NEWTON, Iowa– After winning the pole earlier Saturday afternoon, Christopher Bell wins the opening stage in the American Ethanol E15 250 at Iowa Speedway.

The young Joe Gibbs Racing driver led all 60 laps en route to his first stage victory in his second NASCAR XFINITY Series start. Bell, who raced at Iowa Speedway Friday night in the Camping World Truck Series, seems to have picked up where he left off when he led 99 laps in that event.

It’s been really good out front.” Bell said. “It’ll be interesting to see how it is in traffic here but I don’t feel traffic is as near as big as what it is in the Truck Series as far as aero dependency goes. I feel like we got a really good Camry here. We’re going to try to make our way back to the front.”

Two-time Iowa winner Sam Hornish Jr making his season debut, finished the opening stage in second, with William Byron, Justin Allgaier and Elliott Sadler rounding out the rest of the top 5.

For the current NXS points leader, Sadler was forced to start the race in the rear of the field after his car failed pre race inspection for body modifications. That didn’t phase the seasoned veteran as he made quick work of the field and went from 38th to 10th in 30 laps. He ultimately finished the stage in the fifth position.

Kyle Benjamin, JJ Yeley, Scott Lagasse Jr, Ryan Reed and Daniel Hemric round out the rest of the top-10.

There were two cautions in the stage. The first is for the No.90 of Dexter Bean spun on the entry of turn 1. The other caution was for the end of the opening stage.

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Rence Brown is Race Chaser Online’s West Coast-based correspondent, who currently resides in California and carries a deep passion for NASCAR, but is a follower of multiple forms of auto racing across multiple disciplines.

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