HAMPTON, Ga. (AP) — Christopher Bell held off Matt Crafton on a restart with two laps to go and completed a dominating win Saturday in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Driving for Kyle Busch Motorsports, Bell started from the pole, took the first two 40-lap stages and passed Crafton for the lead with 16 laps remaining.
The 22-year-old stretched the margin to more than 2 seconds, but Crafton caught a break when Grant Enfinger got into Austin Cindric going through the trioval, sending Cindric into a spin. The incident brought out a yellow flag, setting up a green-white shootout to the checkered flag.
Crafton got a good jump on the outside and briefly stuck a nose in front going down the backstretch. But Bell’s truck was simply too strong, allowing him to reclaim the lead and cruise to a 0.447-second victory, his third career Truck Series triumph.
Crafton, a two-time series champion, did all he could to pick up his 14th career victory.
But the outside spot proved to be challenging on the restarts all day.
Busch, coming off a win in the Xfinity Series race, failed to complete a sweep.