A long afternoon in Phoenix ends with Christopher Bell in Victory Lane for the Shriners Children’s 500. Bell has a win for the fourth NASCAR Cup Series season in a row.
Christopher Bell picks up the first Toyota win this season. He breaks up the Chevy dominance from the first three weeks. For all of the talk about not being able to pass, Bell moved up through the field multiple times to win this one.
A big Stage 2 win was wiped away with a bad pit stop. Still, Bell kept at it and runs away with the win in Phoenix late in this race. Bell was 20th on the last restart and moved to P1 by the time the checkered flag waved.
Once Christopher Bell got his car dialed in on the long run, it felt inevitable. We saw a glimpse of it in Stage 2, but in that final stage it was as impressive a run as any you will see from a driver at Phoenix.
Toyota flexes their muscles
In Stage 1, it became clear that Toyota was going to be the dominant manufacturer today. Between Tyler Reddick, Denny Hamlin, Christopher Bell, and even Erik Jones for a time – they had the speed over everyone else.
Early on, Chase Elliott and William Byron mixed things up in the top-5. Chase Briscoe and Noah Gragson had solid runs for Stewart-Haas Racing. We got a little bit of action early with a Lap 6 caution in the back of the field. It was inconsequential in terms of the race leaders, but not for Austin Dillon and Austin Cindric who sustained heavy damage.
Tyler Reddick would end up passing Denny Hamlin and winning the opening stage.
Bell shows up in Stage 2
With a minor caution out of the way early, these NASCAR Cup Series drivers got very serious on the track. The racing cleaned up, and everyone tested their cars to see which groove to run and just how easily they could pass.
Running the length of the second stage under green flag conditions allowed cars like Christopher Bell’s to come into their own. Bell kept moving up and kept moving up and then he was there at the lead and ready to take it from Reddick.
While Bell would go on to win the second stage, he started to panic soon after.
Christopher Bell brings it home at Phoenix
As clean as Stage 2 was, the start of Stage 3 was just as messy. Caution after caution, restart after restart. It got to the point where the field flipped due to differing pit cycles. It didn’t help that Bell restarted poorly in the stage because of a slow pit stop.
Still, with 100 laps or so of green flag racing to end the Shriners Children’s 500, Bell had time. Lots of time. His JGR teammate Martin Truex Jr. tried to run long, but just didn’t have the fuel to make it. Once Truex pit, Bell took the lead and didn’t look back.
By the end of this race, he was out of sight of the runner-up Chris Buescher. A very nice turnaround from Christopher Bell’s Championship 4 run at Phoenix. His brakes held up today and he ended up securing the win.
So far this season, William Byron, Daniel Suárez, Kyle Larson, and Bell have won races in the Cup Series. Four races, four winners. The playoff field is slowly starting to develop.
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