The NASCAR Cup Series visited the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, on Sunday afternoon in the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix. 23XI Racing driver Tyler Reddick started the race on the pole with his teammate Bubba Wallace starting in the second position.
On the opening lap, Ross Chastain charged into Turn 1 hitting Chase Elliott causing him to spin and leading to the other drivers trying to avoid him. Unfortunately, Todd Gilliland, Denny Hamlin, Tyler Reddick, and Connor Zilisch were involved with Hamlin sustaining left front damage and Zilisch suffered a flat right front tire. Despite the chaos, Reddick held onto the lead over Bubba Wallace.
During stage one, Tyler Reddick led the opening eight laps before Shane van Gisbergen passed him for the lead on the ninth lap. Gisbergen led nine laps until pitting in the closing stage. Bubba Wallace took the lead and went on to win Stage 1.
In Stage 2, Shane van Gisbergen was the leader. He led 11 laps in the second stage. The other drivers who led laps were Kyle Busch (10), A.J. Allmendinger (1), and Ryan Preece led three laps to win the second stage.
In the final stage, there were two cautions. The first happened on lap 51 when Daniel Suarez and Connor Zilisch made contact at Turn 19 and on lap 79 involved Austin Dillion and Denny Hamlin at Turn 6. In the closing laps, Kyle Busch was the leader fending off Christopher Bell. Bell was patient waiting for the right time to pass Busch. Meanwhile, William Byron and Tyler Reddick closed in to make it a four-way battle for the lead.
Busch used up his tires and lost the lead to Bell with Byron taking second and Reddick third. Byron gave it his best shot but Christopher Bell held on to win his second race of the season by .433 seconds over William Byron. Bell led the final eight laps to win the race. It was Bell’s eleventh career win and his first win at Circuit of the Americas.
The rest of the top ten finishers were Tyler Reddick third, Chase Elliott fourth, Kyle Busch fifth, Shane van Gisbergen sixth, Chris Buescher seventh, Noah Gragson eighth, Alex Bowman ninth, and Todd Gilliland tenth. There were four cautions for 15 laps and 20 lead changes among nine drivers. Kyle Busch led the most laps in the race (42).
The Cup Series heads to Phoenix Raceway next Sunday at 3:30 pm on FS1 for the Shriners Children’s 500. Purchase NASCAR Cup Series tickets today at StubHub.
