Jun 1, 2026, 12:48 PM ET

Joe Gibbs Racing's Christopher Bell had the fastest car of the Cracker Barrel 400 at Nashville Superspeedway, but could not translate the speed into a victory on Sunday night. Bell started the race from fourth and ran inside the top five through most of the first stage. The No. 20 Toyota driver fought with Tyler Reddick, Shane Van Gisbergen, and Kyle Larson for the lead at various points in the stage, but was unable to make it to the front. Bell ended the first stage in 20th after he was shuffled to the back of the pack after pit stops on lap 72 and could not make up ground from drivers who took no or two tires on pit road. In the second stage, Bell worked his way up through the pack over time on track and through pit stops, but only made it up to eighth, earning three stage points. The first half of the final stage saw Bell chase down his teammates, Denny Hamlin and Chase Briscoe, for the lead. He was able to successfully get by both of them by lap 245 and even maintained the lead through pit stops until the race's final restart on lap 297. Bell raced side-by-side with Hamlin and Briscoe all the way to the final lap, but Hamlin cleared Bell to win the race, leaving Bell as the runner-up for the second week in a row. With his best career finish at Nashville, Bell moves to seventh in the regular season standings after 14 races.--Sean Engel - RotoBaller
Source: NASCAR.com