Christopher Bell With the Hat Trick - Three in a Row in NASCAR Cup

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AVONDALE, AX – RIS - Christopher Bell became the first driver since Kyle Larson in 2021 to capture three consecutive NASCAR Cup Series races in a row with his victory at the Shriners Children's 500 in Phoenix.

A wreck-filled day ended up with Bell in a battle between Denny Hamlin and Larson himself in front of a crowded pack featuring the surprising Josh Berry. "How bout that, race fans!" an ebullient Bell admitted after his win.

win was the closest victory in the history of the Cup Series in Phoenix. He led the race after Stage 2 after William Byron captured the flag at the conclusion of Stage1

a WRECK AT Lap 99 eliminated many drivers with good cars.  Carson Hocevar, Chase Briscoe, Brad Keselowski, Riley Herbst, Justin Haley, Cole Custer, and Shane Van Gisbergen were damaged or withdrawn from the race. 

"Yeah,     that was about the biggest you can crash in Phoenix," Briscoe said.

Bell led a race-high 105 laps en route to his 12th win at NASCAR’s top level, and it was his second victory at Phoenix. Behind Hamlin, Kyle Larson, Josh Berry and Chris Buescher rounded out the top five.

Polesitter William Byron finished sixth in the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, followed by Alex Bowman, Kyle Busch, Zane Smith and Chase Elliott to round out the top 10.

Sunday’s race featured a softer Goodyear option tire that had more grip but was designed to wear out more quickly than the primary tires, giving crew chiefs a strategy tool to utilize.  One example was Ryan Preece.  Jhe came from 33rd place to finish third in the first stage.

Bell beat Hamlin by 0.049 seconds, the second-closest Cup finish in Phoenix Raceway history. The Joe Gibbs Racing star’s No. 20 Toyota also was in victory lane the past two weeks at Atlanta Motor Speedway and Circuit of the Americas.

“How about that one, race fans? Oh, my gosh, man,” Bell told FS1’s Regan Smith. “Whenever you’re sitting there dreaming it up, that’s about as ugly as it gets. You put the )(softer) 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?”

 Bell chose the inside lane for the final restart (which was set up by a crash involving JGR driver Ty Gibbs), and Hamlin’s No. 11 Toyota held the lead at the white flag. But Bell managed to recapture first during the final circuit for his 12th career victory.

 “Great job out of this team,” Hamlin told FS1’s Jamie Little. “Got better and better as it went. Pit crew did a phenomenal job to keep us in the game when we had a bad stop in the middle. They made up for it at the end. First time we were able to get some clean air all day. Obviously our car was really fast. Really kind of wanted it to stay green there because 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. (Kyle Larson) really gave me a great push on the frontstretch on the restart, down the backstretch. I had kind of position on (Bell). 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. Great finish. Great job by the whole Joe Gibbs team to give us some fast cars.”

 There were three caution flags in the final 50 laps, and a final round of pit stops under yellow with 40 to go was decisive. Bell gained six spots, Hamlin picked up nine, and Larson gained 11, which set up the final duel.

Larson had a chance to lay the bumper of his No. 5 Chevrolet to Bell and Hamlin in the final two laps but elected to refrain.

“I felt like that was my only hope,” Larson told FS1. “Yeah, I felt like I made the correct decisions there. I thought being patient to try and keep them side by side down the back was good. I could have shot to the bottom, but I felt like I would have wrecked everybody there.

“Yeah, just kind of gave ourselves a shot for them to maybe get into each other and us squeak by. Good to finish third. 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 (in) round two. Yeah, got better but need to be a lot, lot better to have any shot to win here in the fall when it really matters. Great to get a solid finish in here. It’s been kind of a struggle for us here to start the year. Happy about that. Go to Vegas and try to do good again.”

NASCAR will return to Phoenix Raceway for the October race.. 

Four-time IMSA winner and Indy 500 veteran Katherine Legge, the first woman to start a Cup race in more than seven years, finished 30th in her NASCAR Cup debut with Live Fast Motorsports.