Christopher Bell became the first competitor in four years to win three consecutive NASCAR Cup Series events in a season after he edged Denny Hamlin in a photo finish amid a two-lap shootout to win the Shriners Children’s 500 at Phoenix Raceway on Sunday, March 9, in thrilling fashion.
The 2024 Coca-Cola 600 champion from Norman, Oklahoma, led a race-high 105 of 312 scheduled laps in an event where tire strategy was the dominant element as all teams were given distinct sets of primary and option tires to use and change on their respective entries during any pit service made from start to finish.
Throughout the event, the leaderboard was shuffled numerous times as those who raced on the optional tires rocketed to the front and had a greater tire advantage compared to those racing on the primary tires. In the end, nearly the entire field raced on the optionable tires.
Bell started in 11th place and led for the first time on Lap 95. After finishing in fourth place at the first stage’s conclusion, he overtook Joey Logano amid Logano’s tire option strategy to capture the second stage victory. Despite losing the lead to Logano at the start of the final stage period, Bell returned atop the leaderboard with 95 laps remaining.
Amid the various tire strategies, he led on two different occasions in the closing stages of the event and was leading teammate Denny Hamlin and Kyle Larson by a reasonable gap with eight laps remaining when teammate Ty Gibbs wrecked and sent the event into a two-lap shootout.
During the two-lap shootout, Bell dueled with Hamlin for the top spot as both managed to keep Larson and the rest of the field behind them. Then on the final lap, Bell, who could not muscle ahead of Hamlin amid the side-by-side battle, slightly moved up the track to gain an advantage over Hamlin through the final set of turns. As both went wide, Bell managed to move back in front of Larson amid slight contact to muscle ahead and edge Hamlin at the finish line to notch his third consecutive NASCAR Cup Series victory in recent weeks.
With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, March 8, William Byron notched his first Cup pole position of the 2025 season with a pole-winning lap at 133.680 mph in 26.930 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Joey Logano, who clocked in his best qualifying lap at 133.195 mph in 27.028 seconds.
Prior to the event, Michael McDowell, who was the second-fastest competitor during Saturday’s practice session, dropped to the rear of the field due to a steering rack change that was made to his No. 71 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet entry.
When the green flag waved and the event commenced, the field fanned out through the frontstretch’s dogleg as William Byron and Joey Logano dueled for the lead through the first two turns. Both Byron and Logano would continue to duel through the backstretch and the final set of turns.
Logano ultimately muscled ahead from the outside lane and led the first lap over Byron. But Byron fought back from the inside lane through the first two turns and motored ahead through the backstretch to lead the second lap.
On the fourth lap, the event’s first caution flew when Katherine Legge, who was making her Cup Series debut and racing at the tail end of the field, got sideways entering the backstretch and spun from the top to the bottom of the track. Legge, though, would avoid hitting the wall and proceed. During the first caution period, Alex Bowman and Chase Briscoe pitted their respective entries while the rest led by Byron remained on the track.
The start of the following restart on the ninth lap did not last long after Noah Gragson made slight contact with Cole Custer which got Custer loose entering the backstretch. As a result, Custer slipped up the track and made contact with Todd Gilliland, who in turn made contact with Ricky Stenhouse Jr. as Stenhouse spun his No. 47 Ram Self Storage Chevrolet entry and clipped Custer’s No. 41 Haas/Andy’s Ford Mustang Dark Horse entry in the process. The incident left both Stenhouse and Custer sitting sideways in the backstretch before both proceeded. Before the caution, Logano had reassumed the lead from Byron as Carson Hocevar, Josh Berry and Tyler Reddick followed suit in the top five.
During the second caution period, select names that included rookie Riley Herbst, Ryan Preece, Custer and Stenhouse pitted their respective entries while the rest led by Logano remained on the track.
As the event restarted under green on the 14th lap, Logano retained a steady advantage over Byron through the frontstretch’s dogleg before he motored ahead of the latter through the first two turns. As the field fanned out to multiple lanes through the backstretch, Logano led the 15th lap. With Byron pursuing Logano, Reddick and Hocevar battled for third place in front of Berry while Denny Hamlin, teammate Christopher Bell, Erik Jones, Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson raced in the top 10.
