Bell battles Busch, Byron for second straight Cup Series win at COTA

Christopher Bell rode a week of momentum into Circuit of The Americas and turned it into a second consecutive NASCAR Cup Series victory. Bell, who won a week ago on the Atlanta Motor Speedway super…

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Christopher Bell rode a week of momentum into Circuit of The Americas and turned it into a second consecutive NASCAR Cup Series victory.

Bell, who won a week ago on the Atlanta Motor Speedway superspeedway-hybrid, made the winning pass Sunday on Kyle Busch with five laps to go. The two put on a clinic of road course driving, with Busch on defense for the final 10 laps as Bell looked to his left and right and, at times, made contact as they battled for the lead.

Once in the lead, Bell held off a charging William Byron. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver led eight laps on his way to the victory, the 11th of his Cup Series career. It is his first at COTA.

Bell finished second at the venue last year. Ironically, the roles were reversed as he tried to chase down Byron for the victory.

“That was almost a déjà vu of last year – I had the track position that time, [too],” Bell told Fox Sports. “Man, these road course races are just so much fun. Whenever Kyle [Busch] was leading, I was trying to be so cautious. Obviously, we know what happened last year (when he spun Busch in Turn 1). I didn’t want that to happen. I wanted to pass him clean, and he was just doing such a good job at running his race, and he could get off the corners just good enough that I couldn’t get inside of him. I started peeking a nose, and he bobbled, and it allowed me to get out front. When I did, I was like, ‘OK, just don’t beat yourself.’

“Those were about the five or six sloppiest laps I’ve ever run. I’m just so, so happy for these guys right here (patting DeWalt) logo. They’ve been on me hard about winning with them. We didn’t count last week. Last week was a speedway. We didn’t have that one circled, but we definitely had this one circled, and I’m ready to keep adding to it.”

 

Byron crossed the finish line second with Tyler Reddick just behind. Chase Elliott came home fourth. Busch eventually slipped back to finish fifth.

The No. 8 Chevy lost the fourth position to Elliott on the final lap, but Busch led the most laps Sunday at 42 of 95.

“The contact we made with [Bell] there between [Turns] 1 and 2 bent the right rear, and it was a completely different race car after that,” Busch told Fox Sports. “I hate it for all the guys and everybody with Rowdy Nation and RCR. We’ve got the grit. We’re from Welcome (North Carolina), and we’re going to outwork anybody there is to work. The guys did a phenomenal job with the race car that we brought to the racetrack — unloading not the way I wanted it and being able to make as many adjustments as we did there in practice and qualifying, and then there in the race having a really good race car.

“I wish we had a little bit more there at the end. I feel like maybe the two-lap fresher tires the No. 20 had was the difference. All things considered, I’d love to have equal tires to the No. 20 and get back after it and see what we could do that way. But I also hated to see that yellow that came out. I felt like we had a little bit of a gap there, enough of a gap that I was protecting my tires. I could run all the lines I wanted to run; I didn’t have to run defensive lines and use up my stuff even more when the No. 20 was right on me. I’ll give Christopher credit, though, where credit is due. He ran me really hard and I was a complete butthead. He did a great job just working me over and doing it the right way and being able to get by.”

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Busch pitted for the final time with 27 laps to go and Bell came in two laps later. Busch had a 5.3s lead on the JGR Toyota after the pit cycle with 20 laps to go, and the final caution flew with 17 laps to go, bunching the field back together.

With Busch restarting as the leader on the inside of the front row, Bell chose to restart behind the No. 8 in the second row and immediately went to second place through Turn 1 to set up the battle for the win.

Shane van Gisbergen finished sixth, Chris Buescher seventh, Noah Gragson eighth, Alex Bowman ninth and Todd Gilliland 10th.

Van Gisbergen, who led the second most laps in the race at 23, rebounded after going from fifth to 11th off the final restart with 13 laps to go when he went wide in a corner and the field pounced. Bowman rebounded from multiple penalties for exceeding track limits.

The race started with an incident in Turn 1 on the first lap when Daniel Suarez got into Elliott, which spun the Hendrick Motorsports driver. Further back in the field, Denny Hamlin suffered right front damage when teammate Ty Gibbs went airborne after hitting his car.

Hamlin finished 20th and also had a late-race incident where he made contact with Austin Dillon and spun. It brought out the race’s final caution with 17 laps to go as Dillon’s car became stuck in the gravel pit.

Kyle Larson finished 32nd. Larson was penalized two laps during the race when the right front wheel came off his car on lap 44.

Trackhouse Racing teammates Suarez and Connor Zilisch finished 36th and 37th, respectively. On lap 50, Suarez hit a curb and spun across the track into the path of Zilisch, who was going wide. The contact significantly damaged both cars.

Bubba Wallace won the first stage. Ryan Preece won the second.

There were four cautions for 15 laps.

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