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NASCAR Cup Series

O'Reilly Auto Parts 253

Daytona Road Course

February 21st, 2021

Race #2 of the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series Season

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Laps Scheduled: 70
Miles Raced : 249.2
Time of Race : 02 Hours 59 minutes 32 seconds
Average Speed: 84.452 mph
Margin of Victory : 02.119 seconds
Cautions: 8
Caution Laps: 12
Lead Changes: 12

Christopher Bell celebrates — Daytona Beach, Florida - February 21st, 2021: Christopher Bell, driver of the #20 Rheem Toyota, celebrates with the checkered flag after winning the NASCAR Cup Series O'Reilly Auto Parts 253 at Daytona International Speedway on February 21, 2021 in Daytona Beach, Florida. Photo by James Gilbert | Getty Images

Driver	ST	50%	10%	FIN	HI	LW	AVG	PC D	Pass	Passed	PS D	Q PASS	Fast	%T15	TOT Led	Laps	Rating	TOT PTS
Christopher Bell	12	3	3	1	1	18	6.1	+11	46	29	+17	35	12	97.1%	5	70	128.8	47
Joey Logano	11	23	1	2	1	25	4.8	+9	53	36	+17	29	3	95.7%	10	70	121.5	52
Denny Hamlin	4	1	5	3	1	16	4.3	+1	50	33	+17	29	3	100.0%	5	70	124.2	52
Kurt Busch	17	2	2	4	1	29	9.2	+13	73	76	-3	27	0	77.1%	2	70	98.6	48
Brad Keselowski	15	31	4	5	2	38	16.5	+10	75	123	-48	22	0	60.0%	0	70	76.7	39
Kevin Harvick	5	9	8	6	2	17	8.6	-1	49	55	-6	24	0	95.7%	0	70	100.8	33
AJ Allmendinger	34	29	15	7	1	37	17.1	+27	103	54	+49	19	1	41.4%	2	70	90.1	0
Michael McDowell	2	15	10	8	2	40	20.1	-6	111	122	-11	19	1	31.4%	0	70	76.9	29
Ryan Preece	6	30	9	9	5	33	17.9	-3	72	65	+7	13	0	31.4%	0	70	79.7	28
Alex Bowman	36	14	12	10	8	36	16.8	+26	73	57	+16	13	0	44.3%	0	70	79.3	27
Chris Buescher	30	10	13	11	4	30	14.8	+19	75	67	+8	31	0	55.7%	0	70	81.8	27
Martin Truex Jr	19	4	19	12	1	33	7.3	+7	100	69	+31	47	8	90.0%	0	70	108.9	35
Cole Custer	13	27	20	13	5	28	12.1	+0	75	60	+15	36	0	85.7%	0	70	95.5	27
Erik Jones	37	13	18	14	12	39	21.1	+23	91	71	+20	14	0	30.0%	0	70	71.7	23
Ryan Blaney	27	28	22	15	13	36	21.4	+12	90	74	+16	5	0	14.3%	0	70	69.7	22
Daniel Suarez	35	8	30	16	1	35	19.4	+19	92	91	+1	9	0	28.6%	2	70	68.2	21
Aric Almirola	26	7	25	17	7	35	17.5	+9	84	82	+2	13	0	31.4%	0	70	70.7	20
Ricky Stenhouse Jr	16	33	14	18	11	36	22.7	-2	96	81	+15	7	0	4.3%	0	70	62.7	19
Ty Dillon	38	22	24	19	10	38	25.9	+19	85	70	+15	2	0	1.4%	0	70	53.0	0
Ryan Newman	33	18	17	20	11	33	23.4	+13	87	98	-11	1	0	5.7%	0	70	55.2	17
Chase Elliott	1	5	7	21	1	26	4.7	-20	41	42	-1	29	19	91.4%	44	70	120.0	31
Anthony Alfredo	31	20	26	22	12	38	30.1	+9	53	83	-30	1	0	2.9%	0	70	46.3	15
James Davison	39	21	23	23	7	39	27.7	+16	97	89	+8	4	0	5.7%	0	70	49.7	14
Justin Haley	20	19	28	24	16	36	29.7	-4	79	73	+6	1	0	0.0%	0	70	42.8	0
Cody Ware	21	35	21	25	9	37	29.5	-4	95	105	-10	2	0	1.4%	0	70	41.8	0
Bubba Wallace	10	24	11	26	7	38	25.0	-16	61	110	-49	9	0	18.6%	0	70	46.2	11
Garrett Smithley	25	36	31	27	20	38	33.5	-2	55	49	+6	0	0	0.0%	0	70	36.0	0
Scott Heckert	28	38	32	28	19	38	34.4	+0	47	54	-7	0	0	0.0%	0	70	34.0	9
Timmy Hill	40	34	33	29	26	40	35.9	+11	35	27	+8	0	0	0.0%	0	70	32.0	0
Kyle Larson	8	11	35	30	1	36	10.3	-22	66	81	-15	36	1	87.1%	0	70	84.2	12
Corey Lajoie	7	32	36	31	6	38	27.1	-24	72	99	-27	6	0	10.0%	0	70	41.7	6
Chase Briscoe	18	17	6	32	2	39	22.0	-14	87	103	-16	19	0	31.4%	0	70	52.7	5
William Byron	22	6	34	33	6	34	15.1	-11	85	78	+7	29	0	64.3%	0	69	75.2	8
Austin Dillon	3	26	16	34	2	35	13.9	-31	59	82	-23	26	0	72.9%	0	69	74.3	6
Kyle Busch	14	25	27	35	3	40	20.5	-21	88	81	+7	22	1	42.9%	0	69	75.1	3
Josh Bilicki	23	37	29	36	18	38	31.8	-13	76	89	-13	0	0	0.0%	0	68	32.0	1
Matt DiBenedetto	32	12	38	37	2	38	27.3	-5	89	120	-31	4	0	10.0%	0	65	46.0	1
Tyler Reddick	24	16	37	38	8	37	24.7	-14	97	71	+26	7	0	18.6%	0	58	55.2	1
Ross Chastain	9	39	39	39	6	28	29.8	-30	13	33	-20	6	0	21.4%	0	26	55.7	1
Quin Houff	29	40	40	40	29	40	39.9	-11	2	5	-3	0	0	0.0%	0	3	23.2	1

