Christopher Bell hopes COTA race ‘is a turning point’ for NASCAR

Sunday’s race at COTA delivered an entertaining battle for the lead in the final stage involving Christopher Bell, Kyle Busch, William Byron and Tyler Reddick.

And unlike what happened at Daytona to open the 2025 season and seen countless times last season, the racing was clean. The finish? 100 percent clean and a great showcase of road course racing in the Next Gen car. In Bell’s mind, it could be a turning point for the sport.

“I’m so proud of the way everybody raced each other at the end of that race,” Bell said Tuesday on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, via Jeff Gluck of The Athletic. “I would love to change the narrative of the Cup Series, of running into people and moving them out of the way. I would love if this is a turning point for us, where we’re able to race respectfully and stay off of each other and make it less of a contact sport.”

Christopher Bell wins clean at COTA after epic battle with Kyle Busch

Late race chaos has become commonplace in the Cup Series and after a Lap 78 caution brought along one final restart on Lap 83, most probably envisioned at least another yellow flag over the course of the final 12 laps.

But we didn’t get that.

Instead, we were treated to the latest COTA battle between Busch and Bell. Busch dominated much of the action, leading a race-high 42 laps. He had command of the race late but after that final caution, Busch knew he would have his hands full. Bell had the fresher tires and spent the next six laps throwing everything at Busch. Coming off Turn 20 on Lap 90, Bell finally cleared Busch for the lead.

Busch’s car had nothing left, and he faded to fifth by race end. Bell took the checkered flag for his second consecutive win, with Busch’s career-long winless streak stretching to 60 races. That caution, Busch said, was the difference. But the battle with Bell was clean, which he respected.

“I wish we could have had a little bit more there at the end,” Busch said, via Reid Spencer of NASCAR.com. “I feel like maybe the two-lap fresher tires the 20 had was the difference. … But I also hated to see that yellow that came out. I felt like we had a little bit of a gap there that I was protecting my tires, and I could run the lines I wanted to run. I didn’t have to run defensive lines and use up my stuff even more so [which I did] when the 20 was right on me.