Christopher Bell gets win as Toyota dominates Phoenix Cup race

AVONDALE, Ariz. — After Chevrolet claimed the first three wins of the NASCAR Cup Series season, Toyota won Race No. 4 at Phoenix Raceway in dominant fashion.

Except for the 14 laps that Ford driver Todd Gilliland led in the middle of Stage 2 while staying on the track as green flag pit stops cycled, Toyota led all of Sunday’s Shiners Children’s 500. Denny Hamlin started from the pole, Ty Gibbs led all but seven laps of Stage 1, Tyler Reddick won the opening stage, and eventual race winner Christopher Bell won the second one.

Bell had the speed to win, but strategy also worked in his favor. During the last caution of the race, the No. 20 team elected to take four tires on its final pit stop, and it proved to be the right decision even after having to restart from 20th.

Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Martin Truex Jr. stayed out to inherit the lead and held onto it until he had to pit for tires and fuel with 41 laps to go. Fellow JGR driver Ty Gibbs took two right-side tires in the pits when he was serviced during the last caution, and he maintained a finish in the top three, but once Bell passed the No. 54 with two more fresher Goodyears, there was no turning back.

Bell knew he had a good chance of winning once he was third. Gibbs was second at the time with the fresh right sides, and Truex required an eventual pit stop from P1.

“I think I got to the first car on four tires, then it started looking a little bit more positive,” Bell said. “I wasn’t thinking ‘win’ at all until I got to third, behind the 54. I knew the 19 didn’t have enough gas to finish, and the 54 was on right-side tires. I knew I was in pretty good shape at that point.”

Bell’s win on Sunday was the seventh of his career, and all seven have come at different race tracks.

Gibbs’ third-place finish was the best of his Cup career. It was arguably the best race he’s had to this point, as he also led 57 laps at the place where he clinched the 2022 Xfinity Series championship.

His team owner, Joe Gibbs, is also his grandfather and is in a unique position where he must balance those two roles fairly.

“I think anybody out there with kids or grandkids knows what I’m talking about, no matter what the sport, baseball, hitting, pitching, or basketball. It’s part of your family,” Joe Gibbs said. “You love them to death. You want them to be successful at what they want to do.

“This is Ty’s dream. I think from the time he was 2, he’s been on something with wheels eight hours a day. Anyway, it’s a very tough climb, a tough world. He’s got to really work hard. We’ll see if he can get it done.”

Then there is Denny Hamlin, JGR’s longest-tenured driver. He started from the pole and was a contender throughout the day until he made a mistake in Turn 2 and spun himself out in the final stage.

When the incident occurred, he was battling for the lead with Truex and his 23XI Racing driver, Tyler Reddick. Hamlin finished 11th, which was below what his car was capable of, but he also felt optimistic about the speed he had during the weekend.

“We all came here with sort of an educated guess at what we needed to put in the car. All the cars were very different in setups, and all had good speed,” Hamlin said. “… we got some information to look at and try to get better. We’re not far off. … We did good in qualifying, which kept us up front, and the pit crew did a great job just keeping us toward the front all day.”

The million-dollar question is: How will Sunday’s performance translate to the Championship 4 finale in eight months? Depending on who you ask, there’s a reason to both have and not have hope.

“Really, we should all be pretty optimistic, right?” Hamlin said. “We got good information, a lot of different setups; now we just have to download it all and figure out when we come back here how to be stronger.”

Bell, however, said the fall race will be different than what was seen on Sunday. Why?

“Everyone is going to have so much more development time on this aero package,” Bell said. “We showed up, and the Hendrick (Motorsports) cars clearly missed it this week, right? They’re not going to miss it in November whenever a championship is on the line, and they’ve had however many races to get their setup dialed in.

“Clearly, the JGR cars and the Toyota group hit on the setup the best. We saw that in 2022, whenever Next Gen was first introduced, the Fords smoked everybody in this race. It just takes time with these changes to optimize it.

“We’re on the winning side of it this time. But the field is going to be tighter, and I would expect the favorites to be upfront whenever we come back in November.”