Christopher Bell and Kyle Larson continue to add chapters to their intertwined dirt legacy — this time in the World of Outlaws season opening points paying race on Thursday night at Volusia Speedway.
Bell defeated Larson in a three-lap shootout but only by a 0.005 margin of victory at the finish line.
Emerson Axsom, a 20-year-old rising star, took the lead from pole-sitter Bell on Lap Four and was driving away to his first series victory when he spun by himself with just four laps to go.
That set up a dramatic restart and duel between two drivers who have had so many parallels over the years and more frequently than not now since Bell has been permitted to race on dirt again by NASCAR team owner Joe Gibbs.
It’s Bell’s sixth win in World of Outlaws competition and his first since October 2019 at Haubstadt. He had not raced a car since 2022 until Wednesday night where he suffered a flat right rear running fourth.
“It’s just absolutely incredible,” Bell said. “I’m just so thankful that my boss Joe Gibbs and everybody at Joe Gibbs Racing has allowed me to come out here and do this. It’s so much fun. Winning Outlaw races is my pride and joy. I don’t have many of them to my name, and I’m just so thankful to be in the 69K and get to add another one. It truly is a dream come true to be racing out here.”
Bell drives for the legendary Don Kreitz Jr., who is also the crew chief of their 69K.
“It’s a pleasure to drive, for sure,” Bell said. “He’s a magician whenever it comes to working on this thing. It just rolls around the corner really, really good. I feel like the slicker it gets the better off this car is going to be. The cushion is a little bit tricky. I’ve got to figure out how to drive a little bit better when it starts to get thicker.”
Larson literally gave it all he had.
“I thought I did a pretty good job on that last restart of staying with him on the frontstretch and thought I was going to be able to build enough of a run,” Larson said. “But this place is so wide. To run the top is a long ways around. It was difficult, but I thought I could get enough grip and speed to the center of (Turns) 3 and 4 that maybe I could get lucky enough to catch some traction as I diamonded and get a little bit of a run to get by him into (Turn) 1. Just came up a little bit short.”
The pair will continue to race each other on Friday and Saturday in the DIRTcar Nationals.
As for Axsom, Bell stopped by after his Victory Lane celebration to offer words of encouragement and support.