By David Morgan, Associate Editor
Christopher Bell has found himself in rarified air just four weeks into the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season.
After falling short of making the Championship 4 at the end of last season and declaring ahead of the season finale that he “felt cheated” out of a chance at the title when the penultimate race played out the way it did at Martinsville, the driver of the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota has come into this season as a man on a mission.
Following a crash in the Daytona 500, it’s been all Bell in the three races since, capturing wins at Atlanta, Circuit of the Americas, and Sunday at Phoenix to become the first driver of the Next Gen era to win three in a row and first since Kyle Larson in 2021.
Bell noted after Sunday’s win that being in this position with his team allowed him to reminisce on a conversation that he and crew chief Adam Stevens had amid Larson’s run of three straight.
“Three straight, it’s surreal,” Bell said. “I will never forget 2021, my first year with Adam Stevens. Kyle Larson won three straight. Me and Adam got off to a rocky patch, rocky start. We’re sitting in his office there at JGR. He looked at me and he said, We can do this. He said, I’ve won three straight sitting in these exact same two chairs, talking about him and Kyle Busch. I know we can do it.
“Took a while to get here, but we finally did it. I am just so proud. I’m so proud of all of the mechanics, the engineers, Adam, the pit crew members. Everybody on this 20 car…
“What you’re seeing is everybody pulling the rope in the same direction, everybody doing their job to the best of their abilities. This is what I knew would come out of this team.
“Like I say, it came from Adam. I didn’t know what was capable of this team. Adam knew what was capable of this team. We’re finally starting to see the fruit of it.”
Stevens added that the team has been in position to win in every race thus far in 2025, with the crash in Daytona being the only outlier for them thus far, explaining just how hard it is to accomplish such a feat.
“It’s hard to do. It’s really hard to do, to put yourself in position to win three races in this day and age,” said Stevens.
“If you think about it, we were in position to win the Daytona 500 leading that outside line with four or five laps to go when we got turned. We’ve had four races this year. We’ve put ourselves in position in all four and managed to win three, which is a pretty remarkable batting average, and something that will be hard to maintain, I believe.”
With three wins in a row under his belt, Bell now has the chance to go to Las Vegas next weekend at contend for four straight wins. Should he be able to pull it off, he’ll be the first driver since seven-time champion Jimmie Johnson in 2007 to score four consecutive wins.
Bell led 155 laps from the pole and finished second at Las Vegas last fall.
“Man, that’s special. That is incredibly special. To hear that and know that I have that opportunity ahead of me. We’re going to a darn good place for it,” Bell said of the opportunity to go for four straight next weekend.
“This sport has become so incredibly tough with the parity that we have. The teams are so tight. The cars are really tight. The drivers are tight. Like, everybody performs at a high level. There are 10, 15 guys that could win on any given week.
“It was really cool to see. I don’t even know how many teams we had lead the race, Ryan Preece was up there leading for the first time in a long time. The field is littered with talented drivers, teams, crew chiefs. It’s hard to do. I acknowledge that. I’m just kind of in disbelief that I have that opportunity, but I’m looking forward to it.”
Team owner Joe Gibbs echoed those comments, noting how special being able to go into Las Vegas and keep the streak going will be.
“Three in a row is a huge deal. If we could do that, I know they’ll be going there with excitement and thinking that they have a chance. I think that’s all you can ask in pro sports, is a chance to do something great. They’ll have a chance to do that next week,” said Gibbs.
“I told them that on pit road today, the pit crew. Right now they’re kind of in a rare field of people that have accomplished things. It’s out there for them and we’ll see what happens.”
Option Tires ‘Make You Feel Like Superman’
After successful debuts at North Wilkesboro and Richmond last year, Goodyear and NASCAR provided the option of a primary and an alternate tire to be run on Sunday in an effort to test out the viability of the softer compound for when the series returned for the championship race in November.
Teams were allowed two sets of the softer alternates that they could bolt on whenever they wanted during the race and the results spoke for themselves.
On a number of occasions, drivers and teams would take the opportunity to use one of their sets of the alternates in an effort to gain track position when mired back in the field.
Among those who made good use of the tires included drivers like Ryan Preece, Joey Logano, and others, as they climbed from deep in the field to inside the top-10 with the added speed that the alternates provided.
The No. 60 is MOVING!
After restarting 33rd, @RyanPreece_ moves to third on the option tire. pic.twitter.com/muuTF2Jfsb
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) March 9, 2025
“Putting the reds on when we did worked out really well, timing-wise,” Preece said after leading 34 laps, but fading to 15th at the finish. “Sometimes when you start where we are, you’ve got to get off sequence and the way the race was playing out, I thought we were going to sneak a really good finish in there.”
Zane Smith made the most out of his sets of the alternates, bringing home a top-10 finish for Front Row Motorsports.
“They are a lot of fun and it made it probably the most fun Phoenix race I feel like I have been to,” said Smith. “Just a good weekend for us and something to build off of and I am really ready for this year.”
Justin Haley found himself wiped out in a multi-car crash in the second stage, but gave the alternates a glowing review, noting his desire to see them become the primary tire going forward.
“I wish I would have been on the option tires the whole time and everyone else would have been on the primaries,” said Haley.
“They just make you feel like Superman. I like the tire. I honestly feel like we should go to it everywhere. They make the cars drive a lot better. I don’t know if that’s what you want, but it will be interesting to see how it plays out.”
For Goodyear’s part, the company was also positive about how things played out with the primary and alternates on Sunday.
“Everything went according to plan at Phoenix, and the option tire worked very well,” Goodyear NASCAR project manager Mark Keto said.
“It gave teams a chance to vary their strategies as to when to use them and maximize their effectiveness to gain track position over teams that were out on the prime tires. Teams were also able to manage their options once they got track position and make them live longer into a run.
“Overall, we were very happy with the balance and strategy of the prime/option tire setup and how it added to the racing all day.”
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