NASCAR at COTA results: Christopher Bell earns second straight win in Echopark Texas Grand Prix

Bell outmuscled Kyle Busch then held off William Byron to earn his second consecutive victory to open 2025

By Steven Taranto

Mar 2, 2025 at 8:01 pm ET • 3 min read

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After finding a way past Kyle Busch on fresher tires, Christopher Bell held off both William Byron and Tyler Reddick in a tight battle over the final laps to win the Echopark Texas Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas, scoring back-to-back wins to open 2025 after his win at Atlanta a week ago. Bell's victory is the 11th of his Cup career, and he becomes the first Cup driver to earn back-to-back victories since Chris Buescher did so in the summer of 2023 -- ending the longest streak in series history of races without a back-to-back winner.

Shadowing Kyle Busch prior to the final round of green flag pit stops, Bell stayed out several laps longer than Busch to gain the advantage of fresher tires, which he used to begin running down the No. 8 Chevrolet before a full course caution for an incident between Denny Hamlin and Austin Dillon set up a restart with 13 laps to go. But Busch, who led a race-high 42 laps trying to end a 59-race winless streak, held firm at the front and forced Bell to find a way around him despite his advantage on tires.

It was a situation where Bell had to tread carefully -- he had spun Busch out racing for position at Circuit of the Americas one year ago, which had led to a terse discussion between the two on pit road afterwards. But with five laps remaining, Bell finally muscled his way past Busch and set sail, going from offense to defense as Busch faded to give way to Byron and Reddick filling up his mirror.

NASCAR 2025 race schedule, results: Complete list of Cup Series race dates, winners, tracks, locations

Steven Taranto

"Whenever Kyle was leading, I was just trying to be so cautious. Obviously we know what happened last year, I didn't want that to happen. I wanted to pass him clean," Bell said. "And he was just doing such a good job at running his race, and he could get off the corners just good enough that I couldn't get inside of him. But I started peeking a nose and he bobbled and allowed me to get out front.

"And whenever I did, I'm like, 'OK, just don't beat yourself.' And those were about the five or six sloppiest laps I've ever run."

BACK-TO-BACK. Christopher Bell holds off William Byron to WIN at Circuit of the Americas! #NASCAR pic.twitter.com/oq0Dd2hHCu
— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) March 3, 2025

Busch would eventually fade to fifth behind Byron, Reddick and Chase Elliott -- who had the most remarkable recovery of the day, as he was spun out in Turn 1 on the opening lap following a divebomb move by Ross Chastain into the opening corner. Despite spending most of the race trying to regain his track position from there, Elliott eventually recovered to earn his first top-five finish of the year. Shane van Gisbergen, Chris Buescher, Noah Gragson, Alex Bowman and Todd Gilliland rounded out the top 10.

The first turn stackup also involved 18-year-old phenom Connor Zilisch, who was among the fastest cars in the field despite only being in his first Cup start and eventually worked his way back into the top 15. However, his day would come to an early end when Trackhouse Racing teammate Daniel Suarez spun in front of him on the exit of Turn 19, leading to a hard two-car collision that knocked Zilisch out of the race.

Bell's victory also marks the first time a driver has won twice within the first three races of the Cup Series season since Kevin Harvick did so in 2018. That year, Harvick would go on to win eight times in total and make it all the way to the Championship 4 at season's end.

The NASCAR Cup Series will now move on to Phoenix Raceway for the Shriners Children's 500 next Sunday (3:30 p.m. ET, FS1), a race in which Bell is the defending winner.

Two in a row. COTA winner @CBellRacing checks in with @JoshRSims after climbing out. pic.twitter.com/nAgv9wdgUL
— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) March 3, 2025