The race’s final restart came with 40 laps to go after a caution when Austin Wayne Self slammed the turn one wall, with Byron quickly opening up a two-second gap over Bell and appearing to have an easy victory.

Bell would close, however, as Byron got bottled up in traffic over the final 15 circuits — cutting the deficit down to just three truck lengths as the pair took the white flag.

But despite a valiant effort and a last gasp dive into turn three, Bell didn’t have enough to get back to his teammate and had to settle for a runner-up result in the end.

“I don’t know if we could have caught him,” Bell admitted. “It’s really tough to say. He was obviously dominant all day long, and I was pretty impressed that we were able to get to him, to be honest. He was in pretty heavy traffic that slowed him up and let me get there, but it wasn’t quite enough.”

“If we’d had a couple more, maybe I would have had a shot at him, but all in all we had a great day and we’ll try to go get a win out at Las Vegas.”

Two-time series champion Matt Crafton came home third ahead of Tyler Reddick, who was the best non-Chase driver on the day in finishing fourth.

Outside polesitter Timothy Peters rounded out the top five.

Cole Custer made a valiant recovery from an early-race spin for sixth, followed by Kaz Grala, Michigan winner Brett Moffitt, John Hunter Nemechek and Daytona winner Johnny Sauter.

Brad Keselowski Racing’s Daniel Hemric saw his Chase hopes take a huge hit on lap 25, when he blew a left rear tire entering turn one. As he came to pit road for fresh rubber, a chunk of the blown tire wrapped around the rear axle and ultimately tore off the left rear brake line, sending his No. 19 Ford to the garage area for repairs.

Hemric ultimately finished 30th and sits 21 points outside the Chase advancement line with two races remaining in round one.

The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series returns to action at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, with the running of the DC Solar 350 on Oct. 1.

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