed Kyle Larson with 18 laps to go and held on to win the Chase-opening Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway on Sunday night. Bell had seven second-place finishes this season and had not won since last September at Bristol, a stretch of 33 races. But the Joe Gibbs Racing driver opened up a lead of nearly a second on his teammate Ty Gibbs to win for the first time on the track “Too Tough To Tame.”

“Oh, my gosh, man," Bell said. “This has been a long time coming.” Gibbs finished second and Tyler Reddick, a five-time winner this season, was third. Chase drivers accounted for nine of the top 10. Ryan Blaney was fourth, followed by Larson, Chase Briscoe, Josh Berry, Bubba Wallace, Joey Logano and Ryan Preece.

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