Championship weekend in Phoenix hasn’t been good to Joe Gibbs Racing. However, Christopher Bell found a little bit of redemption for the team with his victory in Sunday’s Shriners Children’s 500. Bell surged to the lead late after teammate Martin Truex Jr. was forced to pit. The driver of the number 20 Toyota pulled away from the rest of the pack to secure his first win of the 2024 season.

The win provided a little bit of respite for an entire organization that doesn’t have found memories of the track. Coy Gibbs, son of team owner Joe Gibbs and father of driver Ty Gibbs, passed away unexpectedly in Phoenix in November 2022. His passing came the very night his son, Ty, won the Xfinity Series Championship.

Fast forward a year and Christopher Bell is one of the four drivers racing for the Monster Energy Cup Series Championship in 2023. A broken brake rotor put Bell in the wall, and the team finished fourth in the championship standings. In 2024, the team was able to put a little bit of the anguish behind them with Bell’s victory.

Three of the four Gibbs cars finished in the Top 10 as Ty Gibbs recorded a third-place finish and Martin Truex Jr. rebounded from that late pit stop to finish seventh. The lowest finishing Gibbs car was the longest tenured driver. Denny Hamlin finished eleventh in his number 11 car. Bell’s win also marked the first win for Toyota in the 2024 Cup season and the first win at Phoenix for Toyota since 2021.

Top 10 Shriners Children’s 500 Finishers

1. Christopher Bell
2. Chris Buescher
3. Ty Gibbs
4. Brad Keselowski
5. Ryan Blaney
6. Ross Chastain
7. Martin Truex Jr.
8. Michael McDowell
9. Chase Briscoe
10. Tyler Reddick

Monster Energy Cup Points Top 10

1. Ryan Blaney
2. Kyle Larson
3. Martin Truex Jr.
4. William Byron
5. Tyler Reddick
6. Ty Gibbs
7. Ross Chastain
8. Denny Hamlin
9. Chase Elliott
10. Daniel Suárez

Xfinity Series at Phoenix

On Saturday, a late race tire issue led to an upset victory in the Xfinity Series. Justin Allgaier appeared to be cruising to victory when he cut a tire late in the race and ended up in the wall. The Xfinity Series veteran finished 29th but the race went to overtime. Chandler Smith took advantage of the overtime restart to beat out rookie Jesse Love for his second career Xfinity Series victory.

Phoenix Xfinity Series Top 10 Finishers

1. Chandler Smith
2. Jesse Love
3. Sheldon Creed
4. Austin Hill
5. Cole Custer
6. Shane Van Gisbergen
7. Brandon Jones
8. Parker Kligerman
9. Sammy Smith
10. Anthony Alfredo

Xfinity Series Top 10 Standings

1. Chandler Smith
2. Austin Hill
3. Cole Custer
4. Riley Herbst
5. Jesse Love
6. Sheldon Creed
7. AJ Allmendinger
8. Justin Allgaier
9. Brandon Jones
10. Sammy Smith

ARCA Series at Phoenix

Before the NASCAR series took over at Phoenix, the ARCA series hit the track in a rain-shortened race. One year after coming up short in Phoenix, William Sawalich found his way to victory lane in the ARCA season’s second race.

ARCA Phoenix Results – Top 5

1. William Sawalich
2. Gio Ruggerio
3. Grant Enginer
4. Connor Mosack
5. Sean Hingorani

ARCA Standings – Top 5

1. Gus Dean
2. Thomas Annunziata
3. Greg Van Alst
4. Christian Rose
5. Tim Richmond

Next Up

NASCAR heads to Bristol for the first short track of the 2024 season. The Monster Energy Cup and Craftsman Truck Series will head to Tennessee next weekend. The Xfinity Series takes next weekend off before returning in two weeks for the Circuit of the Americas road course. The ARCA Series is off for another month before returning at Talladega in April.

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