The NASCAR Cup Series schedule just moved to March, but Christopher Bell finds himself streaking early in 2025.
The Joe Gibbs Racing driver finally found his way around Kyle Busch with five laps to go and went back-to-back with wins, capturing Sunday’s EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix NASCAR Cup Series race at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas.
In a restart with 14 circuits left on the first road course of 2025, Bell’s No. 20 Toyota went under Busch’s No. 8 Chevrolet and carried on to beat William Byron’s No. 24 Chevrolet by 0.433 seconds for his 11th career win after taking Atlanta last Sunday.
“I wanted to pass him clean,” said Bell, who led twice for a total of eight laps. “(Busch) was doing such a good job of running his race, and he could get off the corners just good enough that I couldn’t get inside of him. But I started peeking the nose, and he bobbled and allowed me to get out front.
“(Then) I was like, ‘Just don’t beat yourself.’ Those were about the five or six sloppiest laps I’ve ever run.”
The Norman, Okla., native won consecutive races for the first time in his NASCAR Cup Series career and notched multiple wins for the fourth straight year. He was second at COTA last year.
He became the first driver to win two of the first three races in a season since Kevin Harvick in 2018.
Byron, pole sitter Tyler Reddick and Chase Elliott followed behind.
Fifth-place finisher Busch led a race-best 42 laps in his bid to break a 59-race winless streak.
In his first Cup start, 18-year-old Connor Zilisch brought the No. 87 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet home in last place, 37th, after wrecking on Lap 51. Zilisch had placed first on Saturday for his second career Xfinity win.
“I had an absolute blast through the field that second stage (and) driving from outside the top 30 to 14th was a lot of fun,” Zilisch said. “I passed a lot of guys I used to watch on TV growing up.”
Drivers found Turn 1 to be troubling right away as the field bunched up as it charged hard to the top of the hill on Lap 1. Ross Chastain dive-bombed the corner and spun Elliott, while Denny Hamlin and Zilisch sustained damage.
Though Hamlin kept going at full speed, his No. 11 Toyota was torn up in the area of the right-front tire. Meanwhile, Zilisch had to pit for a cut tire and fell back to 36th but stayed on the lead lap.
Charging to the front with Busch, Shane van Gisbergen passed Reddick on Lap 9, and the New Zealander and Busch checked out to a 3-second advantage.
Front row starter Bubba Wallace, who had a penalty earlier, decided not to pit and won the 10 bonus points for Stage 1 on Lap 20, while Joey Logano, who also bypassed pit road, and van Gisbergen were the top three.
In an incident-free Stage 2, van Gisbergen and Busch swapped the lead over the 25-lap portion, but Ryan Preece took the top spot for his second career stage win, with Ryan Blaney and Michael McDowell slotting ahead of Busch and van Gisbergen.
On the final stage’s first lap, Daniel Suarez’s No. 99 spun off Turn 19 and was hit at full speed by Trackhouse teammate Zilisch, who ended up in the barrier in the race’s third caution. Suarez was scored 36th, ahead of only Zilisch.
–Field Level Media
