EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix: Christopher Bell goes back-to-back with win at COTA

AUSTIN, Texas — For the second consecutive week, Christopher Bell was leading when it mattered the most as the 30-year-old Joe Gibbs Racing driver won the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix after holding off William Byron at Circuit of The Americas.

Bell’s victory ended a historic 52-race stretch in the NASCAR Cup Series that did not see a driver win consecutive races until the driver of the No. 20 DEWALT Toyota won last Sunday at Atlanta and now at COTA. This was the longest stretch without back-to-back winners in Cup Series history.

However, it did not come easy for Bell because he fought hard to get around Kyle Busch, while also having to hold off Byron and Tyler Reddick.

“Man, these road-course races are just so much fun,” Bell said. “Whenever Kyle [Busch] 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. 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 there I started peeking a nose, and he bobbled and allowed me to get out front. Whenever I did, I’m, like, Okay, just don’t beat yourself. Those were about the five or six sloppiest laps I’ve ever run.

“Just so happy for these guys right here. They’ve been on me hard about winning with them. Just super proud for everyone on this DEWALT No. 20 team. 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.”

Byron, the back-to-back Daytona 500 winner and last year’s winner at COTA almost had yet another win for Hendrick Motorsports. Despite only leading one lap, the driver of the No. 24 Raptor Chevrolet showed still his superb road-course racing skills.

“Yeah, it was really close,” Byron said. “I felt like the battle between he [Bell] and Kyle [Busch] was just kind of sitting there waiting for one of them to bobble or slide their tires. Bell got by him. I felt like once he got clear, his car was super loose, and it kind of gave me a couple of shots at him, and I just couldn’t ever get beside him. We’ve always raced really well together, so I didn’t want to like move his blatantly and all that kind of stuff. Just sliding around a ton at the end.

“We came a long way this weekend. 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.”

The driver who seemingly dominated Sunday in Austin was Richard Childress Racing’s Kyle Busch. He led 42 laps, earned the most points among all drivers (46) and had an average running position of 2.14. Unfortunately, for the driver of the No. 8 Rebel Bourbon Chevrolet, his winless streak in the Cup Series will continue after fading down the stretch to a fifth-place finish.

“We had a really good No. 8 Rebel Bourbon Chevy to be able to push that hard,” Busch said. “I just wish that maybe we had equal tires to the No. 20 (Bell). I don’t know if that was all the difference. I know he was really fast and he had a good race car. I feel like that might have been able to help hold me on a little bit better to him, but even that last yellow flag that we had, I felt like the gap that I had to the field, I was far enough out front that I could run the clean lines, the lines that I wanted, to preserve the tires and take care of them as much as I could to see if he could get there. But once we had that yellow, then it was just defensive mode.”

Results from the 2025 EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix at CIrcuit of The Americas are listed below:

Other Race Facts

Twenty lead changes at Circuit of The Americas on Sunday were tied for the most ever during a NASCAR Cup Series road-course race.

A historic Cup Series debut for 18-year-old Trackhouse Racing driver Connor Zilisch did not go according to plan. The driver of the No. 87 Red Bull Chevrolet got caught up in a wreck with his teammate Daniel Suárez that tore up both cars. Zilisch finished 37th on debut, after winning his first Xfinity Series race of the 2025 season on Saturday.

“Yeah, we had a really fast No. 87 Red Bull Chevrolet,” Zilisch said. “I’ve had so much fun preparing for this event. That second stage, driving from outside the top 30 to 14th, was a lot of fun. I was passing a lot of guys that I used to watch on TV growing up. Hopefully, I’ll get the chance to come back and do this again. I had an absolute blast driving through the field, and I wish it didn’t end early.”

Alex Bowman earned his fifth consecutive top-10 finish at COTA. Bowman has finishes of ninth (2025), fourth (2024), third (2023), second (2022) and eighth (2021). Tyler Reddick also earned his fifth consecutive top-10 finish at COTA and his fourth consecutive top-five finish at COTA.

The top four finishers have won four of five Cup Series races at COTA:

• Christopher Bell (2025)
• William Byron (2024)
• Tyler Reddick (2023)
• Chase Elliott (2021)

All eyes were on Shane van Gisbergen during his first road-course race as a full-time Cup Series driver. Van Gisbergen finished sixth after leading 23 laps and scoring 45 points, which was good enough for the second-most points scored in the race.

Chase Elliott finished fourth despite being taken out by Ross Chastain in Turn 1 on Lap 1. However, Elliott battled back to finish inside the top five while Chastain finished just outside the top 10 in 12th place.

Another notable on-track incident involved Ty Dillon and Austin Cindric, which ended with Cindric right-rear hooking Dillon near the start/finish line.

Riley Herbst has finished 17th in all three races this season. The 23XI Racing rookie driver is competing against “SVG” for the 2025 Rookie of The Year Award.

Hendrick Motorsports’ Kyle Larson collected the bonus point for setting the Xfinity Fastest Lap of the race.

GRID RANKING

 

For now, Atlanta and COTA race winner Christopher Bell will lead the Cup Series rating, followed by William Byron, Tyler Reddick, Carson Hocevar and Ryan Blaney. The only change in the top five was Byron and Bell.

The next race on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Shriners Children’s 500 at Phoenix Raceway on Sunday, March 9. Coverage will begin at 3:30 p.m. ET on FS1.

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