Uncompromising, Bell wins his third victory in a row

Who Can Stop Christopher Bell? The Pilot Toyota therefore won on the Phoenix oval, which will also host the championship finale next November. While he led for almost a third of the race, Bell had to fight hard against his teammate Denny Hamlin to win his third victory in a row. Slightly helped by a bump from Kyle Larson (Hendrick Motorsports), the #20 won by 49 thousandths of a second, the second closest finish on the Arizona oval. All this while using the soft tires, brought by Goodyear and which were mandatory for at least one stint. The majority of the leaders had decided to keep this set of tires for the last stint, but with two yellow flags at the end of the race, the restarts on used tires became particularly complex!

“What a race, right? My God! When you think about the race beforehand, it’s about the worst possible finish. You put the red [option] tires on, and you’re like, okay, what I don’t want to happen is a yellow flag after 20 or 30 laps. That’s what happened. Then we went 10 more laps, and we got another yellow flag. », explained the winner of the day. "One of us had to completely pass the other, but no one could do it, so we fought all the way to the line. A one-two for Joe Gibbs Racing is not bad at all!"

The use of the soft tires at Phoenix was more than likely an experiment by Goodyear in preparation for the finale. The 1,6-kilometer oval has rarely offered thrilling racing to close out the season, and the soft tires could be a game changer. They offer increased grip but very high degradation, which has helped create some differences in the field, and somewhat minimize the effects of aerodynamics on the race.

See you in Las Vegas next weekend for the fifth round of the season NASCAR…and a fourth victory for Christopher Bell?

Phoenix – Ranking