Christopher Bell drove away from the field after a late pit stop for Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Martin Truex Jr. to claim his first win of 2024 at Phoenix.
The final caution of the 312-lap race came on lap 214 when Denny Hamlin spun while racing Tyler Reddick for the lead. That was the third caution in a 20-lap span, and many drivers took the opportunity to stay out on track to steal some track position.
Truex was one of them. He was third behind Reddick and Hamlin at the time of the caution and inherited the lead by staying out. Bell, meanwhile, was one of the drivers who pitted.
Truex, however, didn’t have enough gas to make it to the end of the race. And as the race ran caution-free to the end, Truex’s hopes of winning dwindled.
As Truex led laps hoping for a caution, Bell drove through the field. Bell had perhaps the fastest car throughout the second half of the race but had to regain some track position after the second stage because of a slow pit stop. As Bell picked off cars one by one, Truex hit pit road with 41 laps to go.
That pit stop gave Bell the lead as he went on to win by approximately six seconds over Chris Buescher.
