Bell does it again

Christopher Bell is victorious once again after emerging from an aggressive four-car battle on top in the NASCAR Cup Series race at COTA.

Kyle Busch controlled the majority of the final stage, but could not stop Bell from overhauling him in an aggressive battle with just four laps to go.

Busch ended up drifting down to fifth behind runner-up Will Byron, Tyler Reddick and Chase Elliott, who recovered from a first-corner spin, while Shane van Gisbergen was sixth.

Van Gisbergen controlled the majority of both the first and second stages, leading 20 of the 95 laps, but was never at one with the car.

Trackhouse rolled the dice on strategy with the final stop, keeping the #88 for four laps longer, but the Kiwi could not make the most of fresh tyres and was 8.5s short of victory.

For bell, it was an impressive drive as he reeled in Busch and became the first driver since 2018 to win two of the first three races of a NASCAR Cup Series season.

After a fast start where Chase Elliott was spun at the first corner, SVG needed just eight laps to take the lead off Reddick as he controlled the opening stage before pitting late in the piece

The Kiwi then led the first six laps of Stage 2 before being dive-bombed by Busch.

Th RCR driver quickly pulled more than a second on the Kiwi, who was battling front end grip, but the #88 was soon mounting a fightback.

By Lap 15 van Gisbergen slashed the deficit and launched an assault at Turn 6, which caught the RCR driver unawares.

Suddenly it was SVG who then pulled away as the stage ran trouble free aside for some late drama to Denny Hamlin.

The #88 pulled a 1.8s advantage before the leaders again pitted with two to go.

It proved well timed as it arrived moments before the front right wheel of Larson departed the #5 Camaro on the back straight.

Ryan Preece took stage honours, but once the pit cycle was complete Busch led Allmendinger and van Gisbergen at the restart.

Conor Zilich had shown speed on debut, but his race ended up in the fence in unlucky fashion.

Daniel Suarez had spun at the penultimate corner, creating a cloud of smoke.

Zilich could not avoid the spinning Trackhouse driver and the impact sent the Red Bull Camaro into the outside wall.

Van Gisbergen got swamped at the restart and dropped to sixth after contact from Bell on the run up the hill.

Being released, Busch soon opened up a 1s lead on the pack which was now headed by Bell and Byron.

It was then all about strategy and RCR was the first to blink, pitting the leader with 26 laps left.

Bell waited another lap, while Trackhouse elected to keep SVG out for another four laps.

The gamble sacrificed a lot of track position with the #88 rejoining down in eighth, 13s adrift of the lead, but fresh rubber was the ace up its sleeve.

Van Gisbergen needed a caution and it arrived thanks to Hamlin and Dillon, who clashed at Turn 7.

On the run up to Turn 7 Hamlin locked up and lost control, sparking straight into Dillon and sending the #3 stuck in the sand.

Before the disruption van Gisbergen had picked off Briscoe to rise to sixth.

However, he struggled to light up the fresh tyres when racing resumed with 14 to go.

The Kiwi got hung out to dry on the outside of turns 2 and 16 which saw him fall to 10th while the #54 got spun.

Busch had retained the lead, but had Bell breathing down his neck, setting up an intense run home.

Bell went on the attack with nine to go at the first corner, but got it wrong and found himself in the clutches of Byron.

But the #20 only needed a handful of laps to regain ground as the top three ran nose to tail.

With six to go Bell got a run down Turn 2, but had to back out after making contact with Busch, only to make another attack later in the lap, which was also not successful.

It was a case of third time lucky as Bell finally got overlap at the final corner and he did not make it stick until the end of pit straight.

Having given it everything to defend the lead, Busch had little left and could not keep Byron behind.

The #24 then examined Bell’s rear bumper for the final five laps, but he could quite get close enough to steal the race.

The NASCAR Cup Series now heads to Phoenix Raceway this weekend.

Image: NASCAR

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