Christopher Bell locked himself into the championship race in Phoenix in a absolutely thriller of a race, let’s take a look at everything at happened!
The race started with Bubba Wallace getting the lead initially over Martin Truex Jr. before Truex took the lead back on lap 11 and Byron gets by home all in the first 20 laps. Green flag stops started on lap 32 for those trying the undercut. With Brad Keselowski taking the lead after the pit stop cycle until Kyle Larson took the lead on lap 55. Larson would win the stage after Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Breaks a toe link hitting the wall and breaks a toe link with 3 to go in the stage.
Larson would leave off the start of stage 2 and lead until the green flag pit stops started on lap 115. Hamlin would be the last of the leaders to pit on lap 126 trying the overcut while Larson cycled back to the lead over Keselowski. It would be Ryan Blaney who came on late tho, catching Larson with 5 laps to go and passing him to win the stage. Hamlin would make his way up to 4th at the stage end after cycling out into the low teens.
Before stage 3 started Larson and Truex Jr. had issues on pit road and would start stage 3 5th and 11 respectively. William Byron and Blaney would battle for a few laps to start stage 3 before Blaney took over the lead. Larson would make his way up to 2nd before the final green flag pit stops started. Larson would make a massive error and hit the barrels trying to close the gap to Blaney coming to pit road. This would bring out a red flag for cleanup and end Larson’s day.
On the ensuing restart there is a wreck involving the #1, #15, and #42 cars. Everyone is thankfully okay. As things get back to green Christopher Bell took the lead with a 3 wide move over Blaney and Hamlin. Byron gets around them as well and moves to second with 37 to go. Hamlin slams into the wall with 32 to go bringing out another caution and another playoff contender with issues. This would end his day as Truex had engine issues and was also forced to retire. These are huge implications with only one race to go to get to Phoenix.
We restart with 25 to go and Byron and Blaney battle and Byron takes the lead. Bell catches with 15 to go and clears Byron off of 2. Blaney made it around Byron for 2nd with 7 laps to go. Clearly the fastest car on the track after getting behind on the past couple of restarts. We find ourselves in an inverse of last week with Bell on point and Blaney chasing him down instead of Bell chasing down the leader. However this time there was no last lap battle as Bell pulls away to lock himself into the final 4 at Phoenix!
Ryan Blaney leaves Homestead 10 points to the good with the issues Truex and Hamlin had that ended their days, to say this race was a calm and also the storm would be an understatement, next week is the penultimate race of the season and it’s going to be absolutely insane. This writer can not wait to see what happens in Martinsville next week!
Photo Credit: @JoeGibbsRacing on X
pitboxpress.com 