BELL SCORES SECOND STRAIGHT CUP SERIES WIN IN EXCITING COTA FINISH
Ends NASCAR’s Longest Streak Without Back-to-Back Winners
AUSTIN (March 2, 2025) – Christopher Bell won his second consecutive NASCAR Cup Series race at Circuit of the Americas (COTA) on Sunday. Bell battled for the win coming down the stretch in the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 20 Toyota Camry XSE and made the race-winning pass with five laps to go en route to victory lane. It marks his second straight victory after also scoring the Cup Series win last Sunday at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Tyler Reddick started on the pole and led twice for nine laps (of 95) early in the race and was in the mix in the final laps before crossing the finish line in third place, marking his fifth top-10 result at COTA. 23XI Racing teammate Bubba Wallace won the first stage, marking his first career stage win at a road course.
Toyota Post-Race Recap
NASCAR Cup Series (NCS)
Circuit of the Americas
Race 3 of 36 – 228 miles, 95 laps
TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS
1st, CHRISTOPHER BELL
2nd, William Byron*
3rd, TYLER REDDICK
4th, Chase Elliott*
5th, Kyle Busch*
14th, CHASE BRISCOE
17th, RILEY HERBST
20th, BUBBA WALLACE
21st, DENNY HAMLIN
22nd, JOHN HUNTER NEMECHEK
27th, ERIK JONES
34th, TY GIBBS
*non-Toyota driver
TOYOTA QUOTES
CHRISTOPHER BELL, No. 20 DeWalt Toyota Camry XSE, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 1st
What was the difference this year in terms of getting it done and getting the victory today?
“That was almost a deja vu of last year. I had the track position that time. Man, these road course races are just so much fun. Whenever Kyle (Busch) was leading, I was just trying to be so cautious. 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, ‘Okay, just don’t beat yourself.’ Those were about the five or six sloppiest laps I’ve ever run. Just so happy for these guys right here. They’ve been on me hard about winning with them. Just super proud for everyone on this DeWalt No. 20 team. We didn’t count 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.”
TYLER REDDICK, No. 45 The Beast Unleashed Toyota Camry XSE, 23XI Racing
Finishing Position: 3rd
Can you talk about the great effort you made coming down the stretch today?
“Yeah, we really did in our Beast Toyota Camry. I don’t know, I thought we were okay in the first stage and just got caught off guard out there by the 88 (Shane van Gisbergen) and a couple others. Stage 2 and the first half of stage 3 there unfortunately we just – I wouldn’t say we really lost the handle, we just lost the pace on our Beast Toyota Camry. I didn’t really know how the rest of the race was going to unfold for it to hang on there at the end and the drive back up to the front was good. Just wish the last restart there — I lost some track position just getting jumped on by cars on different tire strategies and just lost ground there. I think if I could’ve survived that we probably would’ve had a much better shot out there sooner than we did. All in all, a good recovery for our team and any time we come to a place like this we want to win but a solid day.”
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