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Race Fast Facts

DAYTONA Road Course
O'Reilly Auto Parts 253 At DAYTONA
Race Winner: Christopher Bell
Age: 26
Team : No. 20 - Rheem Toyota
Owner: Joe Gibbs Racing
Crew Chief: Adam Stevens
Christopher Bell won the O'Reilly Auto Parts 253 At DAYTONA, his first victory in 38 NASCAR Cup Series races.
This is his first victory and first top-10 finish in 2021.
This is his first victory and first top-10 finish in two races at the DAYTONA Road Course.
Joey Logano (second) posted his second top-10 finish in two races at the DAYTONA Road Course. It is his first top-10 finish in 2021.
Denny Hamlin (third) posted his second top-10 finish in two races at the DAYTONA Road Course. It is his second top-10 finish in 2021.
Anthony Alfredo (22nd) was the highest finishing rookie.
This is Joe Gibbs Racing's 186th NASCAR Cup Series victory.
This is crew chief Adam Stevens' 29th win in the NASCAR Cup Series.
This is the third time in NASCAR Cup Series history the first two races of the season were won by first-time winners; joining 1949 and 1950.

Race Recap

Christopher Bell gets first NASCAR Cup win at the DAYTONA Road Course

February 21st, 2021

By Holly Cain - NASCAR Wire Service

For the second consecutive week, Daytona International Speedway crowned a first time NASCAR Cup Series race winner. Joe Gibbs Racing driver, Christopher Bell, earned the honor Sunday on the track's road course, taking the lead from Joey Logano with two laps to go and pulling away to a comfortable 2.119-second victory over the former series champion.

Bell, 26, is the 2017 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series champion and this is his second season at the premier level – his first driving for the championship Gibbs organization. His work Sunday, however, was more reminiscent of a veteran. There were eight caution flags, eight race leaders and a whole lot of action in the waning laps to contend with.

He pulled around Logano in the chicane just yards before the white flag and easily stretched the lead to earn his first career NASCAR Cup Series trophy. Bell's Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin finished third, followed by Kurt Busch and Brad Keselowski.

Kevin Harvick, A.J. Allmendinger, last week's Daytona 500 winner Michael McDowell – also a first-time winner – Ryan Preece and Alex Bowman rounded out the top 10. This is just third season in NASCAR Cup Series history to start the season with two first-time winners; joining 1949 and 1950.

"This is definitely one of the highlights of my life so far," a smiling Bell said after climbing off the roof of his No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, where he flashed the No. 1 sign to the grandstands.

"Just so incredibly thankful to be here with Joe Gibbs Racing and all our partners. This feels like I prepared my whole life for this moment to race in the Cup Series. Last year was a huge learning curve for me and I'm very grateful I got the opportunity to run in Cup and it definitely prepared me to move to Joe Gibbs Racing."

Bell's pass for the win capped an exciting and suspenseful final dozen laps. Defending race winner and reigning series champion Chase Elliott led a race best 45 laps but was caught up in heavy traffic after his final pit stop with 15 laps remaining. He won Stage 1 and was running fifth – rallying back to the front with six laps to go when he spun out in the infield – a victim of a chain reaction collision in the fender-to-fender racing at the time. He ultimately came home 21st – snapping a five-race road racing victory streak.

"Man, we had those late race cautions like that and a mixed bag of who stays and who goes," said Elliott, driver of the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.

"It's a bit of a gamble either way I felt like. I think [pitting for] tires was the right move. Tires won the race. So it was the right move. You get back in traffic and gets to be so chaotic.

"Who gets through and who doesn't just kinda determines how it's going to shake out."

For much of the 70-lap race Elliott paced the field, making up ground when needed and often putting on a road course tutorial. Hamlin stayed close and kept him honest, ultimately coming home third. Logano ran among the top five for much of the race and took the lead on Lap 63 when other cars pitted for fresh tires.

"He's the one that got through with tires," Logano said of Bell. "One more caution lap would have been enough to have a door-to-door finish across the line maybe.

With his maiden win, Bell is now ranked fourth in the NASCAR Cup Series standings. Hamlin, who won Stage 2, leads the championship by 12-points over Logano heading to the Dixie Vodka 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway next Sunday (3:30 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

"I just kept doing what I was doing all day long," Bell said of the career milestone.

"Whenever we took the green flag, I felt like I was really patient. Kyle (Busch) tried to go three-wide around me at the start. I knew that I was okay. Adam (Stevens, crew chief) kept asking what I needed in the car and I didn't really need anything. Just took my time to get going, get up to speed and really proud to be here."