Christopher Bell scored his first victory of 2024 after leading the last 50 laps today at Phoenix Raceway, but let’s see how he got to victory lane.
Denny Hamlin led the field to the green alongside teammate Ty Gibbs, but before the race could really settle in, a Derek Kraus spin on lap 7 ruined the days of Kraus, Austin Cindric, and Austin Dillon and put the race under its first caution.
Ty Gibbs took the lead from Hamlin on the first restart of the race on lap 12 and held onto it for much of the first stage, being followed closely by Toyota stablemates Erik Jones, Hamlin, and Tyler Reddick.
Reddick slowly maneuvered his way past Hamlin and Jones, pulling up to Gibbs’ bumper with less than 10 laps to go. Finally getting underneath the Monster Energy #54, Reddick’s 23XI Camry completed the pass with three laps remaining and held off Gibbs to secure his first stage win of 2024.
The field saw some of the top qualifiers lose positions before stage one concluded, including Noah Gragson (-5), Ross Chastain (-7), and John Hunter Nemechek (-5).
On the opposite end of the spectrum, some drivers with a less-than-ideal qualifying time made up their track position over the first 60 laps with Ryan Blaney (+9), Reddick (+5), and Kyle Busch (+6).
When the caution for stage one flew, the field ducked into pit road where Kyle Larson and Carson Hocevar experienced issues that sent their cars to the back of the line for the restart. It was also revealed that Erik Jones’ #43 team took a bit longer to properly tighten the left-front tire, losing him valuable track position.
Hamlin’s pit crew stepped up, gaining him two spots and putting him back in the lead for the start of stage two. Alex Bowman, a Tucson, Arizona native, continued his march through the pack, coming from his 25th starting spot up to 13th in the first 100 laps.
The first fuel run of the day ended midway through stage two with Gibbs losing a significant amount of spots during his pit stop because of a loose right-rear wheel that was caught before the #54 left his pit box.
Todd Gilliland, Hocevar, Busch, Kraus, and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. elected to stay out longer, sacrificing time at the end of the first run to have fresher tires as the stage approached the inevitable green-and-white checkered flag.
Busch and Kraus were the first to bow out and head to the pits while Gilliland kept his car in the lead until lap 134 when Hamlin and Reddick breezed by him on the outside to reclaim the top 2 positions. Gilliland stayed on the track longer than anyone, pitting with just 23 laps left in the stage.
Shortly after dispatching Gilliland, Reddick made the pass for the lead on Hamlin and held on until Hamlin’s teammate Christopher Bell zipped by Reddick with five laps to go in stage two, scoring his first stage victory of the season.
Keselowski quietly weaved his way into the top-10 after green-flag stops, trailed by Bowman, who continued to click off spots throughout stage two, ending up 9th and 12th respectively.
At the conclusion of the second stage, Christopher Bell lost the lead and more when his right-rear tire change slowed his pit stop, tumbling down to 9th while Hamlin’s #1 pit box at the very end of pit road paid dividends once again, allowing him to roll off pit road first to lead the field to green at the beginning of stage three.
Stage three could not escape the chaos.
After a strong restart by Reddick, Hamlin over his employee. Hamlin wrangled his car around the track, fighting tooth and nail to maintain the lead.
Unfortunately, the entire race would change on lap 216.
Reddick completed the pass on the outside of Hamlin the previous lap, so the #11 car dove into turn 1 on lap 216 to challenge Reddick before sliding up from the apron into the #45’s left-side door and spinning out, with Hamlin and the field avoiding any more contact.
These successive cautions provided opportunities for drivers barely hanging onto the lead lap to attempt a strategy call. When the leaders hit pit road for the Hamlin caution, several cars stayed out with Martin Truex Jr. assuming the lead for the restart.
Bubba Wallace and Erik Jones tangled on the restart while fighting in the top-10, both drivers falling out of the top-20 with Jones getting the worst of it. Jones’ #43 slapped the outside wall, falling completely out of contention and off the lead lap.
Ty Gibbs was the first of the cars that pitted to reach the top-5, carrying his Camry up to second in a hurry, but because his team chose to take just two right-side tires on the stop, it left him vulnerable to cars with four fresh tires later in the race, specifically teammate Christopher Bell.
