Christopher Bell’s runner-up result led six Toyotas among the top 10 finishers on Sunday in Phoenix.
NASCAR
Bell, who led a race-high 176 laps and won Stage 2, just missed out on his third straight Phoenix Raceway spring race victory, coming home second in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race. A late-race caution and differing strategies shuffled the field with fewer than 30 laps remaining, leaving the Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) driver just short of the victory.
“If we had more green flag laps, I think we could have made a run at him (Ryan Blaney),” said Bell. “I don't know. You win some, you lose some. This one stings, but on the positive side I'm really proud of our entire team. The pit crew did amazing. Adam (Stevens, crew chief) brought an amazing car. Our mechanics, engineers did really good. It's something to build on. I don't know. It was a day that we needed. We got a lot of stage points, finished second. Yeah, just bummed whenever they get away like that.”
- Christopher Bell
Ty Gibbs (fourth) and Denny Hamlin (fifth) helped Toyota place three drivers among the top five finishers Sunday afternoon. Bubba Wallace (sixth), Tyler Reddick (eighth) and Erik Jones (10th) propelled drivers from all three Toyota teams — JGR, 23XI Racing and LEGACY MOTOR CLUB — inside the top-10.
JGR drivers Taylor Gray (15th), Brandon Jones (16th) and Brent Crews (18th) recorded top-20 finishes in Saturday night’s NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race.
Crews and Gray ran consistently inside the top-10 throughout the night, but an incident with 27 laps remaining caused damage to Crews, Gray, Jones and JGR teammate William Sawalich. The damage to all four cars was enough to take them out of contention for the win.
ARCA
Thomas Annunziata brought home a third-place finish to lead Toyota in Thursday evening’s ARCA Menards Series race at Phoenix. Jake Bollman (sixth), Taylor Mayhem (seventh) and Max Reaves (ninth) finished inside the top 10. Carson Brown was the race winner. Bollman is the series points leader after two races.
WHAT’S NEXT
NASCAR finishes off its West Coast swing as it heads to another desert location – Las Vegas Motor Speedway. On Saturday, March 14, the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts takes center stage from Las Vegas at 5:30 p.m. ET on CW. The NASCAR Cup Series closes the weekend from Las Vegas with their race on Sunday, March 15, at 4 p.m. ET on FS1.
The GR Cup Series begins its 2026 season with two races this weekend at the inaugural Grand Prix of Arlington in Arlington, Texas. Race 1 begins at 12:20 p.m. EST on Saturday, March 14, with Race 2 at 9 a.m. EST on Sunday, March 15. Both races can be viewed live on GRCupSeries.com/watch-live.