The four-tire call for an overtime restart at Phoenix Raceway last November with a race win and championship on the line will haunt Denny Hamlin and Joe Gibbs Racing for years to come.
A similar four-tire call in Sunday’s (March 8) NASCAR Cup Series race at Phoenix just might be haunting Hamlin’s JGR teammate Christopher Bell as well.
Close but No Cigar for Christopher Bell at Phoenix
Like Hamlin in November, Bell was the dominant car at Phoenix on Sunday, leading a race-high 176 laps. The No. 20 Toyota was a rocket ship that ran away from the field on the long runs, as Bell was the fastest car on track for a whopping 55.9% of the green flag laps, which is the sixth-highest percentage ever obtained by a driver since loop data became available for the Cup Series in 2005.
It’s also the highest percentage of fastest laps in a Cup race for a driver who failed to win.
Things started to go awry for Bell with around 35 laps to go, as he shifted from dominating to playing defense on two fresh tires in an attempt to starve off Ryan Blaney, who took four.
Bell caught a lucky break with a caution for Austin Dillon’s flat tire with 24 to go, as the yellow flag was displayed mere seconds before Blaney was set to take the lead away. But that caution led to one final pit cycle and a familiar scene from November: the dominant JGR driver took four tires and dropped from the lead to the back end of the top 10.
As was the case with Hamlin, the four-tire call backfired for Bell and the No. 20 team, as they had to settle for a runner-up finish after running out of time to track down Blaney for the win.
In this instance, the decision for Bell to take four tires was far more justifiable than the decision for Hamlin to take four in the fall. Bell restarted the race in eighth, while Hamlin restarted in 10th. Bell had 19 laps to track the leaders down after pit stops, while Hamlin only had two laps at his disposal to make something happen. Bell was also struggling against Blaney on two tires during the prior run, so that performance was fresh on the No. 20 team’s mind when the call for four was made.
On the contrary, it was difficult (but not impossible) to pass a driver for the lead on Sunday, even with a tire mismatch. Blaney was working Bell over for a good 20 laps toward the end, and even then, he was unable to complete the pass before the caution came out. But as the saying goes, hindsight is 20/20.
Thinkin’ Out Loud at Phoenix: Isn’t Racing Much More Fun Without Playoffs?
Had the final 19 laps gone green, Bell might’ve had the time to run down Blaney on four tires and pass him for the win. But there was a caution just a half lap after the restart, and Bell was unable to capitalize on the opportunity, gaining zero spots. The 19 laps he had to work with were truncated down to 12, and he came up one spot and 0.399 seconds short of the win.
Slightly different circumstances from November, but Sunday ended in the same result: JGR cars dominated back-to-back Phoenix races, only to go home empty-handed each time after taking four tires on the final pit stop of the afternoon.
But that’s not where the deja vu ends. In both races, it was late cautions resulting from flat tires — in a race defined by tire wear — that proved to be JGR’s undoing. Who capitalized both times by taking two tires on the final round of pit stops to win? Blaney. Even stranger is that Kyle Larson took two tires both times to finish third. The first race netted him a championship; the second race gave him some momentum to begin his championship defense.
In the short term, JGR will be fine. All four of its cars showed tremendous speed over the weekend, and Toyota is firing on all cylinders to start 2026. But to lose back-to-back races at the same track with the same reason for caution, the same pit call and the same eventual winner? That’s a tough pill to swallow for anyone.
