Over the last three weeks, Christopher Bell has become unstoppable in the NASCAR Cup Series.
The native of Norman, Oklahoma continued his dominant streak in NASCAR’s top division with an exceptional performance in Sunday’s Shriners Children’s 500 at Phoenix Raceway, outdueling his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin in a two-lap run to the finish
It’s the third consecutive victory for Bell in the NASCAR Cup Series, after triumphing in events at Atlanta Motor Speedway and Circuit of The Americas (COTA) over the last two weeks.
However, Sunday’s 312-lap contest from the one-mile Phoenix Raceway was, without a doubt, the best overall performance for the sixth-year NASCAR Cup Series competitor, leading a race-high 105 laps.
It’s the 12th career NASCAR Cup Series victory for Bell, 11 of which have come during the era of NASCAR’s seventh-generation racecar, which debuted at the beginning of the 2022 season.
“How about that one, race fans,” Bell said after climbing from his No. 20 Reser’s Fine Foods Toyota Camry XSE on the frontstretch. “Oh my gosh, man. Whenever you’re sitting there dreaming it up, that’s about as ugly as it gets.”
After a green-flag pit stop placed William Byron, the race’s polesitter, at the tail-end of the lead lap for a restart with 45 laps remaining, Bell went on defense, having to hold back the field.
“You put the red tires on, you’re like, All right, what I don’t want to happen is go 20, 30 laps, get a yellow. That happened. Then we went 10 more laps, had another yellow. It was all about who could get clear on the restart. Neither of us could. We were racing really, really hard there coming to the line,” Bell added.
The final caution of the afternoon, which came as a result of Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Ty Gibbs, set up a two-lap dash for Bell and Denny Hamlin, who raced side-by-side throughout the entire final green-flag run.
In the final set of corners, Bell drove his No. 20 Toyota Camry into the corner aggressively, washing up the racetrack and making slight contact with Denny Hamlin, edging the No. 20 ahead of the No. 11.
The final margin of victory measured at 0.049 seconds.
Race all day … and it comes down to ???? much. #NASCAR https://t.co/hl8hg8sgy5 pic.twitter.com/tUcCMuOwEF
— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) March 9, 2025
Denny Hamlin finished in the runner-up position, marking a 1-2 finish for Joe Gibbs Racing. It’s the first top-five result for the Chesterfield, Virginia-native since last Fall at Martinsville Raceway.
RACE RESULTS: 2025 Shriners Children’s 500 at Phoenix
Kyle Larson surged to the front of the pack late in the going, collecting a third-place result in his No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports.
Josh Berry had an impressive showing for Wood Brothers Racing in Sunday’s event, staying inside the top-10 all afternoon before finishing in fourth place, his first top-five of the season. Chris Buescher completed the top five for RFK Racing.
After leading a total of 83 laps, second only to Bell, William Byron finished in sixth place — driving through the pack in the race’s final 50 laps after a poorly timed caution trapped him off the lead lap and forced him to restart outside the top-20.
Alex Bowman recorded a seventh-place result for the No. 48 Chevrolet team, while Kyle Busch, Zane Smith, and Chase Elliott completed the top-10.
The race featured a total of 10 caution flags, several of which were multi-car incidents caused by a disparity in speed due to varying compounds of tires at different points in the event.
Early in the race, contact between Justin Haley and Chase Briscoe resulted in an eight-car pileup that damaged several racecars, including Brad Keselowski, Carson Hocevar, Cole Custer, and Riley Herbst.
Katherine Legge, making her NASCAR Cup Series debut in the No. 78 Chevrolet for Live Fast Motorsports, had an unfortunate end to her afternoon after a spin late in the going while being lapped by Josh Berry. That wreck also collected Daniel Suarez, ending a chance at a good finish for the No. 99.
Leaving Phoenix, despite having won three of the opening four NASCAR Cup Series events of 2025, Christopher Bell remains second in regular-season point standings to William Byron, who holds a 13-point advantage over the No. 20.
Tyler Reddick, Ryan Blaney, and Chase Elliott round out the top-10.
Up next, the NASCAR Cup Series heads to Las Vegas Motor Speedway for the Pennzoil 400, which will take place next Sunday, March 16 at 3:30 PM ET on FS1, PRN, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.
