Mechanix Wear, the leader in high-performance hand protection, extended its partnership with NASCAR on Tuesday to enhance the grip on a relationship that has fortified teams and pit crews since 2002.
This multiyear partnership reaffirms Mechanix Wear’s reputation as the Official Glove of NASCAR and the brand that embodies the sport’s relentless pursuit of quality and performance.
“The adrenaline-pumping world of NASCAR has been an incredible partner over the years, trusting us to pioneer advancements that safeguard and empower hardworking hands in the garage and at home,” said Jesse Spungin, Mechanix Wear CEO.
Through various channels, Mechanix Wear and NASCAR will continue to spotlight the work of NASCAR teams and pit crews to raise awareness and provide visibility for the brand’s product.
“It’s a testament to our shared vision and mission of innovation, safety, and performance,” said Spungin. “By extending our partnership and reaffirming our commitment to the deeply passionate NASCAR community, we’re not just protecting the working hands in the sport; we’re sharing their awe-inspiring stories where they resonate most.”
With this partnership renewal, Mechanix Wear also returns to the NASCAR Mexico and NASCAR Canada Series via their contingency programs. The expansion signifies a renewed commitment to racing in North America that aligns with the continued growth of the brand throughout Canada and Mexico.
“Through our longstanding partnership, Mechanix Wear has been synonymous with best-in-class products, safety and innovation in NASCAR,” said Michelle Byron, NASCAR senior vice president of partnership marketing. “As they’ve done for more than 30 years, we’re thrilled that Mechanix Wear will continue to play a leading role in safety and performance at NASCAR events in the United States, Canada and Mexico each and every weekend.”
From the inception of its game-changing Original® glove back in the 1991 Daytona 500 to today’s wide-ranging line of hand protection and other PPE products, Mechanix Wear stands as the gold standard of innovation and performance in its industry. This renewed partnership ensures that as NASCAR continues to redefine the limits of motorsport, Mechanix Wear will remain firmly centered at the crossroads where future technology, safety, and exhilarating storytelling come together.
Through six races last season, Alex Bowman was enjoying a tidy three-week run as the NASCAR Cup Series points leader. He won the Daytona 500 pole, led laps in the first three events and rode solid consistency (five top 10s) into that prime perch.
Things did not go up from there. A slight tapering-off led to a more dramatic fall with Bowman’s four-week absence after he suffered a back injury in a sprint-car crash that April. His return to Cup Series competition was a shaky one that yielded just one top-five finish in the 23 races that followed, and his playoff hopes were dashed in his first winless campaign since 2018. Teammate Chase Elliott’s season followed a near-parallel line with a six-week injury pause and a postseason miss, while fellow Hendrick Motorsports drivers William Byron and Kyle Larson marched to multi-win seasons and Championship 4 appearances.
Six races into this campaign, Bowman has responded to the pressure to perform — both with his elite teammates and the rest of the Cup Series field as measuring sticks — with some early signs of a positive turnaround. The 30-year-old driver registered his second consecutive top-five result in Sunday’s road-course contest at Circuit of The Americas, providing some stability to the rough edges of the season’s start.
While it’s premature to label Bowman as all the way back — a win would do that — the No. 48 Chevrolet driver has modest early indicators in his favor. The steep expectations that stem from being part of one of NASCAR’s powerhouse teams, Bowman says, are just the price of business.
“You look at last year, we started the year really strong, and then after I broke my back, we struggled the whole rest of the year. Yeah, you have to shoulder a lot of that, even when there are things that are outside of your control going on,” Bowman said last week at a Hendrick Motorsports preview for the team’s 40th anniversary celebration. “So that’s just part of racing. As a driver, your name’s always on the door, so you’re always going to have to shoulder that, but this is a high-pressure environment, right? Two of our teammates really thrived last year, and the other two of us struggled more than we would have liked. It’s our job to turn it around and get pointed in the right direction.”
At last season’s pivot point, Bowman noted the daunting nature of pressing “send” on the phone call to inform team principals Rick Hendrick and Jeff Gordon about his injury. The message on the other end, he said, was one full of support. “It wasn’t like, ‘Gosh, I can’t believe you did this to yourself,’ ” Bowman recalled. “It was like, ‘How can we help you? And what do you need, and we’ll do everything we can to help you and help you heal and get better as quick as possible.’ ”
Alejandro Alvarez | NASCAR.com
But last year was also a fragmented breaking-in period for Blake Harris, in his first season as the No. 48 crew chief after moving over from Front Row Motorsports. Harris was suspended for four races just a month into the season for L2-grade penalties across Hendrick’s four-car fleet. He was back for just two races before Bowman was sidelined, and he shifted gears to work with short-track vet Josh Berry, a capable substitute now driving full-time for Stewart-Haas Racing, over a four-week span last spring.
