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Christopher Bell’s Thrilling Victory at Phoenix Raceway

Christopher Bell was poised for a straightforward win at Phoenix Raceway when a caution flag interrupted the race due to teammate Ty Gibbs experiencing a brake failure. This incident set the stage for a nail-biting two-lap sprint to the finish, where Bell had to outmaneuver another Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, Denny Hamlin, in a heart-stopping confrontation.

In the preceding ARCA and Xfinity events, close finishes had already marked an exciting racing weekend. Brenden ‘Butterbean’ Queen and Brent Crews dueled for supremacy in ARCA, while Aric Almirola and Alex Bowman mirrored that intensity in the Xfinity race. Bell’s dramatic showdown with Hamlin entered the final corner with both drivers vying fiercely for the lead.

As they approached the finish line, Kyle Larson made a daring move, nearly slipping under both Bell and Hamlin and even making contact with the rear of Bell’s No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. However, Bell managed to maintain just enough of a lead to secure his victory. Hamlin crossed the line just 0.049 seconds behind, marking the second-closest finish in the history of the Cup at Phoenix, with Larson finishing a mere 0.097 seconds off the lead.

Bell’s Historic Achievement

“How about that one, race fans?” Bell exclaimed during a post-race interview with FOX Sports 1. “Oh, my gosh, man. Whenever you’re sitting there dreaming it up, that’s about as ugly as it gets. You put the red tires on, you’re like, All right, what I don’t want to happen is go 20, 30 laps, get a yellow. That happened. Then we went 10 more laps, had another yellow. It was all about who could get clear on the restart. Neither of us could. We were racing really, really hard there coming to the line … JGR ran 1-2, how about that?”

With this win, Bell made history as the first driver in the Next Gen era, and the first since Kyle Larson in 2021, to clinch three consecutive Cup victories. After a disappointing start with a crash during the Daytona 500, he rebounded with impressive wins at Atlanta, COTA, and now Phoenix. This victory marks Bell’s 12th career win, matching his personal record for most wins in a single season after just four races this year.

The top five finishers behind Bell and Hamlin were the Fords of Josh Berry and Chris Buescher, who rounded out the top positions. The rest of the top ten included William Byron, Alex Bowman, Kyle Busch, Zane Smith, and Chase Elliott. The race was marked by ten cautions, including a significant multi-car pileup on Lap 99, which resulted in seven cars exiting the race.

Photos from Phoenix Race

In this article

• NASCAR Cup
• Denny Hamlin
• Christopher Bell
• Joe Gibbs Racing

Source
www.motorsport.com