The NASCAR Cup Series season is four races old and Christopher Bell has already accomplished something no Cup driver has done in four seasons.
Bell won his third straight race of 2025 when he beat his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin in a two-lap sprint to the finish. The two-lap restart was set up by a caution for Ty Gibbs, another Joe Gibbs Racing car.
After crashing out in the Daytona 500, Bell won at Atlanta and a week ago at the Circuit of the Americas. Bell is the first driver since Kyle Larson in 2021 to win three races in a row and the first driver since Kevin Harvick in 2018 to win the second, third and fourth races of the season.
Bell was comfortably leading when Gibbs hit the wall but Hamlin was able to hang with him on the restart. On the final lap, Bell had the edge down the backstretch and pushed Hamlin out wide in the final two corners to get the victory.
Kyle Larson finished third and Josh Berry finished fourth ahead of Chris Buescher in fifth.
Bell led a race-high 103 laps and was the clear driver to beat after he worked his way to the front as soon as the race began.
Race features option tires
Sunday’s race included a softer option tire for teams as NASCAR and Goodyear looked for a tire compound to use at Phoenix in November for the championship race. Teams had two sets of the faster but less durable option tire and and the speed difference was clear when a driver would be on option tires against other cars on the primary tire around him.
Ryan Preece started on the option tire and picked his way through the field. But by starting on that tire, Preece had just one set remaining for the rest of the 312-lap race. Most teams used their option tires at the same time and Bell and the rest of the leaders finished the race on the primary tire after a caution came out with less than 40 laps to go when most of the top 10 was on the option tire.
It seems likely the option tire will be the tire NASCAR uses for the title race. The tire didn’t have precipitous fall-off though it was still far less durable than the primary tire. It could add another element of tire strategy for the four drivers racing for the title in eight months.
Bell is the very early title favorite
You can bet heavily that Bell will be one of the four drivers racing for the title.
Bell has been a part of the final four in three of the last four seasons and has established himself as the top driver at Joe Gibbs Racing. Yes, even ahead of Hamlin, the most successful driver in Cup Series history to not win a Cup title.
Bell doesn’t have a Cup title either. Yet. It feels like only a matter of time, however. Sunday’s victory was his 12th of his career and he’s finished no lower than fifth in the standings since he was 12th in 2021.
Big wreck in Stage 2
A host of drivers were taken out during the second stage when Justin Haley and Chase Briscoe made contact.
Briscoe, Haley, Shane van Gisbergen, Brad Keselowski and others were taken out in the crash.
Katherine Legge’s inauspicious debut
At Phoenix, longtime sports car and IndyCar racer Katherine Legge became the first woman to start a Cup Series race since Danica Patrick’s run at the 2018 Daytona 500. She was involved in two cautions.
The first came just laps into the race when Legge spun by herself off Turn 2 while running last. The second was more costly, especially for Daniel Suarez.
As Legge was getting lapped in the third stage, she washed up into Berry’s car and spun around after the two drivers made contact. Suarez had nowhere to go and drove straight into Legge’s car.
The race was Legge’s first NASCAR start on an oval since she raced in the Xfinity Series at Richmond in 2018. She finished 30th. Suarez finished 23rd after he was running in the top 10 before the crash.
Race results
1. Christopher Bell
2. Denny Hamlin
3. Kyle Larson
4. Josh Berry
5. Chris Buescher
6. William Byron
7. Alex Bowman
8. Kyle Busch
9. Zane Smith
10. Chase Elliott
11. Ross Chastain
12. Austin Dillon
13. Joey Logano
14. John Hunter Nemechek
15. Ryan Preece
16. Ty Dillon
17. Todd Gilliland
18. Erik Jones
19. Austin Cindric
20. Tyler Reddick
21. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
22. AJ Allmendinger
23. Daniel Suarez
24. Cody Ware
25. Ty Gibbs
26. Noah Gragson
27. Michael McDowell
28. Ryan Blaney
28. Ryan Blaney
29. Bubba Wallace
30. Katherine Legge
31. Shane van Gisbergen
32. Cole Custer
33. Brad Keselowski
34. Justin Haley
35. Chase Briscoe
36. Carson Hocevar
37. Riley Herbst