“I mean, certainly would have scripted it differently, right?” Harris says in reflection. “But no, I’m super fortunate to be with this group and this company. They’ve got so much depth and so many people behind us that make all this happen. So I take every day as feeling fortunate to be able to be in the position and work with Alex, and I love working with him. I know it hasn’t gone the way that we’ve wanted, and we’ve had opportunities to win races, though. We might not be where we want to be every week, but we’ve had plenty of times we’ve been in the mix, and things just haven’t fallen our way. And when it does click and it does go our way, I think it’ll be fine and we can get on a roll.”
Key to the approach, Harris notes, is the team’s philosophy of resetting after each race, not allowing any frustrations to mount from one week to the next. The No. 48 team persevered after an in-weekend reset at COTA, making forward progress Sunday after a middling 17th-place qualifying effort on the eve of the race.
Those conscious breaks have helped the team navigate those hardships — however big or small — this season. Gordon, Hendrick’s vice chairman, has taken notice.
“I mean, Alex is one of those guys where the bigger the challenge, seems like the better he does,” Gordon said. “I’m going to leave here and try to find more ways to really challenge him even more.”
In whatever shape those in-house challenges might take, the task for Bowman will involve breaking out of a winless drought that spans two-plus years and 67 races back to his last Cup triumph in March 2022 at Las Vegas. He’s a former winner at Richmond Raceway, where the Cup Series pays a visit this weekend for Sunday’s Toyota Owners 400 (7 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
A pair of fourth-place finishes are a start toward re-establishing Bowman’s place among the sport’s — and his team’s — best. Climbing into podium contention is the next step.
“Bowman, yeah, when he gets on a roll, he gets his confidence up, there’s no telling what they’re capable of doing,” Gordon said. “I’m really happy for them. Two top fives in a row. They’d had a couple rough weeks, so they needed this. Hendrick Motorsports is tough, right? Four of the top drivers and teams out there, and there’s a lot of pressure on you. If you’re winning, there’s pressure to continue. When you’re not winning or you’re not at the same level as your teammates, there’s a ton of pressure that you got to get there.
“I’m proud of him and Blake, the way they’ve been working hard together to get some good finishes. Now I can’t wait to see what they do next, as well.”
TURNERS FALLS, Mass. — Mayhew Steel Products, Inc. (Mayhew Tools) is excited to announce their 2024 season sponsorship of the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour Pole Award for the sixth consecutive year.
This award honors the driver and crew who achieves the fastest time in qualifying. Through this sponsorship, Mayhew Tools will reward each pole-winning driver with a $1,000 check and present the team’s crew chief with a newly released 14-piece Micro Hand Tool Set. This set consists of Mayhew’s most popular micro hand tools, including pry bars, hooks, picks and screwdrivers. Each tool has an ergonomic Nylon 6 handle and alloy steel blade that is heat treated and tempered for hardness and ductility. All tools in this set are made in the USA and come with a lifetime warranty.
The 2024 Modified Tour season began Feb. 10 at Florida’s New Smyrna Speedway, where Ron Silk started the year with a victory. The season will span 16 races throughout the Northeast, ending at Martinsville Speedway on Oct. 26.
“Being able to have a consistent presence in the NASCAR community through sponsoring the Whelen Modified Tour Pole Award is an opportunity that we at Mayhew Tools are very proud of,” said John Lawless, President of Mayhew Tools. “We value the chance to support the drivers, crew chiefs and teams that devote their skills to competing in the Whelen Modified Tour, and we look forward to a successful 2024 race season.”
