NASCAR
Christopher Bell Clinches Three-Peat in Phoenix, Back-to-Back Spring Wins
AVONDALE, Ariz. – The victory Bell rings loudly for a third consecutive week in the NASCAR Cup Series. Christopher Bell was the man on top yet again in the desert, leading the most laps in another dominant win. Not only does Bell take a three-peat in 2025, he earns back-to-back March wins at Phoenix. It may be early in the season, but Bell has asserted himself as a serious title threat.
From the pole, William Byron led the majority of Stage 1. A few early laps were led by Joey Logano, but the No. 22 had a restart violation for dipping below the yellow line right before start/finish. This penalty set Logano to the tail of the field, with him recovering to 29th.
The other focal point of Stage 1 was Ryan Preece. The RFK Racing No. 60 put on option red tires while running 33rd, slowly and methodically gaining spots to end this segment in third. A few teams saw these major gains and opted for the faster tires to start Stage 2. The penalty forced Logano to put on red tires early in Stage 2, giving the 22 second in the stage behind Christopher Bell.
Logano initially started Stage 3 up front, but on his last set of option tires. This disadvantage reared its ugly head early on, with Bell soon regaining the lead on pit road. Ryan Preece saving his last set of red tires saw the No. 60 drive to the front again, but Bell retook the top spot on pit road once again.
Despite a few late restarts against teammate Denny Hamlin, nobody had the pace to match Bell. Driver 20 becomes the 18th man in NASCAR’s Modern Era to earn a perfect hat-trick of victories.
The final two-lap run to the finish saw Hamlin stay alongside Bell and have the lead at the white flag. Bell’s speed was not to be denied though, making a clean last-lap pass in turn four. This marked the second-closest Cup finish ever at Phoenix Raceway.
“How about that one, race fans?” Bell said. “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?”
A close third behind Bell and Hamlin was Kyle Larson, the last man to win three-straight races in 2021. The 5 gave Bell a little love tap coming to the line, a playful moment between the two longtime friendly rivals. The Fords of Josh Berry and Chris Buescher rounded out the top-five. Other top finishers included: William Byron, Alex Bowman, Kyle Busch, Zane Smith, and Chase Elliott.
Bell and Byron remain the only two winners locked into the Playoffs through four weeks of racing in 2025. Bell’s season so far mirrors Kevin Harvick’s blistering 2018 run, the year that dubbed ‘The Big Three.’ Can Bell potentially go four-straight next week? The 20 was the class of the field last fall at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The Pennzoil 400 (Sunday, 3:30 p.m. ET on FS1, PRN, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) will see Bell try and join even more elite company with a four-peat.
Written by Peter Stratta
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Photo Credits to Chris Graythen/Getty Images
