BELL LEADS FOUR TOP-10 CAMRYS IN WATKINS GLEN
Briscoe earns career-high 10th top-five finish; 23XI places two in the top-10
WATKINS GLEN, NY (August 10, 2025) – Christopher Bell led Toyota with a runner- up finish in the NASCAR Cup Series race from Watkins Glen International on Saturday afternoon.
Bell was one of four Toyota drivers inside the top-10 finishers. His Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, Chase Briscoe, earned his career-high 10th top-five finish with still 12 races to go in the season, while 23XI Racing’s Bubba Wallace and Tyler Reddick finished in eighth and ninth.
With today’s results, Reddick nearly clinched a Playoff berth on points. The California-native will look to lock up Toyota’s fifth Playoff berth at Richmond Raceway next Saturday.
Toyota GAZOO Racing Post-Race Recap
NASCAR Cup Series (NCS)
Watkins Glen International
Race 24 of 36 – 220.5 miles, 90 laps
TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS
1st, Shane van Gisbergen*
2nd, CHRISTOPHER BELL
3rd, Chris Buescher*
4th, William Bryon*
5th, CHASE BRISCOE
8th, BUBBA WALLACE
9th, TYLER REDDICK
12th, ERIK JONES
24th, RILEY HERBST
25th, DENNY HAMLIN
32nd, JOHN HUNTER NEMECHEK
33rd, TY GIBBS
*non-Toyota driver
TOYOTA QUOTES
CHRISTOPHER BELL, No. 20 DEWALT Toyota Camry XSE, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 2nd
Do you walk away from this race happy?
“Happy, yeah. I’m thrilled. We’ve been struggling a little bit to find a rhythm. I feel like the car has been good, but executing the races has been tough for us. Really awesome to have a good day. Frustrated to get our butts kicked by the 88 (Shane van Gisbergen) car. He’s doing a really good job. That team has it going on. We need to find a little bit more, but certainly happy. It was a good day for DEWALT Camry.”
CHASE BRISCOE, No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota Camry XSE, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 5th
What ultimately was the difference today?
“I guess it would have been that final stage, just strategy kind of got flipped. The 88 (Shane van Gisbergen) and the 1 (Ross Chastain) and myself kind of started right there in the mid pack. The restart didn’t go me or the 1’s way, the 88 was able to get five spots ahead of us before of us on the first lap and kept pulling further and further away. I thought our car was – I don’t know what the 88 had – but I thought we were probably the second-best race car. That restart just didn’t go our way and we lost a lot of track position and obviously was able to play the long game there in the end and come home top-five. Overall, a good solid finish in a fast Bass Pro Shops Camry. We will go onto Richmond and see what we can do.”
BUBBA WALLACE, No. 23 McDonald’s Toyota Camry XSE, 23XI Racing
Finishing Position: 8th
First top-10 at Watkins Glen. How was your race?
“Indy was life changing, right? It allowed me to come here and not harp on all of the mistakes that I usually make at a road course and figure out how to make less. I think we did that. I don’t think our car was capable of winning at all, but 10th to 12th place is where we determined our team is a couple months ago, and we exceeded that, so that’s a win. I appreciate everyone on this McDonaldland Toyota Camry. It looked good. My suit was the best one in the game. All around fun weekend. The big boss was here. MJ (Michael Jordan, co-owner, 23XI Racing) was here, so good to get him a couple of top-10s.”
TYLER REDDICK, No. 45 The Beast Unleashed Toyota Camry XSE, 23XI Racing
Finishing Position: 9th
Do you feel like the improvement of the road course program showed today?
“No, not really. We were still struggling honestly. Everyone on the No. 45 Beast Toyota Camry did a good job executing strategy. We faded pretty hard at the end there. It was good that it worked out and we were able to get a top-10 out of it, but yeah, we didn’t qualify good, and we couldn’t make any progress at the start. So very fortunate, but overall good points day.”
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