The 2024 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour schedule consists of the following races:
Saturday, Feb. 10: New Smyrna Speedway (FL)
Friday, March 29: Richmond Raceway (VA)
Sunday, April 7: Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park (CT)
Saturday, May 4: Monadnock Speedway (NH)
Saturday, May 18: Riverhead Raceway (NY)
Saturday, June 1: Seekonk Speedway (MA)
Saturday, June 22: New Hampshire Motor Speedway (NH)
Saturday, July 20: Monadnock Speedway (NH)
Saturday, Aug. 3: Lancaster Motorplex (NY)
Wednesday, Aug. 14: Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park (CT)
Saturday, Aug. 31: Oswego Speedway (NY)
Saturday, Sept. 14: Riverhead Raceway (NY)
Saturday, Sept. 21: Monadnock Speedway (NH)
Saturday, Oct. 5: North Wilkesboro Speedway (NC)
Sunday, Oct. 13: Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park (CT)
Saturday, Oct. 26: Martinsville Speedway (VA)
Founded in 1856, Mayhew Tools is renowned for its professional-grade hand tools, which exemplify quality and performance. These tools are sold through an extensive network of distributors worldwide.
The company offers a broad range of tools, including punches, chisels, pry bars, pneumatic tools, drives, bits, inspection tools, screwdrivers and more. For further information about these tools, their availability, and other details, visit mayhew.com or call 800.872.0037.
Goodyear officials have scheduled a NASCAR Cup Series tire test Tuesday and Wednesday on the repaved racing surface at Sonoma Raceway.
The two-day session will help Goodyear representatives determine the proper tire compound and construction for the Cup Series’ June 9 visit to the California road course for the Toyota/Save Mart 350 (3:30 p.m. ET, FOX, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). The Xfinity Series and ARCA Menards Series West will share the weekend bill June 7-9.
Three Cup Series teams — one from each of the tour’s three manufacturers — are scheduled to participate:
No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet (driver Ross Chastain)
No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford (driver Josh Berry)
No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota (driver Martin Truex Jr.)
The full 12-turn, 2.52-mile circuit underwent its first full repave in 23 years during the offseason, and track officials announced the project’s completion on Feb. 29. The Cup Series will race on Sonoma’s 1.99-mile configuration, using the “chute” that connects Turns 4 and 7 on the full layout.
Bay Cities Paving & Grading and ABSL Construction completed the work in 61 days. It’s the second Speedway Motorsports track to get fresh asphalt in recent months, with Sonoma joining North Wilkesboro Speedway among the freshly repaved venues in the company portfolio.
More than a month after the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour opened the 2024 season at Florida’s New Smyrna Speedway, the schedule resumes with the Tour’s annual trip to Richmond Raceway this Friday evening for the running of the Virginia is for Racing Lovers 150 (6:30 p.m. ET on FloRacing).
The second round of the 2024 season serves as the 14th visit for the Modified Tour to 0.75-mile asphalt oval. The series made its inaugural visit to Richmond in 1990, when Rick Fuller claimed one of his 20 series victories.
In the years that followed, some of the Modified Tour’s best have visited Victory Lane at the track, including legends like Reggie Ruggiero, Mike Stefanik and Ted Christopher. Other familiar names to visit Victory Lane at Richmond include Tony Hirschman, Ryan Preece, Justin Bonsignore and, most recently, Austin Beers.
Tickets to the Virginia is for Racing Lovers 150 are available here. Below is everything you need to know about the second of 16 races on the 2024 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour schedule.
A pack of cars pictured during the Virginia is for Racing Lovers 150 for the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour at Richmond Raceway on March 31, 2023. (Photo: Rob Branning/NASCAR)
Virginia is for Racing Lovers 150 at Richmond Raceway
What to watch for:
Based on recent results, no one on the Tour right now is better than reigning champion Ron Silk.
During his championship season last year, Silk earned a career-high five victories and only finished outside the top 10 once in 18 races. He carried that momentum into 2024 by winning the opening race of the season at New Smyrna for the second straight year.
Silk will look to carry that momentum into Friday’s Virginia is for Racing Lovers 150 at Richmond, a track where he had one of his worst races of 2023. Don’t take that phrasing too seriously, though, as Silk finished seventh last year at Richmond.
Amazingly, that seventh-place run was his second-worst finish across the entire 18-race schedule last season. His worst race came at Monadnock Speedway in September, when he finished 12th.
One driver who should be expected to contend for the victory Friday at Richmond is defending race winner Austin Beers, who bagged his maiden Modified Tour victory at the track one year ago. He dominated the 150-lap event, leading a race-high 102 laps along the way.
A pair of familiar faces to fans of the NASCAR Cup Series will also be in the field. Ryan Newman, who also competed in the opening race of the year at New Smyrna, and 2000 NASCAR Cup Series champion Bobby Labonte will both be in action Friday. Labonte will again be in the No. 38 for Sadler-Stanley Racing. Newman will pilot the No. 77 fielded by Mike Curb.