Not long after, the leader Logano was issued a penalty for dipping his No. 22 Hunt Brothers Pizza Ford Mustang Dark Horse entry below the yellow line too soon on the restart and prior to reaching the start/finish line during the previous restart mark. With Logano serving his penalty by driving through pit road at pit road speed on the 19th lap, Byron returned atop the leaderboard as Reddick, Berry, Hocevar and Hamlin moved up into the top five.
Through the first 25-scheduled laps, Byron was leading by nine-tenths of a second over Reddick as Berry, Hocevar and Bell were in the top five ahead of Hamlin, Erik Jones, Elliott, Ryan Blaney and Ryan Preece, the latter of whom had pitted for option (alternative) tires during the previous caution period.
Meanwhile, Kyle Busch and Kyle Larson were racing in the top 12 mark ahead of Chris Buescher, Ross Chastain and Austin Cindric while Justin Haley, Brad Keselowski, Noah Gragson, Alex Bowman and Zane Smith were mired in the top 20 ahead of Austin Dillon, Chase Briscoe, Bubba Wallace, Todd Gilliland and AJ Allmendinger.
Ten laps later, Byron extended his advantage to more than a second over Reddick while third-place Berry trailed the lead by more than three seconds. Behind, Hocevar and Bell occupied the top-five spots while Preece, who restarted in 33rd place during the previous restart, had muscled his No. 60 Solomon Plumbing Ford Mustang Dark Horse entry up to sixth place on his fresh option tires.
With Logano mired at the tail end of the lead lap category and outside the top-35 mark on the track, Byron proceeded to lead by more than a second over Reddick while Preece moved up to fourth place at the Lap 40 mark.
At the Lap 45 mark, Byron stabilized his advantage to one-and-a-half seconds over Reddick while Preece, who moved up to third place, trailed the lead by five seconds. Berry and Bell followed suit in the top five while Blaney, Hocevar, Hamlin, Elliott and Erik Jones occupied the top 10 spots ahead of Larson, Busch, Buescher, Chastain and Cindric.
On Lap 50, Preece cut a second from his deficit as he trailed the leader Byron by four seconds and from third place on the track. Preece would slightly decrease his deficit as he trailed Byron by three seconds on Lap 55, but the latter retained a steady advantage over both Preece and runner-up Reddick.
When the first stage period concluded on Lap 60, Byron, who was catching the tail end of the field and had lapped Ty Dillon, captured his first Cup stage victory of the 2025 season. Reddick trailed Byron by seven-tenths of a second in the runner-up spot while Preece ended up two seconds behind in third place. Bell, Blaney, Berry, Hocevar, Hamlin, Elliott and Larson were scored in the top 10, respectively.
By then, multiple names that included Ty Gibbs, rookie Shane van Gisbergen, Cole Custer, John Hunter Nemechek, rookie Riley Herbst and Logano avoided being lapped.
Under the stage break, the entire lead lap field led by Byron peeled off the track to pit their respective entries. Following the pit stops, Byron retained the lead after he exited pit road ahead of Reddick, Bell, Preece, Blaney, Hamlin, Elliott, Berry, Chris Buescher and Larson, respectively.
Amid the pit stops, Ross Chastain was penalized for speeding on pit road. In addition, several drivers including Chastain, Austin Cindric, Justin Haley, Riley Herbst, Cole Custer, John Hunter Nemechek, Ty Gibbs, Michael McDowell, Shane van Gisbergen and Daniel Suarez all pitted for the option tires while the rest pitted for primary tires.
The second stage period started on Lap 71 as Byron and Reddick occupied the front row. At the start, the field fanned out through the frontstretch’s dogleg as Byron rocketed ahead to retain the lead through the first two turns. As Byron led, Reddick fended off Bell for the runner-up spot while Preece, who got wide through the first two turns, managed to motor ahead of Blaney and Larson to retain fourth place. With the field still fanning out and jostling for early spots through the backstretch, Byron led the following lap.
