Bell holds off Hamlin, gets third straight Cup Series win

AVONDALE, Ariz. — Christopher Bell was just ahead of Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin after a late restart, in good position to win his third straight NASCAR Cup Series race.

Another restart led to some tense moments — enough to make his team owner feel a bit queasy.

Bell survived a late drag race with Hamlin to become the first NASCAR Cup Series driver to win three straight races in the NextGen car, edging his teammate by 0.049 seconds to win the second-closest race in Phoenix Raceway history on Sunday.

“It worked out about as opposite as I could have drawn it up in my head,” Bell said. “But the races that are contested like that, looking back, are the ones that mean the most to you.”

Bell started 11th in the 312-mile race after winning at Atlanta and Circuit of America the previous two weeks. The JGR driver moved toward the front early and remained there most of the afternoon, taking the lead out of the pits on a late caution.

Bell stayed out front on two late restarts, holding off his teammate by the nose of his car on the final one to become the first driver to win three straight races since Kyle Larson in 2021. He’s the fourth driver in Cup Series history to win three times in the first four races — first since Kevin Harvick in 2018.

“We’ve had four races this year, put ourselves in position in all four and managed to win three, which is a pretty remarkable batting average — something that will be hard to maintain, I believe,” Bell’s crew chief Adam Stevens said.

The Phoenix race was the first since Richmond last year to give teams two sets of option tires. The option red tires have much better grip, but start to fall off after about 35 laps, creating an added strategic element.

A handful of racers went to the red tires early — Joey Logano and Ryan Preece among them — and it paid off with runs to the lead before falling back.

Bell was among those who had a set of red tires left for the final stretch and used it to his advantage, pulling away from Hamlin on a restart with 17 laps left.

Another caution made it closer than Bell and his team would have liked.

“I was ready to upchuck,” JGR Racing owner Joe Gibbs said.

Hamlin pulled alongside Bell’s No. 20 Toyota over the final two laps after the restart and seemed to be slightly ahead at the white flag. The teammates bumped a couple times while jockeying for position, but Bell barely managed to keep ahead of Hamlin, crossing the checkered flag with a wobble for his 12th career Cup Series win. He led 105 laps.

“I kind of had position on the 20, but I knew he was going to ship it in there,” Hamlin said. “We just kind of ran out of race track there.”

Kyle Larson finished third, Josh Berry fourth and Chris Buescher rounded out the top five.

Legge’s debut

Katherine Legge became the first woman to race on the Cup Series since Danica Patrick at the Daytona 500 seven years ago.

Her race didn’t get off to a great start. The end wasn’t great, either.

Fighting a tight car, Legge got loose coming out of turn 2 and spun her No. 78 Chevrolet, forcing her to make a pit stop. She dropped to the back of the field and had a hard time making up ground before bumping another car and spinning again on lap 215, taking out Daniel Suarez with her.

Legge couldn’t return and finished 30th.

“We made some changes to the car overnight and they were awful,” Legge said. “I was just hanging on to it.”

Logano’s mistake

Logano started on the front row in his first race back at Phoenix Raceway since capturing his third Cup Series at the track last fall.

A mistake on an early restart dropped the Team Penske driver to the back of the field.

Trying to get a jump on Byron, Logano barely dipped his No. 22 Ford below the yellow line at the start/finish. NASCAR officials reviewed the restart and forced him to take a pass through on pit road as the entire field passed him on the track.

“No way,” Logano said on his radio. “That’s freakin’ ridiculous.”

Logano twice surged to the lead after switching to the red tires, but started falling back on the primary tires following a restart. He finished 13th.

Preece’s gamble

Preece took an early gamble by going to the red option tires and it paid off with a run from 33rd to third. The RFK Racing driver dropped back as the tires wore off, but went red again following a caution with about 90 laps left and surged into the lead.

Preece went back to the primary tires with 42 laps to go and started dropping back, finishing 15th.

Up next

The series next heads to Las Vegas Motor Speedway, where Bell will try to become the first Cup Series driver to win four straight races since Jimmie Johnson in 2007.