Four weeks into NASCAR season, Christopher Bell has established himself as the story.
He won again Sunday, navigating the final corner perfectly to hold off Denny Hamlin in the Shriners Children’s 500 at Phoenix Raceway. That’s three in a row for those counting at home.
After Ty Gibbs found the wall and produced a caution flag in the final 10 laps, the race restarted with two to go. Bell outdueled Hamlin and Kyle Larson, who placed third.
“That’s about as ugly as it gets,” Bell said after his post-race burnout. “You put the red tires on, and you’re like, ‘Alright, what I don’t want to happen is go 20-30 laps and get a yellow.’ That happened. Then, we went 10 more laps and had another yellow.
“It was just all about who could get clear on the restart. Neither of us could. We just racing really, really hard there coming to the line. (Joe Gibbs Racing) ran 1-2. How about that?”
How about Bell?
He led a race-high 105 laps and earned his 12th career victory. This came after he scored three victories all of last season. Of course, one was the spring race at Phoenix.
Here are three takeaways:
1. Some historical context to Christopher Bell’s streak
Let’s get into some more numbers.
What Bell has accomplished the last three weeks has been done only 28 other times in NASCAR’s modern era (since 1972). But no driver had ever done it in the Next Gen car.
Before Bell, Kyle Larson was the most recent winner of three consecutive races, doing so during his championship campaign of 2021.
Kevin Harvick was previously the last to claim three of the first four checkered flags in a season. He did it in 2018.
Of the 28 prior instances of three straight wins, the driver who enjoyed the streak captured the end-of-year championship 11 times.
Bell still has a long way to go to get there — or to break the longest streak of all time. Richard Petty rattled off 10 victories in a row in 1967.
He’s the King for a reason.
2. Katherine Legge spins out of first Cup Series race
Katherine Legge became the first female driver to start a Cup Series race since Danica Patrick in 2018.
She made it to Stage 3 but fell short in her bid to become the first woman since Patrick to finish a Cup race.
Legge, a 44-year-old sports-car and IndyCar veteran, piloted the No. 78 car for Live Fast Motorsports. She placed 30th after crashing with 98 laps to go.
“Baptism by fire,” Legge told reporters. “I think there were a lot of positives to take from it. Obviously, there were mistakes made, but I learned so much. Hopefully, I get to come back and do it again.”
Running five laps back of the leaders, she drifted too high coming around Turn 2 and bumped into Josh Berry. She spun right into the path of Daniel Suarez and absorbed a big hit. That ended her day.
Legge also spun on Lap 4 without any contact, bringing out the first caution of the afternoon.
Prior to Sunday, Legge had started six NASCAR races. She ran the Ride the ’Dente 200 ARCA race at Daytona last month and competed in five Xfinity Series events between 2018 and 2023.
3. One oval track down, five more on tap
Get used to oval racing.
After plate races at Daytona and Atlanta and a road-course race at COTA during the first three weeks of the season, Phoenix presented the first oval, and it kicked off a streak. The next five weeks before the Easter break will see drivers navigate ovals between a half-mile and a mile and a half.
The itinerary includes stops at Las Vegas, Homestead, Martinsville, Darlington and Bristol in that order.
Next Sunday’s Pennzoil 400 is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. It will air on FS1.
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: NASCAR results: Christopher Bell wins another Cup race at Phoenix
Read the full article here