Just past the Lap 75 mark, Byron extended his advantage to a second over Bell as Reddick dropped to third place. With Preece racing in fourth place, Cindric was the highest-scored competitor on the option tires as he battled Berry and Hamlin to crack the top-five mark. With Cindric moving his No. 2 Monster Energy/Menards Ford Mustang Dark Horse entry up to fourth place by the Lap 80 mark, Byron continued to lead the event.
At the Lap 85 mark, Byron retained the lead by seven-tenths of a second over Bell while Cindric, who had overtaken Reddick for third place a few laps earlier, trailed the top spot by a second on his option tires. Meanwhile, Haley, who had also pitted for option tires, was up to fifth place and trailing the lead by more than two seconds while Preece, Hamlin, Suarez, Blaney and Chastain were in the top 10.
Then on Lap 88, Cindric, who restarted in 14th place at the start of the second stage period and overtook Bell for the runner-up spot a few laps earlier, dueled and overtook Byron through the frontstretch to assume the lead on his option tires. Cindric would proceed to extend his advantage to nearly a second over Byron by Lap 90 as Bell, Haley and Reddick followed suit.
On Lap 91, the caution flew when Michael McDowell, who was trying to fend off Preece, Hamlin and Blaney, for eighth place, went up the track entering Turn 3, slid sideways and barely scraped the outside wall after he blew a right-rear tire to his No. 71 Workforce Chevrolet entry.
During the caution period, the field led by Cindric returned to pit road for service, with those who pitted earlier for option tires swapping back to primary tires. Following the pit stops, Bell gained two spots and exited pit road first ahead of Byron, Cindric, Suarez, Hamlin, Reddick, Chastain, Preece, Blaney and Larson, respectively.
By then, Logano and Cody Ware were the only competitors who pitted for option tires while Legacy Motor Club’s Jones and Nemechek were penalized for speeding on pit road.
The start of the next restart on Lap 98 did not last long when Justin Haley, who was battling for a top-15 spot and was mired in a four-wide battle with teammate Hocevar, Briscoe and Gibbs, got sandwiched by the latter two as contact ensued in Turn 2. As a result, both Haley and Briscoe slipped up into Hocevar and all three collided against the outside wall exiting Turn 2.
The trio’s incident triggered a multi-car wreck that involved van Gisbergen, Brad Keselowski, Riley Herbst, Custer, Bowman, Zane Smith, Nemechek and Austin Dillon. Amid the carnage, Bell retained the lead over Byron, Cindric, Suarez and Reddick, respectively.
Following an extensive caution period to have the carnage cleared, the race restarted under green on Lap 112. At the start, Bell launched ahead from the inside lane and he proceeded to lead through the first two turns and the backstretch while Byron and Suarez tried to give chase. As the field fanned out through the backstretch, Bell proceeded to lead the following lap. With Cindric, Reddick and Larson racing in the top-six mark, Logano was using the option tires to try to move up towards the top-12 mark as Bell led by Lap 115.
By Lap 120, Bell led by nine-tenths of a second over Byron and by nearly two seconds over third-place Suarez while Cindric occupied fourth place as the latter trailed the lead by two seconds. Meanwhile, Logano carved his way up to fifth place after overtaking Reddick and Larson while Preece, Kyle Busch, Hamlin, Blaney, Chastain, Berry, Zane Smith and Elliott occupied the top 15 spots.
Ten laps later, Logano, who overtook Byron a few laps earlier and assumed the lead from Bell a lap earlier, was leading by two-tenths of a second on his option tires. Logano would proceed to extend his advantage to more than a second over Bell by Lap 135 as Byron, Suarez, Cindric and Reddick trailed by six seconds in the top-six mark.
Just past the Lap 145 mark, Logano added another second to his advantage as he led by more than two seconds over Bell while Byron trailed in third place by seven seconds. Meanwhile, Suarez and Cindric trailed in the top five by 11 seconds as Reddick, Blaney, Larson, Hamlin and Preece were scored in the top 10.
