Christopher Bell Wins Xfinity New Hampshire Race

It came down to a dramatic three-wide battle for the win in Saturday’s SciAps 200, as Christopher Bell was the one to prevail over Sheldon Creed and Cole Custer. Bell continues his dominant performances at the flat oval, marking it his fourth win in the Xfinity Series at New Hampshire (2018, 2019, 2021, and 2024).

For the runner-up, Sheldon Creed, this marked his tenth second place finish in his Xfinity Series career, tying him with NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Jarrett and 2021 Xfinity Series champion Daniel Hemric for most runner-up finishes before a getting an Xfinity series win.

“I was just really fortunate, that’s for sure,” said Bell after the race. “I feel so bad for Sheldon. He’s been really, really close to winning these things and today he did everything right to win that race. He restarted in the right lane and gave Cole [Custer] a good push. And coming to the white flag, he got Cole loose and that’s what opened the door for me.

“Very fortunate to keep my undefeated streak alive,” he continued with a smile. “We got really lucky there.”

For Creed, once again he was close, but still had a smile after the race.

“I don’t know, running out of ways to lose them,” Creed said, “I can think of a million things I could do, that is not a stat I wanted to tie, 10 seconds before a win. But overall, a great day and proud of everyone at Joe Gibbs Racing. Been in the hunt the past four weeks so just going to keep working hard at it.”

Cole Custer led 114 of the 203 laps in the race, showcasing a dominating performance, but he came up short with a third-place finish. He was also leading at the final restart. However, there’s a lot of positivity after this one, as he maintains a 15 point lead over Chandler Smith in the regular season standings.

“I would have done the same thing, you know, you’re racing for the win, it is what it is,” Custer said of the finish. “Man, it just stings. I felt like we had the best car of the day. And that’s not easy to do at these flat short tracks. Our guys brought such a fast car. But you get put in those late-race restarts, eventually it’s probably not going to go your way. But I’m gonna re-live what I could have done.

“Just gotta keep digging,” he continued. “We’ve got the points lead, just gotta keep knocking on the door.”

Justin Allgaier finished in fourth, while Carson Kvapil, a 21-year-old rookie of JR Motorsports, finished in 5th. Carson, the son of 2003 Truck Series Champion Travis Kvapil, led for 24 laps and took advantage of pit strategy to be upfront at the end of the race.

Ryan Sieg, Parker Kligerman, Riley Herbst, Alex Bowman, and Cory Heim rounded out the top 10, while championship contenders Chandler Smith finished 15th, and Austin Hill finished 25th.

Justin Bonsignore had a big day on Saturday, winning the Whelen Modified race that morning, and then making his Xfinity Series debut for Joe Gibbs Racing. He impressively ran among the top five all afternoon after starting in 25th. He ended up finishing 23^rd after being involved in a late-race incident, but he still felt good about the day.

“Just really good pace and unfortunately we got turned around here,” Bonsignore said. “We had good pace all day long and just wished it would have stayed green there [at the end]. We were fifth and right there with Sheldon. It’s tough. These late-race restarts bunch everyone up, but all in all it was a great experience. … Hopefully we can put something together and do some more.”

The Xfinity Series head next to Nashville Superspeedway on Saturday, June 29th at 5 pm EST for the Tennessee Lottery 250.