Christopher Bell called his shot. After snagging Atlanta a week ago, he pegged Circuit of The Americas as his next hunting ground. Sunday’s EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix proved him right. Bell’s No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota roared past Kyle Busch with five laps left, then fended off William Byron’s Hendrick Chevy to clinch his second straight NASCAR Cup Series win—his first back-to-back haul. The 2.4-mile, 17-turn beast bowed to Bell’s 0.433-second edge over Byron, with pole-sitter Tyler Reddick’s 23XI Toyota in third.
Bell’s 11th career victory—his first at COTA—came with Busch fading to fifth after leading 42 of 95 laps in his No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet. Chase Elliott, spun on lap one, clawed to fourth. “Whenever Kyle was leading, I was just trying to be so cautious,” Bell said, recalling last year’s Turn 1 clash that spun Busch. “Obviously, we know what happened last year. I didn’t want that to happen. I wanted to pass him clean. 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. But there I started peeking a nose, and he bobbled and allowed me to get out front. Whenever I did, I’m, like, ‘OK, just don’t beat yourself.’ Those were about the five or six sloppiest laps I’ve ever run. Just super proud for everyone on this DeWalt No. 20 team. We didn’t count (on) last week. Last week was a speedway. We didn’t have that one circled. We definitely had this one circled. I’m ready to keep adding to it.”
The race kicked off with chaos. Elliott’s No. 9 Hendrick Chevrolet spun in Turn 1 after Ross Chastain’s No. 1 Trackhouse Chevy dive-bombed the corner, snapping a toe link and dropping NASCAR’s road-course king to the back. Rookie Connor Zilisch, in his Cup debut with Trackhouse’s No. 16, caught collateral damage—pitting with a flat tire, tumbling to 33rd from 14th. Reddick’s pole pace held early, leading seven cars through stage one: Bubba Wallace’s No. 23 Toyota took the green-flag win, Shane van Gisbergen’s No. 88 Trackhouse Chevy ran strong, and Elliott stayed out for fifth-place points.
Stage two flipped the script. Ryan Preece’s No. 41 Stewart-Haas Ford nabbed the lead under green, van Gisbergen’s road-course savvy shone, and Busch’s Chevy surged to dominate mid-race. Bell trailed, biding time on fresher tires from a lap-71 stop—Byron and Reddick pitted lap 68, Busch lap 69. “These road course races are just so much fun,” Bell said post-race, savoring the grind. “(Busch) was doing such a good job running his race. He bobbled and allowed me to get out front. When he did, I just said, ‘Don’t beat yourself.’” Lap 78 flipped the race upside down—Denny Hamlin’s No. 11 Toyota locked brakes into Turn 6A, shoving Austin Dillon’s No. 3 Chevy into gravel, triggering the fourth caution.
Busch led the lap-83 restart, two-lap fresher tires be damned. Bell’s No. 20 had juice left. “I wish we could have had a little bit more there at the end,” Busch said. “I feel like maybe the two-lap fresher tires the 20 had was the difference… But I also hated to see that yellow that came out. I felt like we had a little bit of a gap there that I was protecting my tires, and I could run the lines I wanted to run. I didn’t have to run defensive lines and use up my stuff even more so, (which I did) when the 20 was right on me. I’ll give Christopher credit, though, where credit’s due. He ran me really hard, and I was a complete butthead. But he did a great job working me over and just doing it the right way and being able to get by.” Lap 90, Bell struck—off Turn 20, he nabbed the lead before the stripe, Byron slipping past Busch into second at Turn 1 on lap 91, Reddick to third soon after.
