Joe Gibbs Racing‘s Christopher Bell undoubtedly starts the NASCAR Cup Series two-race Western Swing as the driver to beat. The 30-year-old is the defending winner of Sunday‘s Shriners Children‘s 500 at Phoenix Raceway (3:30 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN Radio and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) and has won the last two races through three weeks of competition.
A victory Saturday would make Bell the first driver to win three consecutive races in the Next Gen era. His dominance extends beyond 2025 — he leads all drivers with 10 top-five and 12 top-10 finishes in the last 15 races dating back to August. No other driver has more than seven top-fives in that span.
“I don‘t really have a message to send to any of them, but it‘s nice to be able to capitalize on race wins,” Bell said after winning last week in Austin, Texas. “Last year, there were so many race wins that got away whenever I had the fastest car. The last two weeks at Atlanta and here, I kind of won without the fastest car, so it‘s really nice to get those back that I lost last year.
“I‘m excited about what‘s to come. We have high expectations, high hopes, and goals for this year. Frankly, the last couple of years being at Joe Gibbs Racing in this No. 20 car, I haven‘t been living up to the standards that I hold for myself. Our goal going into 2025 is to do that, my goal is to do that for myself. I know Adam Stevens feels the same way. He believes we‘re capable of a lot of great things. We haven‘t done that yet in the NASCAR Cup Series season. Maybe 2025 will be the year.”
There is no doubt that Bell‘s JGR teammates are hoping his early season success becomes contagious. Three-time Daytona 500 winner and perennial championship contender Denny Hamlin sits 17th in points. The driver of the No. 11 Toyota started this race from the pole last year and has a pair of wins in the desert (2012, 2019).
Chase Briscoe, who earned the Daytona 500 pole in his first start for JGR, is ranked 15th after the No. 19 team won a penalty appeal from NASCAR this week. Ty Gibbs, who won the 2023 NASCAR Xfinity Series championship at Phoenix, is 36th in the standings and is still searching for his first top-10 of the season.
Despite Bell‘s strong start, Daytona 500 winner William Byron leads the Cup Series standings entering Phoenix, holding a two-point lead over Team Penske‘s Ryan Blaney, who won the series championship at Phoenix two years ago. Last year‘s regular-season champion, 23XI Racing‘s Tyler Reddick, is third in the standings, five points behind Byron. Bell and Hendrick Motorsports‘ Chase Elliott are both 21 points back.
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Eight different drivers have earned top-10 finishes in two of the first three races, but no one has placed in the top 10 in all three. Byron, Reddick, and Bell are the only drivers with two top-five finishes.
While the season has already produced a repeat winner, competition has been intense, with a series-record 125 lead changes in the first three races.
Two-time series champion Kyle Busch has emerged as a frontrunner after a difficult 2024 season. He led late in last week‘s road course race and has two top-10 finishes this year. His 55 laps led in the No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet rank fourth this season, a positive sign after missing the playoffs and failing to win a race for the first time in 20 years.
Busch leads all active drivers in laps led at Phoenix (1,190) and pole positions (four) at the one-mile desert track.
“I would like to think we‘re ahead of the game there,” Busch said. “We‘re in a better spot or in a better position. We had some good hires over the offseason — some good engineers and some good people from other teams — to kind of up our performance. Anytime you do that and you chase good people, that‘s what you‘re going for, right? You‘re going for the performance that they can bring to the table. So fresh ideas, different things, and whatnot.
“They‘re not going to outwork us, that‘s for sure,” Busch added. “But I think the next test is definitely going to be the next two weeks — going to Phoenix, the short track, a place where we have struggled lately — to see how we can turn that program around.”
Team Penske‘s Joey Logano leads all drivers with 126 laps led this season but has yet to post a top-10 finish. His teammate Austin Cindric has led 106 laps but has just one top-10 result. Wood Brothers Racing‘s Josh Berry has led 56 laps but is also searching for a top-10 finish.
Beyond Bell‘s quest for history, British driver Katherine Legge will make her Cup Series debut, becoming just the eighth woman to start a race in the modern era (since 1972) and the first since Danica Patrick in the 2018 Daytona 500.
Legge will drive the No. 78 Live Fast Motorsports Chevrolet, replacing regular driver BJ McLeod for the weekend. The 44-year-old has prior stock car experience, most recently competing in the ARCA season opener at Daytona, where she finished 39th after an early accident. She also has five NASCAR Xfinity Series starts, dating back to her 2018 debut at Mid-Ohio.
A veteran of open-wheel and sports car racing, Legge has raced two full IndyCar seasons (2006-07) and made four Indianapolis 500 starts, with a best finish of 22nd in 2012. She has more than 100 IMSA starts, earning four class wins and 18 podiums from 2007-2024. She made her Chili Bowl Nationals debut this year and was the first female driver inducted into the Long Beach Motorsports Hall of Fame.
Patrick was the last female driver to race at Phoenix, making 11 Cup Series starts at the track, with a best finish of 16th in 2015.
Opening practice is Saturday at 2:05 p.m. ET, followed by Busch Light Pole Qualifying at 3:10 p.m. ET — both sessions will be available on Prime Video. Hamlin won the pole for this race last year.
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