Bell’s late surge wins Xfinity playoff race

Christopher Bell took the lead away from Matt Tifft with 13 laps to go and won the opening race of the NASCAR Xfinity Series playoffs on Friday night in Richmond, Virginia.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished fourth in the Go Bowling 250 in what he said would be his only start of the season. Earnhardt retired from NASCAR’s Cup Series last year and works as an analyst for NBC Sports.

Earnhardt led for much of the second half of the race but lost the lead to Tifft on pit road with 30 laps remaining.

Bell won for the fifth time this season, including twice at Richmond Raceway. On a night when series points leader Justin Allgaier crashed with about 25 laps to go, winding up 32nd, Bell also took the points lead with six playoff races to go.

Ross Chastain rallied to finish second, followed by Daniel Hemric.

Monster Energy NASCAR Cup: Kevin Harvick won the pole for Saturday night’s Federated Auto Parts 400 at Richmond Raceway.

Harvick turned a lap at 121.880 mph on Friday night to edge hometown favorite Denny Hamlin, whose best lap came at 121.847 mph. After several years as the last opportunity for drivers to qualify for the 10-race playoffs, Saturday night’s race marks the first time Richmond is part of the playoffs.

Harvick didn’t practice for qualifying before winning his third pole of the year.

“We didn’t really fall off. I think that is part of the game here,” he said. “I think we made some good adjustments on making the car better and for me just getting more confidence in how fast I could let the car roll and stay in the throttle up off the corner. In the first round we didn’t really know what we had and ran a lap less than a lot of the faster guys.”

The pole is the second for Harvick at Richmond and his 24th in 638 career starts.

Points leader and defending series champion Martin Truex Jr. will start third on Saturday night, followed by Ryan Blaney, Daniel Suarez, Kurt Busch, Aric Almirola and Brad Keselowski, the winner of the last three races in the series. Erik Jones and Kyle Larson round out the top 10.