Byron smelled blood. “Yeah, it was really close,” he said of the chase. “I felt like the battle between (Bell) and Kyle was just kind of sitting there waiting for one of them to bobble or slide their tires. Bell got by him. I felt like once he got clear, his car was super loose, and it kind of gave me a couple of shots at him, and I just couldn’t ever get beside him. We’ve always raced really well together, so I didn’t want to like move him blatantly and all that kind of stuff. Just sliding around a ton at the end… So just sucks to be so damn close, right? You can be on the bumper of the guy coming to the line, and that sucks. A lot of races ahead, and hopefully we can just keep bringing the speed.” Bell held firm, even as Busch praised the duel: “I’ll give Christopher credit where credit’s due. He ran me really hard, and I was a complete butthead. He did a great job working me over and doing it the right way and being able to get by.”
Elliott’s comeback stole headlines. “Yeah, it was just a crazy day, really,” he said. “I got run over, I felt like, there in the first corner. I’m curious to see it. I still haven’t seen it to know whether or not I did something wrong. I’m happy to own it, if I did. I just felt like it was the first corner of the first lap, and it’s just a bummer to get behind, and then we had damage. Alan and the guys did a great job fixing it and getting it that close. We got behind on a restart there and just had to play major catch-up there. Alan made a great call there at the end to put tires on it. We were rolling up through there really good at the end. Obviously, when you have a good car like that, I would have liked to have been in the fight with those guys, but it was a great recovery from where we were at during the end of the second stage.” Fresh rubber during the final caution vaulted him from 36th to fourth, a testament to crew chief Alan Gustafson’s savvy.
Zilisch’s debut ended in flames—literally. Lap 50, teammate Daniel Suárez’s No. 99 Chevy curb-hopped in Turn 19, spinning into Zilisch’s path. The 18-year-old’s No. 16 slammed Suárez, then the SAFER barrier, ending both runs in a fiery wreck. “All I saw was a cloud of smoke, and by the time I saw him (Suárez), it was way too late to do anything,” Zilisch said. “I saw him spinning off to the left and I thought he was going to keep going in that direction or stay there. I guess he flipped back right and he started coming towards me. Really unfortunate way to end my Cup Series debut. We were one of the top-five fastest cars in the second stage there. I went from outside the top 30 to 14th, and I felt really good about our Chevy. We made a lot of gains from practice and qualifying. It’s just an unfortunate way to end it.” From Xfinity glory Saturday to Cup carnage Sunday, Zilisch’s rollercoaster stopped at 37th, Suárez 36th.
Bell’s crew chief Adam Stevens saw no ceiling. “We don’t think there’s a track that we go to that we don’t have a chance to win,” he said. “We have everything we need to win every single weekend.” The radio chatter crackled with pride: “You f—ing manhandled that thing out there, pardon my language,” Stevens told Bell after the checkered flag. “Amazing to have such respectful clean, hard racing,” Bell added. “It was a beautiful way to end a race.” Van Gisbergen (sixth), Chris Buescher (seventh), Noah Gragson (eighth), Alex Bowman (ninth), and Todd Gilliland (10th) rounded out the top pack on COTA’s shortened 2.4-mile layout—95 laps, a shift from last year’s 68.
COTA’s fate hangs in limbo. “We’ll take a look at ticket renewals, feedback from the fans who attended the race and the overall results before we talk with NASCAR about next year’s schedule,” said Mike Burch, Speedway Motorsports’ COO. “One of the biggest factors will be how the drivers compete on the new National Course, a move we made to put more action and laps in front of the fans.” Phoenix’s Shriners Children’s 500 looms March 9 (3:30 p.m. ET, FS1)—Bell’s the defending champ there, eyeing a three-peat.
Top 10 – EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix
- Christopher Bell (No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota)
- William Byron (No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet) +0.433
- Tyler Reddick (No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota) +1.892
- Chase Elliott (No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet) +3.214
- Kyle Busch (No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet) +4.567
- Shane van Gisbergen (No. 88 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet) +6.789
- Chris Buescher (No. 17 RFK Racing Ford) +8.901
- Noah Gragson (No. 4 Front Row Motorsports Ford) +10.234
- Alex Bowman (No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet) +11.567
- Todd Gilliland (No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford) +13.890
