Bell Rises to the Occasion; Tops Byron for Second-Straight Win
When you're hot, you're hot. And right now, Christopher Bell and the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing team are red hot. Bell, who started 19th, methodically worked his way up the running order throughout Sunday's 95-lap NASCAR Cup Series EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas to win, as he made the race-winning pass for the lead on Kyle Busch with six laps remaining.
The win for Bell is his second consecutive in NASCAR Cup Series competition, and the two wins couldn't have come on two more different race track layouts as Bell won a week ago at the 1.54-mile Atlanta Motor Speedway before capturing victory on the 2.4-mile 17-turn, technical Circuit of the Americas road course this weekend.
"We didn’t count last week. Last week was a speedway. We didn’t have that one circled. We definitely had this one circled. I’m ready to keep adding to it," Bell exclaimed.
RELATED: EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix Race Results
Following securing his 11th career NASCAR Cup Series win, Bell admitted that he had a run-in with Kyle Busch in last year's event, where Busch confronted him on pit road after the race, on his mind as he attempted to get by his competitor in the closing laps.
"Whenever Kyle was leading, I was just trying to be so cautious," Bell stated. "Obviously we know what happened last year. I didn’t want that to happen. I wanted to pass him clean. He was just doing such a good job at running his race, and he could get off the corners just good enough that I couldn’t get inside of him. But there I started peeking a nose, and he bobbled and allowed me to get out front."
While Bell made the race-winning pass on Busch, the driver of the No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet, the 30-year-old racer had to withstand a seemingly non-stop challenge from William Byron, who won the season-opening Daytona 500, over the final handful of laps to win Sunday's race. Bell was just thankful to pull off the win as he says he made several mistakes over the final few laps of the event.
"Whenever I did [pass Busch], I’m, like, Okay, just don’t beat yourself. Those were about the five or six sloppiest laps I’ve ever run," Bell quipped.
Byron's runner-up finish, 0.433 seconds behind Bell, was the closest runner-up effort in the five-year NASCAR Cup Series history of racing at Circuit of the Americas. The previous closest finish in this event came a season ago when ironically Byron bested Bell by a margin of 0.692 seconds.
Once Bell and Byron got past Busch, Byron knew he had the better car of the two drivers, but just wasn't able to make anything happen over the last few laps of the race.
"Yeah, it was really close. I felt like the battle between he and Kyle was just kind of sitting there waiting for one of them to bobble or slide their tires. Bell got by him. I felt like once he got clear, his car was super loose, and it kind of gave me a couple of shots at him, and I just couldn’t ever get beside him," Byron said.
Polesitter Tyler Reddick would claw his way into the battle for the lead in the closing laps, but would settle for a third-place finish in his No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota Camry XSE.
Chase Elliott would rally from an opening-lap spin at the hands of Ross Chastain to finish fourth, while Kyle Busch would secure a fifth-place result.
While the top-five run marks Busch's first of the 2025 season, and his second consecutive top-10, it appeared that the driver was going to snap his long winless drought, which dates back to June 2023, when he was victorious in the NASCAR Cup Series event at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway.
While Busch would amass a race-high 42 laps led, his No. 8 car was no match in the closing laps for Bell, Byron, and a few others. Still, the good run is another sign that Busch is ready to break out of his slump at any moment.
Road racing ace, and NASCAR Cup Series Rookie of the Year contender, Shane van Gisbergen would finish sixth in the No. 88 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet, and he was followed by fellow top-10 finishers Chris Buescher, Noah Gragson, Alex Bowman, and Todd Gilliland.
18-year-old Connor Zilisch, who made his highly anticipated NASCAR Cup Series debut driving the No. 87 Red Bull-sponsored Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet, would suffer a cut tire in the opening-lap skirmish involving Elliott and Chastain. The cut tire would mire Zilisch at the back of the field for the remainder of the opening Stage of the race.
The youngster would claw his way back to the 14th position by the end of Stage 2, but his solid NASCAR Cup Series debut came to an end on Lap 50 when he was swept up in a hard crash with his Trackhouse Racing teammate Daniel Suarez.
Zilisch had nowhere to go when Suarez spun out ahead of him in Turn 19, and due to the crash he ended up with a last-place finish in his NASCAR Cup Series debut.
Despite his runner-up finish, Byron will head into next weekend's race as the NASCAR Cup Series point leader as he carries a slim two-point advantage over Ryan Blaney, who finished 19th in Sunday's race. Tyler Reddick, who was the regular season champion a season ago, has positioned himself well after three races as he sits third, just five points behind Byron for the point lead.
Riding the strength of his two consecutive wins, Bell has overcome a crash in the season-opening Daytona 500 and now sits fourth in the NASCAR Cup Series championship standings, as he is tied with Chase Elliott at 21 points behind Byron in the standings.
While Kyle Larson had a rough afternoon as he finished 32nd following a separated wheel and an additional late-race spin, the driver of the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet did turn the fastest lap of the race, which allowed him to gain the additional championship point as the Xfinity Fastest Lap Award winner.
Larson's fastest lap, a 1 minute, 39.244 second circuit, came on Lap 87 of Sunday's race.
Next up for the NASCAR Cup Series is a trip to Phoenix Raceway in Avondale, AZ for the Shriners Children's 500. The fourth race of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season is scheduled for Sunday, March 9, and will be televised on FS1. TV coverage of the event will kick off at 3:30 PM ET.
Recommended Articles
feed
Toby Christie is the Editor-in-Chief of Racing America. He has 15 years of experience as a motorsports journalist and has been with Racing America since 2023.