NASCAR
Christopher Bell is King of the Road in COTA, Earning Consecutive Victories
AUSTIN, TEXAS – For the first time in over a year, a Cup driver earns back-to-back triumphs. Showing incredible versatility, Christopher Bell’s two wins couldn’t be any more different. A last-lap pass in Atlanta led to a dominant late stage at COTA. Bell is positioning himself nicely for the biggest season of his career and another deep Playoff run. These two weeks may just be the start of a banner year ahead for Bell.
Shane van Gisbergen was evidently the fastest man in town from the early laps. The Trackhouse Racing No. 88 Chevrolet took command on lap nine, but yielded both stage wins. The bonus points instead went to Bubba Wallace and Ryan Preece after pit strategy calls by the leaders.
Stage 2 saw a great back-and-forth battle between SVG and Kyle Busch. The 8 initially took the lead in the final stage while SVG was slow on the restart. Despite such hard-nosed racing, the only on-track issue across either stage saw Ross Chastain spin Chase Elliott in turn one on the opening lap.
Christopher Bell was filling up Busch’s rearview mirror not long into the final stage, with driver 20 going for consecutive weeks in victory lane. Bell’s crew called him to pit road for the final time three laps after Busch, giving the No. 20 a late tire advantage. A caution flew inside of the final 15 laps, pinning Busch and Bell nose-to-tail. While Busch fired off, the tire gamble did pay off dividends for Bell.
Last year’s COTA runner-up, Bell stalked Busch down into a mistake with five laps left. Thanks to Busch holding Bell up, this allowed William Byron and Tyler Reddick to both close in. This trio were running under a blanket for the closing laps, having a three horse race at the white flag. Bell ultimately had just enough tire life to hold on for a second consecutive win.
“That was almost a déjà vu of last year,” Bell said. “I had the track position that time, man these road course races are so much fun. Whenever Kyle (Busch) was leading, I was just trying to be cautious. We obviously know what happened last year, I didn’t want that to happen, I wanted to pass him clean. He was just doing such a great job of running his race, he could get off the corners just good enough. I couldn’t get inside of him. I started peeking a nose and he bobbled, that allowed me to get out front. Whenever I did, I just told myself ‘don’t beat yourself,’ and those were about the five or six sloppiest laps I’ve ever run.”
“Just so happy for these guys right here, (DeWalt) has been on me hard about not winning with them, Tony we got another one. Just super proud for everyone on this No. 20 team. We didn’t count last week, that was a speedway, we didn’t have that one circled. But we definitely had this one circled, I’m ready to keep adding to it.”
Behind the front trio, Chase Elliott got by Kyle Busch for fourth on the last lap. Shane van Gisbergen, Chris Buescher, Noah Gragson, Alex Bowman, and Todd Gilliland rounded out the top-10.
Bell will be another favorite next week for a three-peat, as the defending spring Phoenix winner. The desert mile will see its annual early-season stop as part of the West Coast Swing. The Shriners Children’s 500 (Sunday, 3:30 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) will be the first traditional race of this year. Bell’s No. 20 saw one of the most dominant races of 2024 here. Is a historic hat trick potentially in the works?
Written by Peter Stratta
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Photo Credits to James Gilbert/Getty Images