Justin Bonsignore will look for his second Richmond victory in the No. 51 owned by Ken Massa, and 2010 Modified Tour champion Bobby Santos III returns to the series aboard the No. 14 Advantage Motorsports entry. Doug Coby will look for his first victory of the year driving for Tommy Baldwin Racing, and Patrick Emerling will once again pilot the No. 1 Fleetworks Inc. Modified.
Other notable entries include Craig Lutz, Eric Goodale, Andy Seuss, Jake Johnson, Kyle Bonsignore, Carson Loftin, Tyler Rypkema and Tommy, Tyler and Trevor Catalano.
The complete entry list for the Virginia is for Racing Lovers 150 is available here.
A pack of cars pictured during the Virginia is for Racing Lovers 150 for the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour at Richmond Raceway on March 31, 2023. (Photo: Rob Branning/NASCAR)
Schedule: Friday, March 29 … Practice from 12:45 to 1:30 p.m. ET … Final practice from 2 to 2:30 p.m. ET … Qualifying at 4:30 p.m. ET … Virginia is for Racing Lovers 150 at 6:30 p.m. ET (FloRacing)
Qualifying: Two consecutive qualifying laps. Faster lap determines qualifying position. Adjustments or repairs may not be made on the vehicle after the vehicle has taken the green flag at the start/finish line. NASCAR reserves the right to have more than one vehicle engage in qualifying runs at the same time. Starting field for the Virginia is for Racing Lovers 150 is limited to 32 starters including Provisional Positions.
Tire allotment: The maximum tire allotment available for this event is fourteen (14) tires per team. All tires used for qualifying and the race must be purchased at the track and scanned by Hoosier, unless otherwise approved in advance by the Series Director. Four (4) tires must be used for qualifying and to begin the race. All qualifying tires must remain in impound until released by NASCAR Officials. The remaining tire allotment may be used for practice and/or change tires during the event. The tire change rule is six (6) tires, any position.
AUSTIN, Texas — When the NASCAR Cup Series took to the 3.41-mile Circuit of The Americas road course Saturday morning for practice, Ty Gibbs controlled most categories. His No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota was the first car to hit the track and sat atop the scoring pylon throughout the extended session until the waning seconds when William Byron jumped to first.
Byron nipped Gibbs in qualifying, and the sophomore driver would start from third position in the 68-lap race. The No. 54 team still believed it was going to be a contender in the outcome of Sunday’s race.
Gibbs raced inside the top five for the extent of the opening stage before his crew chief Chris Gayle called him to pit road from second position, coming to two laps remaining in the stage. With the bulk of the field flipping the stage, Gibbs still earned three stage points by finishing eighth.
Seeing how the race was playing out, Gibbs was called to pit road again late in the second stage, giving up valuable stage points to be in contention for the win in the final stage. Gibbs placed 11th in Stage 2, missing out on stage points by the slimmest of margins.
Throughout the final stage, Gibbs was just a tick off from Byron’s lightning pace. Christopher Bell made a late rally to pass the No. 54 car within the final five laps of the race for second position. Gibbs held on to third at the checkered flag, tying the best finish of his career (Phoenix Raceway, two weeks ago).
It was a solid showing for Gibbs, who’s currently on a streak of five straight top-10 finishes, the longest streak of his Cup career.
“We track these things we call strong performances, right? Which are top fives, leading laps and getting stage points and leading in the last part of the race,” Gayle said after the race. “This was another one for us. We honestly felt like we had a shot to win today. We needed to be a tiny bit better car-wise to pull it off, and you need to flip position and get to the lead, and I think we would have been in an OK spot.
“Long runs, we were better. Short runs, we weren’t quite good enough. It was trading off that. We got the long run but still didn’t quite get there. It’s a good day. Good to be disappointed with a third.”
The frustration was apparent on Gibbs’ face following the event. All that matters to him currently is winning his first Cup race as he remains winless through 57 attempts.
“It was good, but the most important is a win, and that’s what I wish I could have got,” Gibbs said. “It’s a good points day, looking at the big picture.”
Gibbs jumped to second in the regular season championship standings behind only his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Martin Truex Jr. Six races into his sophomore season, he’s a slim five points off the lead. Gibbs’ 7.8 average finish through six races leads the Cup Series.
Gayle, who has been paired with Gibbs for the last four seasons dating back to the Xfinity Series, has seen his driver mature in great spurts. Nearly every week, the No. 54 car is part of the conversation for the win.
