AVONDALE, Ariz. — It was very much a case of “a close but no cigar” second place for Christopher Bell at Phoenix Raceway, his best finish of the season to date after what was by every metric a really strong day.
Bell finished second in the first stage, won the second stage and led a race-best 176 laps. Yet he finished runner-up to Ryan Blaney, who won his second straight race in the desert. Bell also won the first Phoenix race in 2025.
Ryan Blaney Scores 1st Win of 2026 at Phoenix
“Two less tires, a few more laps” said Bell when asked what else he needed at the end. “I probably would have got there [to Blaney], but you know, I held him off on two tires, so he wasn’t gonna be an easy pass either way. So, just, you know it’s a bummer.
“Adam [Stevens] made the call for four tires, and I was in a total agreement when he made that decision. I’m like, yeah, absolutely, I’ll be able to get back up through there, and then whenever so many cars took two [tires] and we had that immediate yellow. That was a bummer, but you know, ultimately it was a day that we needed to get out of here with, you know, a lot of stage points, a great finish. Just really, really, really stinks to let them get away whenever they’re that close.”
In an exclusive interview with Frontstretch, crew chief Adam Stevens explained his rationale behind taking four tires on the late caution.
“Well, you know, we had 20-some laps on tires and restarted with 20 to go, and I thought the four tires would go to the front,” said Stevens. “We restarted maybe a spot or two further back than I thought we might. I still thought there was enough time. We didn’t get a great restart on that first one and settled out to P8, and then unfortunately we got that follow-up caution and that just burned up a lot of green flag laps. Then we got a good restart and made our way up there and got close, but we just ran out of laps.
“You know, if we had a better first restart and got the caution, we probably still would have been able to win, and if we didn’t have the caution, it didn’t matter about the first restart, we would’ve been able to win. So we just ran out of laps, and clearly if it would have played out like it did play out and I make the call for rights, then we win too. So a lot of things had to go against us there at the end, and unfortunately they did.”
Despite the disappointment, Bell was happy from a macro perspective and his fine points day was reflected in his 18-place vault up the overall standings to sixth.
“I mean, I’m happy we had a process change over the offseason to try and improve our car performance, and I’m super happy with where we’re at right now,” Bell said. “So if we can, you know, keep doing this, then we’re going to be in good shape. Just need to keep doing this.”
Bell was also pleased with the increase in horsepower.
“Yeah, I mean, I thought it was great, the horsepower is really, really necessary. I would love to keep bumping it up. It just really puts it in the driver’s hands and the team’s hands, and you saw Blaney make it back up through there after his mishap, a couple of times. I ended up back in the field, and the cream is able to rise to the top, so more horsepower is definitely a lot better.”
