Christopher Bell wins his second race of the season just three weeks in after out dueling William Byron and Tyler Reddick at Circuit of the Americas.

Drivers post-race remarked their gratitude for how cleanly the three drivers in contention for the win on the final lap raced each other.

RECAP

Ross Chastain wasted no time creating storylines on the first corner of lap one. He got a little too hot into the heavy breaking left handed turn, taking out Chase Elliott, who was in the third spot. Elliott was told over the radio that it wasn’t his fault and that whenever they get back to the number 1 car of Chastain, he has the green light to “send him.” Denny Hamlin and Ty Gibbs also gathered some damage.

On lap four, more trouble. This time with Ty Dillon as he makes contact with Austin Cindric. After getting run into the dirt, Cindric hooks Dillon in the right rear and sends him spinning. Fans took to ‘X’ to debate whether that is suspension-worthy or not, but no call from NASCAR was made on Sunday. Usually, penalties from the weekend come out on Tuesday afternoon.

After the leaders pit for fresh tires and a full tank of gas, Bubba Wallace made up for his course-cutting penalty earlier in the race by staying out and winning stage 1. This is Bubba’s first stage win on a road course in his career.

Shane van Gisbergen had the eyes from around the world watching him as he was a favorite to win at COTA, and led a good amount of laps. However, after going winless in 2024, Kyle Busch looked to get back to victory lane as he led the most laps out of any driver in the field.

More pit stops near the end of stage 2 allows for Ryan Preece to stay out, win the stage, and collect a few bonus points.

On lap 50, Daniel Suárez spins and collects highly anticipated rookie Connor Zilisch, whose debut was cut short after contact with Trackhouse teammate Suárez.

Alex Bowman had himself an eventful day, but not in the way he wanted. A couple spins dropped him back to 30th, but he kept climbing and eventually came home with a top ten finishing ninth.

Pit stop strategy was largely impactful in stage 3. Leaders pitting at different times, some staying out to gain position, and crew chiefs deciding who will give their drivers the fresher tires at the end of the race.

Christopher Bell stayed out a couple laps longer than Busch. In his postface interview, Busch says that if he had equal lap tires as Bell, he believed they could’ve had a better shot at holding him off.

The caution flag flies as Denny Hamlin and Austin Dillon make contact in between turn 6A and 6B, while battling for 20th.

With 12 to go, Busch gets a good jump on the restart and stays to the inside of turn 1, taking the lead. This move left Byron on the outside and gave Bell a golden opportunity to pass for the second place position.

As Bell started to hunt Busch, Byron and Reddick stay in the picture and try and battle each other to break inside the top 3.

The race is back and forth as the top 3 were under a blanket, but eventually Christopher bell gets passed Kyle Busch and blocks Byron and Reddick en route to his second win of the season.

Busch falls back to 5th, finishing just one spot in front of Shane van Gisbergen. Chase Elliott works his way back through the field to finish 4th.

FLAGS OF THE WEEK

The green flag of the week goes to the new course layout for COTA. I don’t know who made that decision, but they deserve a good pat on the back. The make of turns 6A and 6B I enjoyed thoroughly, I thought there were a lot of good passing zones, and all in all in provided for some really good racing.

My yellow flag of the week is being a little cautious on Kyle Busch. It’s been 60 races since Busch has won a race in the NASCAR Cup Series, and he saw one fall through his grasp yesterday at COTA. He’s had his chances, he’s had his runner-up finishes, but when and will he ever get back into victory lane? I think he could. I never thought I would say this from watching him my whole career, but I find myself pulling for him when he is in contention. I hope he finds his way back into victory lane, but he’s only got so many years left, I wonder if he will and/or where.

My red flag of the week is Connor Zilisch wrecking. He was ‘flying’ in the RedBull 87 Chevy Camaro, pun intended, as he worked his way through the field. At one point, he was the highest mover on the board. However, his day was cut short when Daniel Suárez tried to get out of the way, ultimately giving Zilisch nowhere to go and crashing into him. I would have loved to see what Zilisch could do at the end of the race and how high he could get up on the scoring pylon.

All in all, I thought it was a really good, hard, clean race by these drivers, and would give it a 90%+ on the grading scale.

THE NEXT RACE

The NASCAR show heads out to championship-hosting track Phoenix Raceway on Sunday at 3:30 PM EST. The 312 lap showdown will be on FS1 and MRN.

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