“[He’s] ahead of schedule probably,” Gayle added. “We’re right on pace where he’s doing a good job, but I think we’re going to take two steps forward, and there will be one every now and then we regress on because we’re still ahead of schedule. It’s still early in his career.
“To be this high in points, to have the start to the season that we’ve had, now we’ve got a margin where if that happens we’re still in good shape. I think that’s what is good is we’re in a good position right now.”
With a pair of short tracks on the horizon, the schedule continues to lend itself to the No. 54 team. Gayle believes the team had a car capable of winning last fall at Martinsville Speedway before getting plowed by Joey Logano during the final stage. First up is a 400-lap event on Easter Sunday at Richmond Raceway (7 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), where the team has struggled.
“We need to be a little better than where we are, but we’ve been able to do that at some of these race tracks so far this year,” Gayle said of Richmond. “If we continue the improvement that we did from last year to these first few events, we will be in good shape.”
AUSTIN, Texas — William Byron’s dominant day at Circuit of The Americas confirmed at least one thing: He hasn’t lost a step of his road-course game since last year.
The No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports team cruised to victory in Sunday afternoon’s NASCAR Cup Series race after leading a race-high 42 laps, scoring his second win on a road course in the last three such events. The only exception? A second-place finish at the Charlotte Motor Speedway road course last fall.
Byron’s defense against Christopher Bell in the closing stages affirmed both his road-racing prowess and Toyota’s ever-looming speed.
“I never saw him make a mistake, which is what it was going to take to win today in the closing laps,” said Jeff Gordon, vice chairman of Hendrick Motorsports. “Because Bell had the faster car with the fresher tires, any big lockup into a corner, I think it would have been a different outcome. A lot of credit to William in doing that great job. Takes the whole team, the pit crew, everybody. They’re truly on quite a run here to start this season off. Can’t wait to see where they take it next.”
Gordon, like most in the garage, admitted he expected Toyotas to dominate Sunday’s EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix — even though Byron put the No. 24 Chevrolet on pole position. 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick controlled COTA a year ago and showed plenty of speed in Saturday’s practice, as did the Joe Gibbs Racing quartet of Bell, Ty Gibbs, Martin Truex Jr. and Denny Hamlin.
“They’ve got a lot of speed,” Gordon said. “It’s one thing when one car has speed, it’s another thing when a group of them have speed. That tells you a lot about what they have, what they’re bringing to the race track. It’s certainly on our radar in a big way.”
Brittney Wilbur | NASCAR.com
But so is Byron, who became the first multi-time Cup winner this year — and the first multi-time winner in each of the last three seasons. For him and crew chief Rudy Fugle, Sunday’s performance was business as usual on road courses, which is particularly notable since Watkins Glen International joins the NASCAR Playoffs this year in addition to Charlotte’s road course.
“I think it’s just part of the process and our evolution for our notebook for these race tracks,” Byron said. “I feel like for us, we can just take from this another data point of what we need to improve. I don’t think anyone’s car was driving perfect there. Just the way that this race track is with the ride over the bumps, just the way the curbing is, the track is pretty rough. I feel like it drives different than anywhere.
“At the same time, you can put this one in the notebook and say, ‘OK, when we go to what’s next, whenever we go to the next one, we know what to work on.’ We’ll just try to keep building at each one. I feel like we’ve gotten in a rhythm. We just have gotten a good feel for these places.”
Reddick told NASCAR.com earlier that it was important for his No. 45 Toyota to be “part of the conversation of winning this race.” That never really came into play Sunday, with Reddick leading just one lap and finishing fifth after qualifying third.
“I shouldn’t say it’s a bad day, but it’s not what we want when we come to a road course, right?” Reddick said. “We were able to get away with some mistakes in certain areas with a fifth place. So I mean, that’s not a bad thing, right? Obviously, none of us are satisfied with how we finished so we’ll be hungry. We’ll be working on it and getting ready for the next road course.”
Though Bell fell short at the buzzer, his electric charge should not be forgotten, either. The driver of the No. 20 Toyota — also a previous winner this season — has been a continuous threat on road courses with top 10s in 11 of his 21 starts on such tracks. Bell nearly erased a nine-second deficit to catch Byron’s bumper, falling short by just 0.692 seconds at the checkered flag.
