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Christopher Bell made history on Sunday at Phoenix Raceway, who surpassed teammate Denny Hamlin to become the first cup manager to win three consecutive races in the next Genera.
Bell holds Hamlin on a two-ski shooting that ended the race on the 1-mile oval. Kyle Larson, the most recent cup manager who won three in a row in 2021, finished third, followed by Josh Berry and Chris Buescher.
Bell beat Hamlin by 0.049 seconds, the second closing cup finish in Phoenix Raceway history. The Joe Gibbs Racing Star’s no. 20 Toyota has also been in Victory Lane for the past two weeks on Atlanta Motor Speedway and Circuit of the American.
Here’s what drivers talked about after Sunday’s Nascar Cup race at Phoenix Raceway.
“How about the one, racing fans? Oh, my gosh, man, ”Bell told FS1’s Regan Smith. “If you sit there and dream it, it’s about as ugly as it gets. You put on the) (softer) tires, you’re like, ‘Okay, what I don’t want to happen is 20, 30 laps, get a yellow ..’ It happened. Then we went ten laps, had another yellow. It was all about who the restart could make it clear. None of us could. We really, really chased, came to the line. JGR ran 1-2, how are you? “
Bell chose the inside of the track for the final restart (set by an accident with JGR driver Ty Gibbs), and Hamlin’s no. 11 Toyota kept the lead at the white flag. But Bell managed to regain for his 12th career victory during the final lane.
“Good work from this team,” Hamlin told Jamie Little of FS1. ‘Got better and better as it went. Pit Crew did a phenomenal job to keep us in the game when we had a bad stop in the middle. They made up for it at the end. The first time we were able to get clean air all day. Obviously, our car was really fast. It really wanted it to stay green there, because I thought we could really perform on the long runs, especially on these tires.
“But we got a good restart. (Kyle Larson) really gave me a good pressure on the provision on the restart, in the back. I had some kind of position on (Bell). I knew he would send it there. He had to use me. He could. Obviously, we just ran out of the racetrack there. Great finish. Good work throughout the Joe Gibbs team to give us some quick cars. “
There were three warning flags in the last 50 rounds, and a final round pit stop under yellow with 40 to go was crucial. Bell found six places, Hamlin picked up nine, and Larson scored 11, which set up the final duel.
Larson had the chance to bumper of his no. 5 Chevrolet at Bell and Hamlin in the last two rounds, but prefer to come again.
“I felt like it was my only hope,” Larson told FS1. “Yes, I felt like I had made the right decisions there. I thought of being patient to keep them behind each other was good. I could have shot to the bottom, but I felt that I would have ruined everyone there.
“Yes, just a little chance for them to come together and squeaking us. Good to finish third. I felt that we would be happy to complete Top 10. Pit Crew did a good job there which was the last stop. They made good adjustments compared to our first option band (in) round two. Yes, got better, but should be many, much better to have any shot to win here in the fall if it really matters. Great to get a solid finish here. It was a kind of struggle for us here to start the year. Fortunately, about it. Go to Vegas and try to do well again. “
NASCAR will return to Phoenix Raceway for October 31 on November. 2 Championship Race Weekend for the Cup, XFinity and Truck series.
Sunday’s race was the Phoenix Prime and Option Tires debut, which added another layer of strategy, as teams alternated between two connections with different degrees of durability and speed.
Four-time IMSA winner and Indy 500 veteran Katherine Legge, the first woman to start a cup of cup in more than seven years, finish 30th in her NASCAR CUP debut with Live Fast Motorsports.
Phase 1 winner: William Byron
Phase 2 winner: Christohper Bell
Next: Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Sunday 16 March, 15:30 ET, FS1
