NASCAR Cup Series

Christopher Bell captures crazy NCWTS race at Gateway

Published Jun. 26, 2016 12:10 a.m. ET

foxsports

Oh, there also was a race winner at Gateway Motorsports Park early Sunday morning in a rain-delayed, wreck-filled Camping World Truck Series race that also featured a spirited fight.

Christopher Bell was that winner in the event that began around 9:45 p.m. ET and did not end until close to 12:45 a.m. ET.

Bell executed a pass of Ben Rhodes following a restart with just two laps to go and went on to score his first victory of the season and also the first of his career on a paved track. His only other series victory came on dirt last year at Eldora Speedway.

"Thank you so much for believing in me. I've got the best team in the biz," Bell said over the his team radio shortly after taking the checkered flag.

He survived on a night when many other top competitors could not for a variety of reasons, mostly because of ill-timed wrecks -- including one that led to a spirited fight between John Wes Townley and Spencer Gallagher.

The biggest wreck came just after a restart with 11 laps to go when the No. 41 truck of Ben Rhodes got into the back of Tyler Reddick's No. 29 truck just after Reddick had taken the lead heading into Turn 1, setting off a chain reaction that ended up collecting multiple competitors.

Rhodes hit Reddick hard enough that Reddick slid up into the No. 8 truck of John Hunter Nemechek, sending both into the outside wall and Reddick ultimately spinning back into the rest of oncoming field, spreading the carnage. Among the trucks collected in the wreck was the No. 88 of two-time series champion Matt Crafton.

The incident brought out not only the eighth caution of the night but also the second red flag in the final 40 laps, with the earlier one coming for cleanup of the track following a violent wreck involving the trucks of Jennifer Jo Cobb and Austin Wayne Self.

That accident began to unfold on Lap 120 when the truck of Jordan Anderson clipped the back of Self's truck, turning him sideways and into the outside wall. As Self's truck drifted back down the track, Cobb attempted to dart by on the bottom but instead hit the side of Self's truck hard.

Fortunately, both drivers were able to climb from their cars. They were then taken to the infield care center to be checked out, but were quickly examined and released.

The biggest fireworks, though, came when John Wes Townley and Spencer Gallagher offered up a pretty good UFC imitation after wrecking each other on a restart with seven laps remaining.

Townley and Gallagher had been involved in an incident earlier, on Lap 149 of the race scheduled for 160 laps.

But after their trucks tangled again, the two drivers emerged from them and immediately engaged in a wrestling match right on the track. Gallagher took down Townley twice and scored points for that -- but Townley likely ended up earning the decision in the impromptu bout when he subsequently broke free to land several punches to Gallagher's face.

"We had it scored 8-2 in favor of John Wes Townley," FOX Sports analyst Phil Parsons joked on the air.

Through it all, Bell kept on coming toward the front as his veteran crew chief at Kyle Busch Motorsports, Jerry Baxter, kept making all the right adjustments and pit calls.

The 20-year-old Bell held on to beat Rhodes, the pole sitter in the 200-mile race. It was the 50th victory in the series for KBM and the third this season for the organization by three different drivers.

“This one is for my guys here," Bell said. "My guys – they deserve this one. We’ve been so fast all year long and I just kept making a lot of mistakes, but I just can’t say thank you enough to all the guys at Toyota, TRD (Toyota Racing Development), JBL, everyone at KBM, all my pit-crew guys. They did an awesome job tonight and track position was everything. We got awesome motors underneath the hood of these things. All the guys at JGR (Joe Gibbs Racing), they never give up and keep digging.”

The series takes a week off before resuming in July 7 at Kentucky Speedway.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.