At the halfway mark on Lap 156, Logano stabilized his advantage to two seconds over Bell while Byron, Suarez, Cindric, Blaney, Reddick, Larson, Hamlin and Preece all continued to race in the top 10. Busch, Berry, Chastain, Elliott, Buescher, Bowman, Bubba Wallace, Zane Smith, Austin Dillon and Ty Gibbs were mired in the top 20 while Erik Jones, Gilliland, John Hunter Nemechek, AJ Allmendinger, Ty Dillon, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Cody Ware rounded out the lead lap field. By then, McDowell fell off the pace after he blew a right-rear tire for a second time, but the event remained under green flag conditions.
By Lap 165, Logano, who was lapping the competitors racing at the tail end of the lead lap field, had his lead decreased to half a second over Bell. Over the next three laps, Logano was encountering difficulties lapping Erik Jones and Ty Gibbs, which allowed Bell to continue to narrow the deficit. Once Logano motored ahead of the lapped traffic by Lap 169, Bell was left to navigate the lapped competitors of Nemechek, Jones and Gibbs on his own, allowing Logano to extend his advantage back up to more than a second by Lap 170.
As third-place Byron trailed by more than five seconds, Bell would navigate his way through lapped traffic by Lap 172 while Logano continued to lead through Lap 175.
Then on Lap 177, Bell, who spent the last several laps tracking down Logano, dueled and overtook Logano for the lead through Turns 3 and 4. Bell would slowly pull his advantage to nearly a full second over Logano by Lap 180 as Byron, Blaney and Reddick all trailed by within nine seconds in the top-five mark.
When the second stage period concluded on Lap 185, Bell captured his first Cup stage victory of the 2025 season. Logano followed suit in second place by more than two seconds while Byron, Blaney, Reddick, Hamlin, Cindric, Suarez, Larson and Berry were scored in the top 10, respectively. By then, 19 of 37 starters were scored on the lead lap while Jones edged teammate John Hunter Nemechek to emerge as the first competitor scored a lap down and thus, receive the free pass.
During the stage break, the lead lap field led by Bell pitted for service. Following the pit stops, where nearly the entire field pitted for option tires, Logano reassumed the lead as he exited pit road first ahead of Bell, Byron, Reddick, Suarez, Blaney, Cindric, Larson, Berry and Kyle Busch, respectively.
With 118 laps remaining, the final stage period commenced as Logano and Bell occupied the front row. At the start, the field fanned out through the frontstretch’s dogleg as Logano fended off both Bell and Reddick to retain the lead through the first two turns. As Logano led, Reddick bumped and battled with Bell for the runner-up spot before Reddick issued his on-track challenge on Logano for the lead through the first two turns and the backstretch.
Amid Reddick’s late challenge, Logano continued to lead with 115 laps remaining while Bell, Byron and Berry were scored in the top five. By then, a series of on-track contacts and jostling for spots ensued within the top-10 mark and the middle of the field.
Down to the final 100 laps of the event, Logano was leading by more than a second over Reddick as Bell, Byron, Berry, Suarez, Blaney, Larson, Chastain and Kyle Busch were racing in the top 10 ahead of Buescher, Hamlin, Elliott, Bowman and Wallace.
Two laps later, the caution flew when Katherine Legge, who was yielding to the leaders through the first two turns, made contact with fifth-place racer Berry sending Legge’s No. 78 Droplight Chevrolet entry spinning entering the backstretch. While spinning, Legge was hit by sixth-place racer Suarez, which left Suarez with a damaged front end to his No. 99 Freeway Insurance Chevrolet entry as the rest of the field scattered to avoid the carnage. The incident spoiled both Suarez and Legge’s events on the track as Legge would retire from further competition in her Cup debut.
During the caution period, the leaders led by Logano returned to pit road to swap from their option to primary tires. Following the pit stops, Bell exited pit road first as he was followed by Reddick, Byron, Logano, Berry, Blaney, Larson, Hamlin, Busch and Chastain, respectively.
