NASCAR Barometer: Bell Scores First Win in Wild Road Race

Christopher Bell won his first NASCAR Cup Series race in his second start for Joe Gibbs Racing in the No. 20 Toyota. It was a wild afternoon with multiple caution cautions, a brief spat of rain and drivers battling for every inch of ground through the field. Bell navigated his way through the chaos, spending the afternoon running inside the top 10 and put his fresher tires to good use in the final laps, chasing down Joey Logano and making the last-lap pass for the win. Bell's victory means the 2021 season has started off with two new first-time winners in its first two races.

While road-course favorite Chase Elliott started the day strongly with a stage win, losing track position and having to work forward in the field proved to be too much to overcome. Many drivers spent the day working their way to the front only to have some sort of issue put them back down the running order. It was a chaotic day that capped off two weeks of unpredictable racing to start the 2021 season. This week, the series heads to more familiar territory with a visit to Homestead-Miami Speedway. Denny Hamlin won the race there last season from pole in dominating fashion, while Kyle Busch took the win the year before. 

UPGRADE

Christopher Bell – Bell scored his first career victory Sunday on the Daytona Road Course, completing a sweep of the weekend victories for Toyota. The win was payback to the team who elected to put him behind the wheel of the No. 20 this season after spending his rookie year with Leavine Family Racing. He raced well throughout the afternoon, keeping his car inside the top 10, and then took advantage of the fresher tires he had at his disposal to chase down and pass Joey Logano on the final lap to score the win. His win on Sunday was his 38th career start in the series, and just his second with Joe Gibbs Racing. Looking ahead to Homestead, he drove from 36th to finish eighth there last season. 

Denny Hamlin – Hamlin worked his way to the lead in a second-stage restart and then held that advantage until the stage finish with more than a second advantage on Kurt Busch. He successfully avoided the chaos around him in the final stage and kept his machine confidently inside the top five to finish third and pick up his second top-five finish to start the season. Things may even be set to improve for him with a return to more familiar 1.5-mile tracks where he was very strong last season. He has three victories from 16 career starts at Homestead, and more impressively, started from pole in five of the last six races there. He won there last season, leading 137 laps and winning both stages en route to one of his seven total wins last season. 

Kurt Busch – Busch went off course on the infield section while leading in the final stage on Sunday. He had a quick car that was able to run at the front on the field throughout the race, but that incident dropped him from the lead to 27th position. Pit strategy put him back toward the front of the field in the final laps and back in contention for a top-five finish despite the drama. He capitalized on that good fortune with a fourth-place run. It was an up and down day in which Busch persevered and was rewarded with a top finish for determination. Busch won at Homestead in 2002 and started from pole at the track in 2004. He has just one top-10 there in the last five starts, however, and his average finish from 20 career starts is 18.0.

Brad Keselowski – Keselowski will have to continue his quest to win on a road course after a wild outing Sunday in Daytona. The Penske Racing driver suffered numerous problems including locked and flat tires, and then he was bumped into a spin by Kurt Busch after the No. 1 driver dropped back in the field due to an off-course excursion. Like others, though, he didn't give up and cycled back to the front for the final laps, scoring a fifth-place finish. The Penske Racing driver has two runner-up finishes on road courses but just hasn't been able to make the breakthrough to get himself into Victory Lane. In 13 career Homestead starts, he has two third-places and an average finish of 14.1. He finished 10th there last season.

Chase Elliott – It came as no surprise that Elliott picked up where he left off by winning the first stage of Sunday's race in Daytona. The rest of the race was significantly more difficult for the No. 9, however. After pitting, he found himself deep in the field on a restart and was forced off track. He quickly regained the track position he lost in that incident and was working to make a chase for the lead when a tap from behind by Hamlin sent him spinning back out of contention again. It was a frustrating afternoon for the driver who certainly could have challenged for the victory with a bit more luck. Elliott has three top-10s and two top-fives from five Homestead starts. His best finish at the track came last season when he finished second to Hamlin.

DOWNGRADE

Kyle Busch – Road courses are typically a spot where Busch is a contender, and he was early in Sunday's race but lost his chances in the final stage. He was one of the many aggressive drivers throughout the field in the final restarts and was even inside the top 10 in the second stage to snag some valuable points. Contact with multiple cars in the final stage ruined his car and left him with little chance to salvage a decent finish. When all was said and done, he finished 35th and a lap down to the leader. He will be looking for a quick rebound this week in Homestead where he has two career wins and led at least one lap in each of his last six visits.

Matt DiBenedetto – Damage to the right rear of DiBenedetto's car gave him an early disadvantage Sunday. His team performed major surgery on the machine and removed most of the body work where the initial damage occurred. DiBenedetto soldiered on as long as he could, but he and the team ultimately surrendered with 15 laps remaining and headed for the garage. He was one of just a handful of drivers who exited the race, making the points miss an even bigger penalty. DiBenedetto's best Homestead finish came last season when he finished 14th after starting 23rd, which was also his first trip to the circuit with Wood Brothers Racing. He only had one top-20 finish there prior to that race and has an average finish of 25.7 from six career tries.

Martin Truex Jr. – Truex overtook the entry to turn 1 on a late restart, couldn't control a wheel hop, and spun. That slip dropped him to 27th position from where he had been running inside the top 10. He made a visit to pit road afterward to change tires and make repairs, which dropped him even further down the running order, too. Truex won at Homestead in 2017 and has led more than 200 laps at the track in the last four races. His average finish from 16 career starts is an impressive 10.3. With five finishes of third or better there, he should still be considered a top option for fantasy rosters. He was able to rebound to 12th on Sunday, but fantasy players will hope for a much quieter and trouble-free race from him at Homestead this week.

Kyle Larson – After nearly a year out of the series, Larson is starting to get his legs underneath him again. He was running confidently in the top 10 all afternoon and then found himself in position to race for the win in the final laps. While trying to out-brake Kurt Busch he found himself unable to control the car and smacked the outside barrier. The mistake put him outside of the top 30 with little time to make any significant comeback. Larson will take some time to get settled in his new surroundings, but Hendrick Motorsports offers him the best machinery he has ever had in the series. He has three top-five finishes at Homestead, the last of which he scored in 2017. He was last after retiring with an early engine issue in his latest visit to the track in 2019.

BIGGEST SURPRISE

Michael McDowell – McDowell went from the high of winning the Daytona 500 to the low of suffering a flat tire and damage in the first turn in just one week. The Front Row Motorsports driver was on the front row for Sunday's Daytona Road Course race, but he overshot the first turn and then wedged his front splitter into the grass before turn 3. The damage left him at the back of the field and put him in the pits under caution to make repairs. That wasn't the end of his story, however. His perseverance saw him rise back into the top 10 to take advantage of the chaos ahead of him, giving him consecutive top-10 finishes to start the 2021 season. In 11 Homestead starts, McDowell has one top-10 finish from 2016 and finished 15th there last season. His average finish at the track is 29.7.