Christopher Bell came out victorious once again after he won the Shriners Children’s 500 at the Phoenix Raceway on Sunday. With this, he secured the hat-trick of wins in NASCAR and became the first driver to do so in the Next Gen car. Prior to his victory at Phoenix, he won two back-to-back races in Atlanta and Austin.
Following an eventful day where NASCAR called nine cautions, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver held his nerve and crossed the finish line ahead of his teammate, Denny Hamlin. Bell and Hamlin ran side by side until the #20 driver took the inside line to overtake Hamlin right at the edge to secure his victory.
Bell started his race from 11th and slowly improved to fourth in Stage 1. From there, he moved forward slowly, kept his mojo, and finished stage 2 on top. The JGR driver led 105 out of 312 laps and crossed the finish line.
Bell finished 0.049 seconds ahead of Hamlin, taking up second place. Kyle Larson, Josh Berry, and Chris Buescher finished in the top five. William Byron, Alex Bowman, Kyle Busch, Zane Smith, and Chase Elliott wrapped up the Top 10.
William Byron is the only other driver to have won a Cup Series race this season, with his win at the Daytona 500. Following the season opener, it was only a Christopher Bell affair at the Ambetter Health 400 at the Atlanta Motor Speedway and the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix at the Circuit of The Americas.
Christopher Bell let his feelings known after Phoenix Raceway victory
Following his emphatic win at the Phoenix Raceway, Christopher Bell shared his thoughts in a post-race interview. Speaking about the race, Bell told Fox Sports:
“How about that one race fans? Oh my gosh […] That’s about as ugly as it gets. You put the red tires on, you’re like ‘alright what I don’t want to happen to go like 20-30 laps to get a yellow.’ Then that happened.” (0:04)
“Then we went like 10 more laps, had another yellow, and then it was all about who could get clear on the restart. Neither of us could and we were just racing really really hard there coming to the line and then JGR ran 1-2. How about that?” he further added.
This was Christopher Bell’s 12th Cup Series victory. While Bell was ecstatic following his win, Hamlin’s mood was quite the contrary. He was visibly upset after losing the race by a tiny margin.
Edited by Anisha Chatterjee
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