Christopher Bell avoided the chaos on Friday night (April 10) to win at Bristol Motor Speedway in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, his first truck win since his victory at New Hampshire in 2017 during his championship-winning season.
Bell led 63 laps on his way to victory, driving the No. 62 Toyota for Halmar Friesen Racing. He has now won at Bristol in all three of NASCAR’s top racing series.
“It’s a lot of fun racing with this HFR group,” Bell told FOX Sports on the frontstretch. “Just so special for me to be able to race with these guys, these wins mean a lot to this team and organization.”
Chandler Smith finished second, and Gio Ruggiero, Ross Chastain and Christian Eckes completed the top five.
Jake Garcia, Dawson Sutton, Kyle Busch, Carson Hocevar and Brenden Queen rounded out the top 10.
Christian Eckes won the first stage and led 132 laps in the race but was not able to hang on to the lead later in the event. He and Corey Heim, who was looking for his third straight win in the series to grab a $500,000 Triple Truck bonus, made contact during the final stage which took Heim and teammate Kaden Honeycutt out of the race.
“Obviously just got hooked a little bit there,” Heim said. “I believe he just misjudged it, trying to get back in line.”
Ben Rhodes won the second stage but faded during the final run of the race as his truck kept shutting off and he came home in 11th.
Busch led 39 laps but lost the lead during a caution as his truck was slow to refire while attempting to save fuel.
Chandler Smith retook the points lead in the driver standings, bouncing back after being disqualified at Rockingham. He leads Kaden Honeycutt by one point after six Truck Series races this season.
Truck Series Results at Bristol
The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series will return to action on Friday, May 1 at 8 p.m. ET from Texas Motor Speedway for the seventh race of the season. The race will be broadcast on FS1.
Michael Bellifemini joined Frontstretch in February 2026 as a contributor. Bellifemini was born and raised in New Jersey and graduated from Seton Hall University. He called Seton Hall men's and women's basketball games for their college radio station, 89.5 FM WSOU, and continues to broadcast in the area. Outside of covering NASCAR, Bellifemini is also an avid baseball, football, basketball, and hockey fan and enjoys watching different sports leagues on a daily basis.