After almost 310 laps, Joe Gibbs Racing’s Christopher Bell was cruising to accomplish a feat unheard of in NASCAR since 2021.

Bell held off his JGR teammate Denny Hamlin for 30 laps when a struggling Ty Gibbs brought out the caution with under 10 laps to go. NASCAR stacked them up and Bell, who had led over a third of the race, was going to have to prove he belonged in the upper echelon of drivers.

As the green flag waved, every car fanned out using every inch of Phoenix Raceway to their advantage. Hamlin maintained with Bell while a hard charging Kyle Larson sat in the catbird’s seat waiting for disaster.

The two JGR teammates rode the edge of disaster like this for two laps, but as the pair shot into turn four, Bell got tight pinching Hamlin toward the wall. As Hamlin’s car scraped the wall, Bell shot forward, narrowly holding off his teammate by 0.049 seconds to win his third straight NASCAR Cup Series race.

Bell’s streak is the first in NASCAR’s Next Gen era, which was built upon bringing parity to the sport. Whatever Bell and that #20 team has found, it’s working on every course and making Bell the clear championship favorite.

Prior to Bell taking control of the race, Joey Logano looked to have the car to beat at the start of the race. He jumped out to an early two-second lead before a restart violation forced him to do a pass-through penalty.

Once Logano fell out of the picture early, it looked like William Byron might mosey his way into a win, taking stage one. Byron held on for a third place in stage two, but ultimately finished sixth after leading 82 laps.

In the middle of stage two, Logano took advantage of the option tire, a short lasting faster tire, to climb all the way back up through the field. This move ultimately hurt Logano as using one of the two sets meant his option tires were much too worn to compete with Bell’s late in the race and he finished 13th.

The introduction of the option tire helped the track that generally struggles with comers and goers. According to The Athletic’s Jeff Gluck, NASCAR is looking to exclusively use the option tire at Phoenix in the fall.

The option tire not only brought tire saving back into play, but cautions as well. Early on, Micheal McDowell wore through his first set of option tires in 20 laps and found himself in the fence.

There were 10 cautions in this race, the most in a Phoenix race since Spring of 2020, according to Gluck. This flurry of cautions helped the race maintain intrigue throughout, with restarts continuing to be the star of the show.

A restart helped bring out the largest caution of the day early in stage two as multiple drivers, including Riley Herbst and Carson Hocevar, saw their days ended when a pack going 4-wide ran out of room.

Josh Berry had a sneaky fantastic day, finishing fourth and running in the top 10 for most of the third stage. While the Wood Brothers #21 didn’t lead a lap today, it’s a marked improvement from where they were running just last year.

The NASCAR Cup Series heads to Las Vegas Motor Speedway next to see if anyone can stop Bell’s domination. The green flag is scheduled for 12:30 p.m. PST on Sunday.

Takeaways:

Jack: A thrilling finish, plenty of cautions and strategy, I didn’t think Phoenix Raceway was capable of producing a race this entertaining. NASCAR has something special on its hands with the option tire and I hope it returns in full to most short tracks on the schedule.

As the first real oval on the schedule, I’ve said for months this race would tell us who the real players are and right it looks like Bell versus the field. The kid is on fire, winning at three completely different tracks in three weeks is as impressive as it gets.

Looking forward to next week, Las Vegas will be a pivotal race for multiple drivers who struggled mightily today. Bubba Wallace had a trailer hooked up to his car before the brakes exploded and JGR’s latter half of Gibbs and Chase Briscoe are in dire need of a good finish.

Richard Childress Racing has shown much more speed than a year ago, but they struggled on intermediates. Vegas will be a true test of who’s got the equipment to keep up with Bell’s hot hand.

Cam: Outside circumstances caused me to miss the race live, however from what I’ve seen after the fact, the option tire is a wonderful addition to the racing at Phoenix.

I absolutely love how drivers can power through the field on the soft tires, and using them in the championship race is an interesting aspect that can change who captures the season’s biggest crown.

Christopher Bell is an absolute force in the sport right now and looks unstoppable through the last three races. All wins have been at wildly different tracks and have taken strategy and skill. The field will be looking to beat the #20 all summer.