Story By: SAM MAHONEY / TOYOTA RACING – AVONDALE, AZ – Christopher Bell battled back from varying pit strategy to go from 20th to first and claim his first win of the season.
Bell, who also won the second stage, led the final 40 laps on his way to a more than five second victory. It was a dominating performance for Toyota, who led 298 of 312 laps.
For the first time in Toyota history, five drivers led 50 or more laps – Tyler Reddick (68 laps), Denny Hamlin (68 laps), Ty Gibbs (57 laps), Martin Truex Jr. (55 laps) and Bell. Gibbs had a strong run and finished a career-best third, while Reddick earned his first stage win of the season as well.
For Joe Gibbs Racing, it completed a weekend sweep with William Sawalich claiming the ARCA win on Friday and Chandler Smith winning on Saturday in NASCAR Xfinity Series action.
For Toyota, it was a six-for-six sweep throughout the weekend as the three Phoenix victories went along with a NHRA Top Fuel All-Star win for Antron Brown on Saturday, and a Kalitta Motorsports nitro sweep on Sunday in Gainesville, Fla. with Shawn Langdon (Top Fuel) and J.R. Todd (Funny Car).
Toyota Post-Race Recap
NASCAR Cup Series (NCS)
Phoenix Raceway
Race 4 of 36 – 312 miles, 312 laps
TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS
1st, CHRISTOPHER BELL
2nd, Chris Buescher*
3rd, TY GIBBS
4th, Brad Keselowski*
5th, Ryan Blaney*
7th, MARTIN TRUEX, JR.
11th, DENNY HAMLIN
16th, BUBBA WALLACE
25th, JOHN HUNTER NEMECHECK
31st, ERIK JONES
*non-Toyota driver
TOYOTA QUOTES
CHRISTOPHER BELL, No. 20 Rheem Toyota Camry XSE, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 1st
How does it feel to get the win today in Phoenix?
“Man, this one feels really good. Just a credit to Adam (Stevens, crew chief), William (Hartman, engineer) My engineers and all of my mechanics, everyone on this JGR team. You don’t get cars like that very often as you know. Super, super proud to be on this 20 car. This Rheem Camry was amazing today. I feel like we have capability of running races like this a lot, so hopefully this is the first of many this year.”
How happy were you with your Toyota Camry XSE race car today?
“I could kind of drive it wherever I wanted. That thing was amazing. I know that those race cars don’t come very often. It was really, really nice to capitalize on that when you have a race car that good. We knew after Friday that we had a pretty good piece. Glad that we were able to deliver.
What’s the mindset when you have such a good race car and you have to work your way through the field?
“I don’t know, man. It’s just so tough. You’ve got to keep your head about you. That’s one thing that I really struggle with and I’ve beat myself throughout my career and I’ve got to put that behind me and hopefully that’s a turning point.”
Prior to this race, Toyota led 15 laps in the Next Gen car here at Phoenix, can you describe the effort Toyota has put into dominating this event?
“I don’t know. It’s no secret that Phoenix has been a little bit of a struggle for us. After that first year of Next Gen – myself and Adam (Stevens, crew chief) we really sat down and said that Phoenix needs to be a focus point because I didn’t feel very good there the first two races in 2022 and then in 2023 we were a little better each time and today was lights out so today is a great day for the company.”
How important is it to win here in the spring with this being the NASCAR championship track?
“This is an important one. If you’re not good here, you’re never going to be a champion. Just a dream come true. I’m so happy for all of our partners at Rheem, Toyota, TRD, DEWALT, Yahoo!, Mobil 1. This is a big team effort and I’m just the guy who gets to drive this thing.”
TY GIBBS, No. 54 Monster Energy Toyota Camry XSE, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 3rd
How was your race today?
“It was a good day for our Monster Energy Toyota Camry. We just need a little bit more. We got in a hole there a little bit on pit road and got back through it. It was a good day and a really good recovery.”
What does it say for Toyota as their drivers dominated today’s race?
“Yeah, I think everybody at JGR (Joe Gibbs Racing) and Toyota with this new car, they just did a great job. We’re happy with it, but we need to get a little bit better to go out here and hopefully go and win. It’s definitely a positive from the last two Phoenix races for me.”
JOHN HUNTER NEMECHEK, No. 42 Alberton’s Toyota Camry XSE, LEGACY MOTOR CLUB
Finishing Position: 25th
What happened with that on-track incident with Logano?
“I want to apologize to Joey (Logano) and those guys. I’m going to reach out to Joey. I’ll probably reach out to Paul Wolfe and Roger Penske. I guess just misjudged it. I hit the brake pedal pretty hard, and it didn’t really slow down and I got in the back of him. It’s my fault. I made a mistake and I’ve got to learn from it, and own it.”
ERIK JONES, No. 43 Family Dollar Toyota Camry XSE, LEGACY MOTOR CLUB
Finishing Position: 31st
How was your race car today?
“The Family Dollar Toyota Camry was not bad but got back in the pack and kind of flipped around on some strategy and got taken out of it. Just an unfortunate ending.”