Christopher Bell scores fourth win of the season, setting new career-high
BRISTOL, Tenn. (September 13, 2025) – Christopher Bell and his team made the right strategy call late and Bell drove through the field to score the win at Bristol Motor Speedway to clinch his spot in the Round of 12. It is Bell’s fourth points-paying victory of the season, which establishes a new career-best mark for the Oklahoma-native. Joe Gibbs Racing swept the Round of 16 with Bell, Chase Briscoe (Darlington) and Denny Hamlin (World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway). Joe Gibbs Racing also won every race they competed in this weekend with Brent Crews winning in ARCA on Thursday and Aric Almirola claiming the Xfinity Series win on Friday.
Toyota led 870 of 1,107 laps in the first round (78.5%) and now has the more drivers than any other OEM in the Round of 12 with Bell, Briscoe, Hamlin and 23XI Racing drivers Tyler Reddick and Bubba Wallace. To start the round, Toyota has four drivers above the cutline with Hamlin up 26, Bell up 20, Briscoe up 10 and Wallace up 1 point. Reddick starts three below the cutline heading into New Hampshire.
Truck Series points leader and Toyota Development Driver Corey Heim impressed as he drove to a sixth-place, lead lap finish in just his seventh career NASCAR Cup Series start, while Ty Gibbs set a new career-best with 201 laps led.
Toyota GAZOO Racing Post-Race Recap
NASCAR Cup Series (NCS)
Bristol Motor Speedway
Race 29 of 36 – 266.5 miles, 500 laps
TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS
1st, CHRISTOPHER BELL
2nd, Brad Keselowski*
3rd, Zane Smith*
4th, Ryan Blaney*
5th, Joey Logano*
6th, COREY HEIM
9th, CHASE BRISCOE
10th, TY GIBBS
14th, JOHN HUNTER NEMECHEK
15th, TYLER REDDICK
18th, RILEY HERBST
20th, ERIK JONES
31st, DENNY HAMLIN
34th, BUBBA WALLACE
*non-Toyota driver
TOYOTA QUOTES
CHRISTOPHER BELL, No. 20 DEWALT Toyota Camry XSE, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 1st
Can you take us through that restart?
“Well, I’ll tell you what, I was nervous on the twos. I didn’t know if I wanted to be on the bottom or the top, and whenever Brad (Keselowski) picked the top, he didn’t really give me an option. I had to pick the bottom. All night long, I don’t know, old tires just really, really pushed up in the middle of the corners, so I was hoping that those guys on old tires would push up, and they did. They did, and I was able to get by or get underneath them. It wasn’t pretty there at the end, but we got her done.”
How did this team rally to be able to pull this off tonight?
“We just know that any week, any given week, it could be us, and it hadn’t been us for a long time. But Bristol, baby, tonight it’s us!”
COREY HEIM, No. 67 Robinhood Toyota Camry XSE, 23XI Racing
Finishing Position: 6th
Finished all 500 laps and scored a career-best finish. Can you tell us about your day?
“Yeah, a good result there. Once everyone kind of realized the situation with the tires, we adjusted accordingly and did all of the right things and kept ourselves in it all day. It was a claw to get back on the lead lap after we had a right front go down in stage one, but can’t thank these 23XI Racing guys enough – they stuck with it. Thank you to Toyota and Robinhood for all of the support that went into my five Cup races this year. All the ups and downs that we had – to end on a high note is pretty special. Hopefully we can take that and move forward.”
CHASE BRISCOE, No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota Camry XSE, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 9th
Can you talk us through moving through the field on a wild night?
“It was definitely a wild night. We had a really good Bass Pro Shops, Tracker Toyota. Thought starting back there was going to be a huge determent – but honestly, how the race played out it was alright I guess. Crazy race. I didn’t have that one on the bingo card going into tonight. I don’t know if anyone did – truthfully. I don’t know. It was wild. I don’t know – I’m still processing what we just did. I wish that last caution wouldn’t have come out. It kind of trapped us – we had just came down pit road. That is the hard part on races like that – one untimely caution can change your whole race. Congrats to Christopher (Bell) – obviously pretty cool that JGR (Joe Gibbs Racing) swept that first round, and hopefully we can do that in the next round.”
TYLER REDDICK, No. 45 Pinnacle Toyota Camry XSE, 23XI Racing
Finishing Position: 15th
Moving on to the Round of 12, Tyler. How was your race?
“Just a night of what ifs – we were honestly pretty solid in our Pinnacle Financial Partners Toyota Camry. Stage one – when no one knew the tires we going to be what they were, we just burnt them up too much at the start, and just caught a lap down running 11th – and it seemed the rest of the night we had a hard time getting back on the lead lap, just kept missing the lucky dog. We did get it back at one point, but caution cycle got us again – so that was just how the night was.”
About Toyota
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Toyota directly employs nearly 64,000 people in North America who have contributed to the design, engineering, and assembly of nearly 49 million cars and trucks at our 14 manufacturing plants. In 2025, Toyota’s plant in North Carolina began to assemble automotive batteries for electrified vehicles.
For more information about Toyota, visit www.ToyotaNewsroom.com.
