Superspeedway, road course — doesn’t matter for Christopher Bell right now.
After winning at Atlanta last week, the 30-year-old prevailed again Sunday in the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas.
He became the first NASCAR Cup Series driver to win two of the first three races of a season since Kevin Harvick in 2018. Bell outpaced William Byron and pole sitter Tyler Reddick to do it.
Bell took the lead from Kyle Busch in the final 10 laps. Chase Elliott and Busch rounded out the top five.
Here are three takeaways:
1. Familiar names, Christopher Bell and William Byron, place first and second
Bell and Byron are hoarding the top spots on the leaderboard so far in 2025.
During the first week of the season, Byron claimed his second straight Daytona 500 victory. Bell followed that at Atlanta last week, and then the two finished first and second at COTA.
Pretty dominant start.
Sunday marked Bell’s 11th career win. He led eight of the 95 laps, a far cry from Busch’s race-high 42 laps as the leader.
Bell sped to second at this track in 2024.
“That was almost a deja vu of last year,” he said. “I had the track position that time. Man, these road course races are just so much fun …
“We didn’t count last week. Last week was a speedway. We didn’t have that one circled. We definitely had this one circled. I’m ready to keep adding to it.”
Bell started 19th. Byron began 15th.
“We came a long way this weekend,” Byron said. “Really proud of that. We were pretty far off to start and got ourselves obviously raceable and in a position to win.
“So just sucks to be so damn close, right? You can be on the bumper of the guy coming to the line, and that sucks. A lot of races ahead, and hopefully we can just keep bringing the speed.”
2. Connor Zilisch does not finish Cup Series debut
The future of NASCAR will remain in the future for a little longer.
Making his NASCAR Cup Series debut in the No. 87 Trackhouse Chevrolet, top prospect Connor Zilisch did not finish, placing 37th.
The 18-year-old rookie sustained damage on Turn 1 of Lap 1. Ross Chastain collided with Chase Elliott. Denny Hamlin and Zilisch also caught pieces of it, forcing Zilisch to pit with a flat tire and a broken toe link.
He found more trouble in the 50th lap. Trackhouse teammate Daniel Suarez spun, sending Zilisch into the tire barrier at Turn 19.
“All I saw was a cloud of smoke, and by the time I saw him, it was way too late to do anything,” Zilisch said. “I saw him spinning off to the left, and I thought he was going to keep going in that direction or stay there. I guess he flipped back right, and he started coming toward me.
“Really unfortunate way to end my Cup Series debut. We were one of the top-five fastest cars in the second stage there. I went from outside the top 30 to 14th, and I felt really good about our Chevy.”
It wasn’t a fruitless weekend, though. Zilisch won Saturday’s Xfinity Series event.
SUPERCROSS: Ken Roczen finally wins at Daytona; Cooper Webb leaves with AMA 450cc points lead
3. Up next for NASCAR: To the desert
NASCAR continues its western trajectory this coming week when it makes the first of two annual visits to Phoenix Raceway, where the 2024 championships on all three national series were settled just four months earlier.
The Xfinity Series races Saturday (coverage begins at 5 p.m. on the CW), and the Cup Series goes green Sunday afternoon shortly after coverage starts at 3:30 p.m. on Fox Sports 1.
— Ken Willis contributed to this report
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: NASCAR results: Christopher Bell beats William Byron for COTA win
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