Christopher Bell Goes Back-To-Back Wins At COTA (3-2-25)
By: Becca Cottingham Quimby
All Photo Credit: Getty Images
We head to Austin, Texas for Circuits of the America. They have shortened the track just a little bit but also placed track limitations on the track. On the track we know going into turn one is always an issue and the start of the race was no exception to this. Chase Elliott was one of the first to be turned around. They go five wide into the corner one and that was just the beginning. Denny Hamlin also turned around and had his right front fender damaged to the point it had to be removed. Another driver had a flat tire and had to limit around to get the tire changed. We then see Austin Cindric get pushed out by Ty Dillon. Austin after last week said he was not having it and spun Ty Dillo around. This could be reviewed next week because it was a right rear. Bubba Wallace was the first to have an outside of track limits, he had to drive around to that area and stop. This put him back in traffic. Shane van Gisbergen caught up with Tyler Reddick. He made a crossover move and he was able to get around Tyler Reddick with ease. Multiple drivers then decided to pit versus getting the stage win. This handed the race to Bubba Wallace. Where he maintained the lead and won stage one.
We started stage two and it did not take long for Kyle Busch to get around Shane van Gisbergen. While Kyle Larson and Chase Briscoe go back and forth for seventh and eighth positions. Kyle Larson is the next up to serve a penalty for being outside of track limits. The penalty knocked Kyle Larson out of the top fifteen. Then as we see left-hand turns happen Shane van Gisbergen makes a move to get back around Kyle Busch as he seems to have long run speed versus short run speed. Denny Hamlin has to do a stop-and-go due to track limits, while we also start to see pit stops. The pit stops on Kyle Larson will be extremely costly for them as they did not get the lug nut tight on the right front. It came off while on track and that will be a big penalty for the team. Ryan Preece takes the lead and will win stage two.
We start stage three and Michael McDowell will start with the lead but it did not take long for Kyle Busch to overtake him. Daniel Suarez bottomed out on a curve and it spun his car out. It looked like he was going to be okay, but due to smoke in the area, Connor could not completely see. This caused him to be collected in the incident and brought out the first full track caution for cause. We will see Kyle Busch maintain a lead for most of the last stage. Christopher Bell and Kyle Busch made contact as Kyle Busch’s equipment started to go away. The last ten laps of the race turned into a four-car battle for who was going to win. It was going to come down to who was going to slip up make an error and leave the door open for one of the other drivers to get around. Christopher Bell was able to close the door on the other three drivers. This led to him winning back-to-back races.