The start of the next restart with 89 laps remaining featured Bell fending off Reddick and Logano to lead through the frontstretch’s dogleg, the first two turns and the backstretch. As the field fanned out, Bell led the following lap as Reddick, Larson, Byron and Logano followed suit in the top five.
Meanwhile, Hamlin dueled with his 23XI Racing driver Bubba Wallace as Larson caught and battled Reddick for the runner-up spot. Both Larson and Reddick continued to duel for the runner-up spot in front of Byron as Preece, who previously pitted for his final set of option tires, boosted himself to sixth place as he proceeded to overtake Logano for more.
Preece would claim fifth place from Logano and he would then pull a bold three-wide overtake on both Larson and Byron through Turns 3 and 4 with 84 laps remaining as Bell led over Reddick. Amid Preece’s charge to the front, Erik Jones, who also pitted for option tires for his No. 43 Family Dollar Toyota Camry XSE entry, overtook Wallace for seventh place while Reddick, who retained the runner-up spot, began to radio power steering issues to his No. 45 Mobil 1 Toyota Camry XSE entry. In addition, Ty Dillon, who pitted for option tires for his No. 10 Hybrid Light Chevrolet entry, was up in the top 10 in ninth place.
Then with 76 laps remaining, Preece used both his option tires and the outside lane through the backstretch to assume the lead. Preece would proceed to lead by seven-tenths of a second with 75 laps remaining and by more than a second over Bell with 70 laps remaining. Meanwhile, Reddick retained third place as he trailed the lead by more than three seconds while Ty Dillon and Erik Jones were up in fourth and sixth, respectively.
With 60 laps remaining, Preece was leading by three seconds over Bell while Reddick, Ty Dillon, Byron and Erik Jones trailed by single-digit marks in the top-six mark. By then, Logano had fallen back to seventh place and was trailing the lead by 10 seconds while Hamlin, Blaney and Chastain were in the top 10 ahead of Larson, Wallace, Berry, Busch and Buescher.
Then with 47 laps remaining, Byron pitted his No. 24 Z by HP Chevrolet entry from fifth place for option tires. By then, Elliott, Gilliland and Allmendinger had also pitted their respective entries while Preece was leading by more than two seconds over Bell. A lap later, the caution flew when Wallace blew a right-front tire and hit the outside wall between the first two turns, where he nursed his No. 23 Leidos Toyota Camry XSE entry onto pit road and straight to the garage. The caution occurred as Byron was about to enter his pit stall for his service, which pinned him a lap down.
During the caution period, the lead lap field led by Preece pitted as many front-runners opted to have their final set of option tires put on their respective entries. Following the pit stops, Bell cycled back into the lead as he exited pit road first ahead of teammate Hamlin, Logano, Reddick, Larson, Chastain, Jones, Blaney, Preece and Ty Dillon, respectively. Shortly after, however, Reddick was penalized for speeding while exiting pit road.
Ty Dillon, who was having a late stellar run at the front, was also penalized for being too fast while entering pit road. Meanwhile, Byron was one of three competitors who took the wave around to cycle back on the lead lap category.
Down to the final 36 laps of the event, the race restarted under green. At the start, Bell used the frontstretch’s dogleg to fend off teammate Hamlin before entering the first two turns. With Hamlin and Larson giving chase to Bell entering the backstretch, Logano and Chastain dueled for fourth place in front of a four-wide action involving Jones, Berry, Blaney and Buescher while Preece and Bowman followed suit.
s the field continued to fan out and jostle for late spots, Bell led the following lap and he retained a three-tenths of a second advantage over teammate Hamlin.
With 30 laps remaining, Bell maintained a steady lead of four-tenths of a second over teammate Hamlin while Larson trailed in third place by more than a second. Behind, Buescher and Berry rounded out the top five while Busch fiercely battled Bowman for sixth place. Meanwhile, Byron was up to ninth place on his option tires while Logano, who was racing on primary tires, had dropped to 13th place. In addition, Erik Jones and Preece, the latter of whom pitted for primary tires, had dropped to 18th and 20th, respectively.
Seven laps later, the caution returned when Blaney, who was racing in eighth place, had smoke billowing out of his No. 12 Würth Ford Mustang Dark Horse entry, starting in Turns 3 and 4, as his engine expired. During the caution period, some including Logano, Chastain, Jones, Preece and Cindric pitted while the rest led by Bell remained on the track.
The start of the ensuing restart with 17 laps remaining featured teammates Bell and Hamlin dueling for the lead through the frontstretch’s dogleg until Bell muscled ahead from the inside lane entering the first two turns. Meanwhile, Hamlin was being challenged by Larson for the runner-up spot as Bell led the following lap. With Bell leading, Larson continued to pressure Hamlin for the runner-up spot as Berry, Bowman, Buescher and Byron followed suit.
With less than 15 laps remaining, Bell led by six-tenths of a second over Hamlin as Larson closely trailed the latter. Meanwhile, Byron was engaged in a tight battle with Buescher and Busch for sixth place while Berry and Bowman maintained their top-five spots. As Byron succeeded for sixth place, Bell retained the lead with 10 laps remaining.
Then with eight laps remaining, the caution returned when Ty Gibbs, who was racing in the top-15 mark and had a potential brake rotor issue to his No. 54 Monster Energy Toyota Camry XSE entry, slipped sideways amid smoke and pounded the outside wall in Turns 3 and 4 hard. During the caution period, select names that included Chastain, Cindric, Erik Jones and Reddick pitted while the rest led by Bell remained on the track.
When the event restarted with two laps remaining, teammates Bell and Hamlin dueled through the frontstretch’s dogleg as Byron went three-wide on Berry and Larson for third place. As both Bell and Hamlin continued to duel through the first two turns and the first half of the backstretch, Larson, who raced right up to the rear bumper of both Joe Gibbs Racing competitors, tucked in behind Hamlin’s No. 11 Sport Clips Toyota Camry XSE entry on the outside lane as Hamlin started to nose ahead of Bell entering Turn 3.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Hamlin had a narrow lead over Bell as Larson followed closely in pursuit. Then as Bell drew himself back alongside Hamlin through the frontstretch’s dogleg, he tried to motor his No. 20 Reser’s Toyota Camry XSE entry ahead entering the first two turns, but Hamlin fought back on the outside lane as they continued to duel through the backstretch.
Then entering Turn 3, Bell slightly went up the track and nearly made contact with Hamlin as both drifted up towards the outside lane and wall. As they navigated their way to the finish line, Bell got bumped by Larson while steering back down to the track, but he managed to keep his foot in the gas pedal and edge Hamlin by 0.049 seconds to claim his third consecutive checkered flag in recent weeks.
With the victory, Bell claimed his 12th NASCAR Cup Series career win, his second in a row for the spring Phoenix Raceway event and the third of the 2025 campaign for both Joe Gibbs Racing and Toyota.
By winning for a third consecutive race weekend, Bell became the first competitor to achieve the feat since Kyle Larson made the previous accomplishment in October 2021 and the first to do so through the first four scheduled events since Kevin Harvick accomplished the feat between February and March 2018. Bell also became the first competitor to win three consecutive events in NASCAR’s Next Gen stock car era, which commenced in 2022, and the first Joe Gibbs Racing competitor to win three consecutive Cup events since Kyle Busch achieved the previous feat in April 2018.
*Overall, Bell’s margin of victory over Hamlin at 0.049 seconds marks the second-closest finish in Phoenix Raceway’s history of hosting Cup Series racing. To date, Kevin Harvick owns the closest-recorded finish at Phoenix at 0.010 seconds, where he edged Carl Edwards in March 2016. Ironically, Bell’s photo-finish victory over Hamlin comes a day after Joe Gibbs Racing’s Aric Almirola edged Alex Bowman by 0.045 seconds to win the Xfinity Series’ spring Phoenix event.
*As a result of Bell’s victory, Toyota surpassed Plymouth for the fourth-most Cup Series victories all-time at 192. The manufacturer’s next target is Dodge, which owns 217 Cup victories.
“How about that one, race fans?!” Bell exclaimed on the frontstretch on FS1. “Oh my gosh, man. That was about as whenever you’re sitting there, dreaming it up. That’s about as ugly as it gets. You put the red tires on, you’re like, ‘Alright.’ What I don’t want to happen is go like 20-30 laps and get a yellow, and that happened. Then we went like 10 more laps, we had another yellow and it was just all about who could get clear on the restart. Neither of us could. We were just racing really, really hard there coming to the line. [Joe Gibbs Racing] ran 1-2. How about that?!”
As Bell celebrated on the frontstretch, Hamlin, who led three laps, was left with mixed emotions on pit road after ending up one spot shy of notching his first Cup victory of the 2025 season. Amid the disappointment, Hamlin leaned on the positives as he posted his first top-two result of the year.
“Yeah, great job by the Sport Clips team,” Hamlin said. “They just got better and better as [the race] went. Pit crew did a phenomenal job…We got a good restart. [Larson] really gave me a great push on the frontstretch on the restart and then down the backstretch. I had position on [Bell], but I knew he was gonna ship it in there. He had to use me. He could. Obviously, we just ran out of racetrack there, but great finish and great job by the whole Joe Gibbs team tp give us some fast cars.”
Kyle Larson posted his second top-three result of the 2025 season by finishing in third place while Josh Berry and Chris Buescher capped off strong runs by ending up fourth and fifth, respectively.
Pole-sitter William Byron charged his way to sixth place while teammate Alex Bowman, Kyle Busch, Zane Smith and Chase Elliott finished in the top 10, respectively.
Notably, Joey Logano fell back to 13th place while Ryan Preece, Ty Dillon and Erik Jones, the trio of whom had stellar runs at the front on their option tires, ended up 15th, 16th and 18th, respectively. In addition, Tyler Reddick fell back to 20th place amid his late pit road speeding penalty and power steering issue.
There were 17 lead changes for six different leaders. The race featured 10 cautions for 73 laps. In addition, 20 of 37 starters finished on the lead lap.
Following the fourth event of the 2025 Cup Series season, William Byron leads the regular-season standings by 13 points over Christopher Bell, 22 over Tyler Reddick, 29 over Ryan Blaney, 41 over Chase Elliott and 48 over Alex Bowman.
Results:
1. Christopher Bell, 105 laps led, Stage 2 winner
2. Denny Hamlin, three laps led
3. Kyle Larson
4. Josh Berry
5. Chris Buescher
6. William Byron, 83 laps led, Stage 1 winner
7. Alex Bowman
8. Kyle Busch
9. Zane Smith
10. Chase Elliott
11. Ross Chastain
12. Austin Dillon
13. Joey Logano, 81 laps led
14. John Hunter Nemechek
15. Ryan Preece, 34 laps led
16. Ty Dillon
17. Todd Gilliland
18. Erik Jones
19. Austin Cindric, six laps led
20. Tyler Reddick
21. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., one lap down
22. AJ Allmendinger, one lap down
23. Daniel Suarez, four laps down
24. Cody Ware, six laps down
25. Ty Gibbs – OUT, Accident
26. Noah Gragson, nine laps down
27. Michael McDowell, 22 laps down
28. Ryan Blaney – OUT, Engine
29. Bubba Wallace – OUT, Accident
30. Katherine Legge – OUT, Accident
31. Shane van Gisbergen – OUT, Accident
32. Cole Custer – OUT, Accident
33. Brad Keselowski – OUT, Accident
34. Justin Haley – OUT, Accident
35. Chase Briscoe – OUT, Accident
36. Carson Hocevar – OUT, Accident
37. Riley Herbst – OUT, Accident
Next on the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in Las Vegas, Nevada. The event is scheduled to occur next Sunday, March 16, and air at 3:30 p.m. ET on FS1.