Gibbs also shined with a third-place run, cementing the belief his Toyota teammates continue to preach — that a road-course victory is likely coming soon for the 21-year-old sophomore racer.
The good news for the field is that the next road race isn’t scheduled until June, when the Cup Series shifts westward to Sonoma Raceway in California. Until then, the notes from Circuit of The Americas will dictate teams’ next steps in trying to dethrone the No. 24 team.
NASCAR officials disqualified the No. 51 Rick Ware Racing Ford after Sunday’s Cup Series race at Circuit of The Americas for a violation found in post-race inspection.
Competition officials determined that the car did not meet the minimum weight requirement after Sunday’s EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix at the 3.41-mile road course. The infraction falls under Section 14.11.2 (“Vehicle Weight”) in the NASCAR Rule Book.
Justin Haley had driven the No. 51 Ford to an apparent 17th-place finish in the race, matching his season-best result. He will instead be relegated to last place in the 39-car field and will collect last-place points in the revised finishing order.
The penalty also dropped Haley from what would have been a 26th-place ranking to 31st in the Cup Series standings.
Haley is in his first year with the Rick Ware-owned organization after spending the last two Cup Series seasons with Kaulig Racing.
AUSTIN, Texas — Christopher Bell had a late-race charge for the ages in Sunday’s EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix at Circuit of The Americas. If the race was one lap longer, there’s a high probability the No. 20 team would have been celebrating in Victory Lane.
With stage break cautions returning at COTA for the first time since 2022, Bell and his crew chief Adam Stevens pondered the idea of staying out to collect stage points if the opportunity arose. Instead of making three pit stops over 68 laps, the strategy would be to stretch the fuel tank as far as possible, making one less trip to pit road. It would also mean that pitting late in the final stage would mean Bell had the freshest tires for the sprint to the finish.
The latter strategy panned out. Coming to Lap 13, when the pits closed until the conclusion of the opening stage, the front two runners of William Byron and Ty Gibbs came to pit road, handing the lead to Bell. The No. 20 team won its second stage of the season and gained 10 points, minimizing the loss if the two-stop strategy went awry.
“We took the points in Stage 1 and then we didn’t see another caution,” Bell said. “We talked about it all week. If we were going to jump the stages or not and we decided that if we had the opportunity to win the stages, we would take the points.”
The No. 20 team was expecting more cautions to help trim the distance he trailed to the frontrunners. As he battled through the field, he sent Kyle Larson around on Lap 21. On Lap 40, it was Kyle Busch who went around off his front bumper in Turn 1. That led to a heated discussion from Busch, his former boss in the Craftsman Truck Series and teammate at Joe Gibbs Racing, who stormed up to Bell after the race.
“The Larson deal, that was totally on me and I had no intentions of spinning Kyle out,” Bell said. “Kyle Busch, he opened his entry way up into Turn 1 because they were side-by-side, and I ran my normal line on the bottom and wasn’t planning on passing him. He tried to do the crossover and I was underneath him. Obviously, I didn’t mean to spin him out at all. I will reach out to him and talk to him whenever we’re a little bit cooled off.”
After Bell made his final pit stop on Lap 49, he was north of 10 seconds behind Byron, who cycled back to the front of teams that pitted. Bell erased the gap quickly, first passing Ross Chastain before tracking down his Toyota teammate Tyler Reddick. Next up was Alex Bowman, and then he hustled to Ty Gibbs’ back bumper. With two laps remaining, Bell was still 2.4 seconds behind Byron for the race lead.
Byron could see Bell getting larger in his rearview mirror.
“I mean, it was just trying to not make mistakes,” Byron said of seeing Bell close the gap. “I felt like I made a lot of micro-errors in the last 10 laps. I have to calm down a little bit, look back at those 10 laps and think about what could I do better in the car to stay mentally locked in and not get flustered by the mirror, seeing him closing in a braking zone.
“He definitely had fresher tires. I’m sure that helped a little bit.”
When the white flag flew, Bell was 1.7 seconds back. He chopped another second off, but his Herculean effort came up seven-tenths of a second short of winning his second race of the young 2024 season.
“This thing was amazing,” Bell said. “Super, super fast and proud to have a nice, solid race.”
By scoring 45 points — the second-highest total at COTA — Bell jumped a spot in the regular season championship standings to seventh, 38 points behind Martin Truex Jr.’s lead.
The strategy call, though, Bell believes may have cost him the race, noting: “Ultimately, I think that’s why we didn’t win.”
What to watch for:
