Bell holds Hamlin in Phoenix to win the third consecutive race of the Nascar Cup

Avondale, Ariz.

Another restart led some tense moments, enough for the owner of his team to feel a bit dizzy.

Bell survived a late drag race with Hamlin to become the first pilot of the Nascar Cup series to win three consecutive races in the Nextgen car, surpassing his teammate for 0.049 seconds to win the second most closed race in the history of Phoenix Raceway on Sunday.

“It worked as opposite as I could have drawn it in my head,” Bell said. “But the races that are disputed like this, looking back, are the ones that mean you the most.”

Bell began 11th in the 312 mile race after winning in Atlanta and Circuit of America the previous two weeks. The JGR driver moved early and remained there most of the afternoon, taking out the forward of the wells with late caution.

Bell was in front of two late reset, retaining his teammate for his car’s nose to become the first pilot to win three consecutive races from Kyle Larson in 2021. He is the fourth pilot in the history of the Cup series to win three times in the first four races, first from Kevin Harvick in 2018.

“We have had four races this year, we put ourselves in position in the four and managed to win three, which is a quite remarkable batting average, something that will be difficult to maintain, I think,” said Bell’s head of the crew of Bell, Adam Stevens.

Phoenix’s career was the first from Richmond last year to give the teams two sets of optional tires. The Red Tire option has much better grip, but begins to fall after approximately 35 laps, creating an additional strategic element.

A handful of runners were early to the Red Tires, Joey Logano and Ryan Precede among them, and it was worth the races at the head before going back.

Bell was among those who had a game of red tires for the final stretch and used it for his advantage, moving away from Hamlin in a restart with 17 remaining laps.

Another caution did it closer to what Bell and his team would have liked.

“I was ready to hang,” said Jgr Racing’s owner Joe Gibbs.

Hamlin approached Toyota No. 20 of Bell on the last two laps after the restart and seemed to be slightly ahead on the white flag. The teammates ran into a couple of times while they understood the position, but Bell barely managed to stay ahead of Hamlin, crossing the checkered flag with a bamboleo for his 12th victory in the race cup cup. He led 105 laps.

“I had a position in 20, but I knew I was going to send it there,” said Hamlin. “We simply run out of racing there.”

Kyle Larson finished third, Josh Berry Cuarto and Chris Buescher completed the first five.

Legge debut

Katherine Legge became the first woman to run in the Cup series from Danica Patrick in the Daytona 500 seven years ago.

His career did not have a great beginning. The end was not great either.

When fighting a tight car, Legge released leaving curve 2 and turned his Chevrolet No. 78, forcing her to stop in boxes. He fell on the back of the field and had difficulty inventing the land before hitting another car and turning back in return 215, taking Daniel Suárez with her.

Legge could not return and finished 30.

“We made some changes in the car during the night and were horrible,” Legge said. “I was clinging to that.”

Logano error

Logano began in the first row in his first return race in Phoenix Raceway since he captured his third series of the Cup on the track the past fall.

An error in an early restart dropped the driver of the Penske team to the back of the field.

Trying to make a leap on Byron, Logano barely immersed his Ford No. 22 under the yellow line at the beginning/finish. Nascar officials reviewed the restart and forced him to pass a Pit Road pass when the whole field passed it on the track.

“In no way,” Logano said on his radio. “That is ridiculous.”

Logano climbed the lead after changing to the red tires, but began to fall into the primary tires after a restart. It ended 13.

Preece gamble

Precede is betting early by going to the tires of the red option and was worth a 33 -a third race. The RFK racing driver backed up when the tires disappeared, but returned to red after a caution with approximately 90 remaining turns and climbed the lead.

Precece returned to the main tires with 42 laps to go and began to go back, ending 15º.

Next

The next series goes to Las Vegas Motor Speedway, where Bell will try to become the first Cup Cup pilot to win four consecutive races from Jimmie Johnson in 2007.