Saturday’s Sport Clips Haircuts VFW Help A Hero 200 at Darlington Raceway was a battle between Joe Gibbs Racing teammates.
NASCAR Cup Series regular Christopher Bell and Sheldon Creed were far and away the two quickest racecars in Darlington, South Carolina on Saturday afternoon, trading the lead between themselves eight times throughout the 150-lap contest.
The fight for the victory had been between those two drivers, with the driver of the No. 18 Friends of Jaclyn Foundation Toyota GR Supra taking the race lead from Bell inside the final 10 laps.
Just when Creed looked poised to finally score his maiden win in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, a late-race caution was displayed, forcing all of the lead-lap cars to visit pit road.
That’s where things unraveled, with the Joe Gibbs Racing pit crew losing two spots on pit road to both his teammate Christopher Bell and defending NASCAR Xfinity Series champion Cole Custer, heading into NASCAR Overtime.
Christopher Bell beats Cole Custer in overtime for the win at Darlington in the Xfinity Series. #NASCAR pic.twitter.com/2fxtvB7mCL
— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) August 31, 2024
On the first lap after the restart, Custer and Bell remained side-by-side at the exit of the second corner, and made contact, with both drivers going several lanes down the racetrack and having an odd angle into the corner.
“That was wild for sure,” Bell said. Darlington is just such a tough racetrack and off of two, whether you’re on the bottom or the top it like flushes you to the wall and you kind of get a little wiggle coming down.”
From there, Bell drove his No. 20 Sport Clips Toyota GR Supra away from the pack, clinching his 19th career victory in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, and his second in two starts this season.
“Once again I feel terrible for Sheldon [Creed] to essentially win the race passing me on the long run there and then lose the lead on pit road is a big bummer, but really, really happy to win in this Sports Clip [Supra]. Tyler Allen, what can I say, man, he’s been killing it this year, but I’m just lucky I get to drive one,” Bell continued.”
Cole Custer came home in second place, while Sheldon Creed came home in a devastating third place. Chase Elliott and Sammy Smith completed the top five.
RACE RESULTS: 2024 NXS Sport Clips Haircuts VFW Help A Hero 200
Jesse Love climbed from the rear of the pack to finish in sixth place, with three-time Xfinity road course winner Shane Van Gisbergen recording an impressive seventh-place result on one of the hardest ovals on the circuit.
Chandler Smith, Austin Hill, and Justin Allgaier completed the top-10.
With just three races remaining in the regular-season, Justin Allgaier loses a couple of points of his advantage to Cole Custer, now down to 28 points. Chandler Smith, Austin Hill, and Sheldon Creed sit top-five in points.
Leaving Darlington, the NASCAR Xfinity Series is heading to another superspeedway-adjacent racetrack in Atlanta Motor Speedway, which is destined to serve another major shakeup to the field in the second-tier series.
