Christopher Bell received his second consecutive race of the 2025 season, capturing the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix on Sunday on the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas.
Bell, , grew to become the primary driver since Kevin Harvick in 2018 to win two of the primary three races to start out a season. William Byron, who completed second on the primary road-course race of 2025, received the season-opening Daytona 500 and triumphed at COTA final yr.
Bell’s eleventh profession Cup Sequence victory denied Kyle Busch’s valiant try to interrupt a 59-race winless streak. Busch had dominated the ultimate stage and led a race-high 42 laps earlier than being handed by Bell with 5 laps remaining. The 2-time collection champion ended up fading to fifth after utilizing up his tires attempting to defend towards Bell’s surge.
“Virtually deja vu from final yr right here,” stated Bell, who completed second at COTA in 2024. “These road-course races are a lot enjoyable. Kyle (Busch) was main, and we tried to be so cautious after what occurred between us final yr. His automobile began falling off, and ours was nonetheless robust. I saved pondering, ‘do not beat your self.’ We did not have the superspeedway final week circled, however we definitely had this highway course in our sights.”
Busch’s final victory got here on June 4, 2023 at World Large Expertise Raceway. Previous to the 2024 season, Busch had received at the least one race yearly since his first full-time Cup season in 2005.
“We had a extremely good No. 8 Insurgent Bourbon Chevy to have the ability to push that onerous,” Busch stated after the race. “I simply want that perhaps we had equal tires to the No. 20 (Bell). I don’t know if that was all of the distinction. I do know he was actually quick and he had a superb racecar. … I simply didn’t have something there on the finish to compete with these guys.”
Pole sitter and 2023 winner Tyler Reddick completed third, and Chase Elliott rebounded from an early incident to complete fourth.
Early on, it appeared like Bubba Wallace, who began second behind Reddick, his 23XI Racing teammate, may deal with the extra established road-course aces, however an early penalty shuffled him again. Nonetheless, Wallace was in a position to win the opening stage when a lot of the leaders opted to pit for gas and tires earlier than the phase ended. Wallace, who made his pit cease after the stage ended whereas a lot of the remainder of the sphere stayed out, might by no means catch again up with the leaders and completed twentieth.
Ryan Preece received Stage 2 utilizing an analogous technique after Shane Van Gisbergen led most of that phase. Van Gisbergen appeared like he would problem Bell, Byron and Busch for the win within the closing laps, however he couldn’t preserve tempo following a restart with 17 laps remaining and completed sixth. Preece was not an element within the remaining stage and completed thirty third.
NASCAR Cup Sequence at COTA – High 10 finishers
(Beginning place in parentheses)
(19) Christopher Bell, Toyota
(15) William Byron, Chevrolet
(1) Tyler Reddick, Toyota
(3) Chase Elliott, Chevrolet
(8) Kyle Busch, Chevrolet
(6) Shane Van Gisbergen, Chevrolet
(24) Chris Buescher, Ford
(17) Noah Gragson, Chevrolet
(21) Alex Bowman, Chevrolet
(10) Todd Gilliland, Ford
EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix:
NASCAR Cup Sequence at COTA – Stage 2 outcomes
Ryan Preece assumed the lead after the highest 4 drivers – Shane Van Gisbergen, Kyle Busch, AJ Allmendinger and William Byron – got here to pit highway two laps earlier than the stage ended. These 4 had a sufficiently big lead that they have been nonetheless in a position to end within the High 10 even after their green-flag pit stops.
Preece led the ultimate two laps of the second stage, however Van Gisbergen paced the sphere for almost all of it.
Listed here are 10 drivers that obtained factors on the finish of Stage 2 so as of end:
Ryan Preece
Ryan Blaney
Michael McDowell
Kyle Busch
Shane Van Gisbergen
AJ Allmendinger
Bubba Wallace
William Byron
Christopher Bell
Daniel Suarez
NASCAR Cup Sequence at COTA – Stage 1 outcomes
Bubba Wallace earned his first stage win on a highway course after capturing the 20-lap opening phase. Wallace, who began second, elected to remain out on the monitor regardless of a lot of the discipline making green-flag pit stops earlier than the top of the phase. Joey Logano, who completed second, additionally elected to not pit, together with Chase Elliott.
Listed here are 10 drivers that obtained factors on the finish of Stage 1 so as of end:
Bubba Wallace
Joey Logano
Shane Van Gisbergen
Kyle Busch
Chase Elliott
Tyler Reddick
Kyle Larson
Daniel Suarez
William Byron
AJ Allmendinger
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