Toyota was the talk of the weekend after a great practice session on Friday before Denny Hamlin claimed the pole on Saturday.
Gibbs led a majority of stage one before Tyler Reddick scooted by to take stage one. Reddick stole the lead from Denny Hamlin either close to 50 to go in the second stage that culminated in a late pass by eventual race winner Christopher Bell to sweep the stages for the new Toyota Camry.
When Hamlin’s spin brought out the final caution and scrambled the pit strategy, Truex assumed the lead and held on until he was forced to pit with 50 to go.
From there, Bell, who started 20th on the final restart, slithered through the field and took command of the race from his teammate and didn’t look back, earning his seventh career win and his first Cup win at Phoenix Raceway.
Chris Buescher and Brad Keselowski rose from 14th and 18th to start the day to finish up with both RFK Fords in the top-5, 2nd and 4th respectively.
Gibbs’ two-tire gamble paid off as he coasted to a comfortable 3rd-place effort while defending Cup champion Ryan Blaney fought his way through the field on the final stint to claim his sixth consecutive top-5 at Phoenix.
Ross Chastain was the lone Camaro in the top-10, finishing a strong 6th followed by Martin Truex Jr. in 7th. Truex came back from his late pit stop and recovered for an impressive top-10 when a good result looked highly unlikely with 50 laps to go.
Michael McDowell, Chase Briscoe, and Tyler Reddick rounded out the top-10. Notable omissions from the top-10 were Denny Hamlin (11th), Kyle Larson (14th), and Larson’s Hendrick Motorsports teammates Byron (18th), Elliott (19th), and Bowman (20th).
Here are the full unofficial results from today’s race.
Two of the most peculiar performances of the weekend came from the sport’s only active multi-time champions.
Joey Logano qualified a disappointing 23rd and never seemed to have the car dialed in enough to gain any positions, finishing stage two in 23rd.
Kyle Busch, tied with Logano for most wins in the field at Phoenix, looped his #8 zOne Chevrolet at the beginning of stage three, furthering an already terrible run that ended in a 22nd-place result.
Logano one-upped Busch, getting sent into the outside wall on the next restart off the front bumper of John Hunter Nemechek, collecting Corey Lajoie, Josh Berry, Zane Smith, and Daniel Hemric.
Logano’s Hunt Brothers Ford Mustang Dark Horse was too battered and bruised to continue, ending his day prematurely in 34th.
Having attended the previous nine Phoenix Cup races, I feel qualified to say that the FOX broadcasts mislead TV viewers into thinking these races are worse than they actually are.
FOX refused to show any battles around the track in favor of cutaways to drivers talking prior to the race and zooming in a bunch on the leader whose gap to second only extended as the race wound down.
The track itself looked extremely spread out, with cars going as low as two seams below the apron while others rode near the wall in turns 1 & 2 before fanning out again on the entry to turn 3 before converging on the exit of turn 4.
One particular battle that the broadcast missed was between Ryan Preece, Chase Briscoe, and Tyler Reddick. For nearly five laps, the three drivers were within just a few tenths of each other fighting it out for 8th before Preece pitted his car after staying out the previous caution.
When you are sitting in any seat at Phoenix Raceway, you can see nearly the entire circuit, and with a distance of just one mile, there is absolutely no reason to believe that Fox can’t do better than their performance today.
I really wanted to like this race given my familiarity with the track, but even Kevin Harvick in the booth and a new downforce package debuting couldn’t save Sunday’s race.
I would give the on-track product a B- because you could make up ground if you had a decent car due to the multiple grooves. Several drivers sunk down the order while others floated past and replaced them at the top of the pylon.
The FOX broadcast deserves a firm D+. I imagine I’m not the only one growing tired of the onboard cameras doing more work than the folks sent out in the hot desert sun to capture footage of the event, and that’s a shame.
Those folks work tirelessly to bring fans the best at-home race experience, and they’re cast aside so often for cheap gimmick shots from the splitter, the roof, or the rear bumpers of cars.
(Top Photo Credit: Danny Peters)
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