Christopher Bell won his second consecutive NASCAR Cup Series race of the 2025 season, capturing the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix on Sunday at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas.
Bell, who won last week’s race at Atlanta Motor Speedway, became the first driver since Kevin Harvick in 2018 to win two of the first three races to start a season. William Byron, who finished second on the first road-course race of 2025, won the season-opening Daytona 500 and triumphed at COTA last year.
Bell’s 11th career Cup Series victory denied Kyle Busch’s valiant attempt to break a 59-race winless streak. Busch had dominated the final stage and led a race-high 42 laps before being passed by Bell with five laps remaining. The two-time series champion ended up fading to fifth after using up his tires trying to defend against Bell’s surge.
‘Almost deja vu from last year here,’ said Bell, who finished second at COTA in 2024. ‘These road-course races are so much fun. Kyle (Busch) was leading, and we tried to be so cautious after what happened between us last year. His car started falling off, and ours was still strong. I kept thinking, ‘don’t beat yourself.’ We didn’t have the superspeedway last week circled, but we certainly had this road course in our sights.’
Busch’s last victory came on June 4, 2023 at World Wide Technology Raceway. Prior to the 2024 season, Busch had won at least one race every year since his first full-time Cup season in 2005.
‘We had a really good No. 8 Rebel Bourbon Chevy to be able to push that hard,’ Busch said after the race. ‘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 racecar. … I just didn’t have anything there at the end to compete with those guys.’
Pole sitter and 2023 winner Tyler Reddick finished third, and Chase Elliott rebounded from an early incident to finish fourth.
Early on, it looked like Bubba Wallace, who started second behind Reddick, his 23XI Racing teammate, might contend with the more established road-course aces, but an early penalty shuffled him back. Still, Wallace was able to win the opening stage when most of the leaders opted to pit for fuel and tires before the segment ended. Wallace, who made his pit stop after the stage ended while most of the rest of the field stayed out, could never catch back up with the leaders and finished 20th.
Ryan Preece won Stage 2 using a similar strategy after Shane Van Gisbergen led most of that segment. Van Gisbergen looked like he would challenge Bell, Byron and Busch for the win in the closing laps, but he could not keep pace following a restart with 17 laps remaining and finished sixth. Preece was not a factor in the final stage and finished 33rd.
NASCAR Cup Series at COTA – Top 10 finishers
(Starting position in parentheses)
(19) Christopher Bell, Toyota
(15) William Byron, Chevrolet
(1) Tyler Reddick, Toyota
(3) Chase Elliott, Chevrolet
(8) Kyle Busch, Chevrolet
(6) Shane Van Gisbergen, Chevrolet
(24) Chris Buescher, Ford
(17) Noah Gragson, Chevrolet
(21) Alex Bowman, Chevrolet
(10) Todd Gilliland, Ford
EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix: Full results of Sunday’s race
NASCAR Cup Series at COTA – Stage 2 results
Ryan Preece assumed the lead after the top four drivers – Shane Van Gisbergen, Kyle Busch, AJ Allmendinger and William Byron – came to pit road two laps before the stage ended. Those four had a big enough lead that they were still able to finish in the Top 10 even after their green-flag pit stops.
Preece led the final two laps of the second stage, but Van Gisbergen paced the field for the majority of it.
Here are 10 drivers that received points at the end of Stage 2 in order of finish:
Ryan Preece
Ryan Blaney
Michael McDowell
Kyle Busch
Shane Van Gisbergen
AJ Allmendinger
Bubba Wallace
William Byron
Christopher Bell
Daniel Suarez
NASCAR Cup Series at COTA – Stage 1 results
Bubba Wallace earned his first stage win on a road course after capturing the 20-lap opening segment. Wallace, who started second, elected to stay out on the track despite most of the field making green-flag pit stops before the end of the segment. Joey Logano, who finished second, also elected not to pit, along with Chase Elliott.
Here are 10 drivers that received points at the end of Stage 1 in order of finish:
Bubba Wallace
Joey Logano
Shane Van Gisbergen
Kyle Busch
Chase Elliott
Tyler Reddick
Kyle Larson
Daniel Suarez
William Byron
AJ Allmendinger
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