Christopher Bell has now pulled off NASCAR’s version of a hat trick… without a fight on the ice. Bell was able to hold off his hard-charging Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin in a door-banging final lap to win by the second closest finish in NASCAR Cup Series history at Phoenix Raceway Sunday.
“Oh, my gosh, man,” Bell said. “Whenever you’re sitting there dreaming it up, that’s about as ugly as it gets.”
Bell was the class of the field in the second half of the 312 laps, winning Stage 2 and going on to lead a race-high 105 laps. And in those final laps, it seemed to be Bell versus the rest of the field. But with 8 laps to go, another JGR teammate, Ty Gibbs, took the wind out of Bell’s sails when his Toyota lost a brake rotor and slammed the wall, bringing out the race’s 10th, and what turned out to be the final, caution.
Green came out with 2 laps to go, but Bell wouldn’t be denied. Hamlin, desperate for a win of his own, tried to shut Bell down. Bell would have none of it, though, and the two came out of Turn 4 swapping paint and heading toward the start-finish line. Bell would inch forward, and Hamlin was forced to settle for second.
“Really kind of wanted it to stay green there,” Hamlin said. “’Cause I thought in the long runs is really where we were going to be able to excel, especially on these tires. But we got a good restart. The 5 really gave me a great push on the frontstretch on the restart, down the backstretch.
“I had kind of position on the 20. I knew he was going to ship it in there. He had to use me. He could. Obviously, we just kind of ran out of racetrack there.”
Kyle Larson, Josh Berry, and Chris Buescher rounded out the top five.
“Good to finish third,” Larson said. “I felt like we were going to be lucky to finish top 10. Pit crew did a great job there that last stop. They made good adjustments compared to our first option tire round two.”
The gamble from NASCAR and Goodyear to use two different tire compounds was like a game of blackjack where everyone had to hit on 16—risky, chaotic, and wildly entertaining. The choice to use one of the two sets given to the teams led to intrigue and drama. It also left most teams with none of the softer, thus faster, ‘option’ tires in the closing laps.
Some teams, however, took full advantage of the extra speed.
Ryan Preece was the first to slap on the options on lap 14 after the race’s second of the 10 cautions. The move saw him rocket through the field like a man possessed, coming from his 33rd starting spot to finish the first Stage, ending on lap 60, in third.
Joey Logano would be another driver to turn into a superhero with the options. Logano was leading on a restart on lap 177 when he was penalized for a restart violation. Bolting on the options, however, was like Superman jumping from a phone booth, and it wasn’t long before Logano was once more in contention. Stage 2 became a battle with Logano on the red tires and Bell, who was on the harder tires. With those tires wearing out, though, Logano had to cede the spot to Bell with 8 to go and finish the Stage second.
After starting from the pole, winning Stage 1, and leading 83 laps, William Byron looked like he had it all under control. But then, like a gambler going all-in with pocket aces only to lose on the river, his luck ran out. Byron committed to pit road during a round of green flag stops on lap 267 just as Bubba Wallace’s Toyota lost a right front brake rotor and slammed the Turn 1 wall, bringing out a caution. Byron lost a lap but got it back on a wave-around. Sadly, while he was back on the lead lap, he had to start at the tail end of the longest line with just 35 laps to go. He did make an amazing rally and finished sixth.
The biggest crash of the day came after Michael McDowell’s flat tire brought out a caution on lap 93. When the field bunched up for the lap 99 restart, Ty Gibbs, running low in a four-wide battle, slid up into Justin Haley. Haley clipped Chase Briscoe, who was then squeezed between Spire Motorsports teammates Carson Hocevar and Corey LaJoie. The accordion effect triggered a chain reaction that swept up Riley Herbst, Brad Keselowski, Cole Custer, Shane van Gisbergen, and Austin Dillon.
When the dust settled, seven drivers—Haley, Herbst, Briscoe, van Gisbergen, Custer, Keselowski, and Hocevar—were done for the day. The eight-car pileup was the biggest Cup Series wreck at Phoenix since 2011 when a 14-car crash unfolded in the final race on the old track layout.
Katherine Legge’s Cup Series debut saw her spin twice, the second time making contact with Daniel Suarez. She finished her debut in the garage in 30th.
Alex Bowman, Kyle Busch, Zane Smith, and Chase Elliott all had uneventful days and quietly completed the top 10.
NASCAR heads to Las Vegas in one week, where the defending winner is Kyle Larson.
There you have it. Bell grabbed the win, Hamlin fumed, and NASCAR’s tire gamble left teams scrambling like confused poker players. But let’s be honest—this was classic, entertaining chaos at its finest. Paint was traded, fenders were mangled, and somewhere in the mix, Denny Hamlin left another race cursing under his breath. Now, it’s off to Vegas, where the stakes are high, the lights are blinding, and the only thing riskier than a fuel-mileage race is leaving a casino at 3 a.m. with an empty wallet and a bad life decision.
Oh, and for the first time since 2018 there is now a three-time consecutive race winner with Christopher Bell. What are the odds he will make it four? The last time a driver won four races in a row was in 2007, and the driver was seven-time NASCAR Cup champion Jimmie Johnson.
“That’s incredibly special to hear that and know that I have that opportunity ahead of me,” Bell humbly said. “We’re going to a darn good place for it.”
RACE RESULTS
Greg is the author of "The Nuts and Bolts of NASCAR: The Definitive Viewers' Guide to Big-Time Stock Car Auto Racing" and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, a Masters degree in psychology and is currently a PhD candidate majoring in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek.
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