Bell Beats Busch & Byron

Christopher Bell celebrates his win at Circuit of the Americas in the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix. (Harold Hinson Photography)

EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix: Christopher Bell went back to back on Sunday by taking the checkered flag in the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas (COTA). Bell rose up through field all day and was the chief competitor to Kyle Busch late in the race. After Bell finally busted his way past Busch, he had to execute the last several laps perfectly to hold off a hard-charging William Byron for the win. Bell did so and took his first back to back wins in his young Cup Series career.

Bell's back to back wins solidify him early as the championship favorite. After the finale last year, Bell was many people's title favorite coming into 2025 after a disappointing end to his 2024 season where he looked poised to be the title favorite at Phoenix. Now, a motivated Bell who has been in contention for all three races this year, winning two of them, appears to be the early on favorite to light up the year and challenge for his first NASCAR Cup Series title in year six of his career.

Sunday's race was a good race from the green flag. The intensity was pegged as high as there were multiple incidents in turn one on lap one. Now, those parts (specifically Chastain's 5-wide dive bomb into one) were a bit dumb. These drivers were acting like they could win the race right then when there was still 95 laps to be run. Especially rich of Chastain after he spent last Sunday post-race giving Carson Hocevar an ass chewing for trying to win the race aggressively in over-time but Chastain decided to clean out Chase Elliott on the first lap as if it was the last corner on the last lap, and he was too chicken to address it post-race. Anyway, the chaotic start to the race had everyone on the edge of their seat early. Everyone did settle in and ran a pretty smooth, but aggressive, to the end of Stage 1 when Bubba Wallace to the stage win. Stage 2 was pretty mild and strategy driven as drivers jockeyed for position and getting through the stage and their pit stops smoothly so they could challenge for the race win. Ryan Preece cruised to the Stage 2 win and the field was set up for Stage 3 and the run to the checkered flag.

Stage three got off to a quick and hairy start as Daniel Suarez spun off turn 19 and Connor Zilisch, making his debut, plowed right into the 99 car knocking both Trackhouse drivers out of the race. The next restart seemed much more mild and set the race to end with strategy plays. And even with then, we were likely headed to a a heck of a showdown with Christopher Bell and William Byron trying to chase down the dominant car of the race, Kyle Busch. Fate would have it different as Denny Hamlin plowed through Austin Dillon to turn 6A and set us up for a dash to the checkered flag. And this is when business picked up.

First, restarts at COTA are just insane; especially with the race on the line. And second, Bell, Byron and SVG were making up ground on Kyle Busch before the caution and now they're right on his bumper. We were getting set up for a thrilling dash to the finish. We were not disappointed. I know Busch ended up finishing fifth, but he drove the race of his life until Bell was able to get by him, and as he said he was a "butthead" throwing every block he could, cutting Bell off every time he needed to, and just taking every opportunity he could to hold Bell off. And to his credit, Bell did not lose his cool and move Busch out of the way. He raced him aggressively and clean the whole time. He was able to finally get ahead of Busch with 6 laps to go, and my thought was the race was over and Bell was just going to drive away. To his credit, Busch challenged him as long as he could, and then Byron and Tyler Reddick got into the mix and battled Bell hard all the way to the checkered flag. Unfortunately for them, Bell did not slip a tire once nor make any mistakes. He executed to perfection and took the checkered flag.

I do not see how anyone could hate this race. It was perfection and SMI's move to race the shorter COTA circuit delivered one of the best road course races with this generation car. I deeply hope this is not the last stop at COTA. The shorter circuit is perfect for the Cup Series and the Austin, TX market needs to be exploited by NASCAR.

Next up we stay out west at Phoenix Raceway. The Craftsmen Truck Series enjoys another weekend off so the Xfinity Series gets the racing started this weekend on Saturday afternoon at 5 p.m. EST on The CW with the GOVX 200. The Cup Series headlines the weekend with action on Sunday afternoon at at 3:30 p.m. EST pm FS1 with the Shriners Children's 500

Phoenix Picks: Truck = Off

Xfinity = Justin Allgaier

Cup = Christopher Bell