Christopher Bell’s quest for a fourth straight NASCAR Cup Series win ended not with a bang — but with a penalty. The Joe Gibbs Racing star dominated headlines heading into Las Vegas until a loose wheel and a desperate pit-road gamble derailed his historic bid.
Instead of celebrating, Bell settled for a 12th-place finish. The culprit? A chain of errors that didn’t surprise him.
Christopher Bell’s Pit-Road Gamble Backfires in Las Vegas Chaos
Bell’s No. 20 Toyota started at the rear after a throttle body change, but by Stage 2, he had worked his way into contention. Then, disaster struck. A loose left front wheel forced crew chief Adam Stevens to make a split-second call: pit illegally in a teammate’s box or risk catastrophe.
Stevens ordered Bell to find an empty pit box to fix the wheel.
“I didn’t know if that whenever I got to any of the teammates’ box, I didn’t know where they were, and then if there was going to be a car in it or not,” Bell said.
i guess this is a first https://t.co/mTN1bqZqR3 pic.twitter.com/RsfYBjWTQQ
— Skid (@WhoisSkid) March 16, 2025
Then he spotted Chase Briscoe’s vacant No. 19 box, veered left, and dodged traffic. Briscoe’s crew tightened the wheel, but NASCAR penalized Bell for pitting outside his assigned stall, sending him to the rear again.
The mishap shattered his momentum. Bell, who had won three straight at Atlanta, COTA, and Phoenix, spent the rest of the race battling a car that swung between tight and loose. Restarts became nightmares.
“I feel like if we didn’t have the pit-road mishap, we would have been in contention,” he said. “Just going to the back to the front so many times, we just didn’t have it.”
Adam Stevens’ Calculated Risk and Bell’s Streak Ends
Stevens defended the risky pit move.
“We’ve discussed it before with NASCAR,” he said, referencing pre-approved teamwork protocols. “It’s a team sport.”
The decision saved Bell from a potential crash but cost him track position. Meanwhile, Bell narrowly escaped a four-wide melee involving Ryan Blaney, who later blasted Bell’s aggression on the radio.
“The f***ing 20 apparently just shoves it through the middle, doesn’t have any regard for anybody,” Blaney fumed.
Bell slipped through the chaos unscathed.
“They were right off my right-rear corner, so I didn’t see anything other than just in my mirror. I was the last one that kind of made it through there,” he said.
Christopher Bell didn't win his fourth consecutive race. But he did have a classic moment when he stopped in a teammates' box to tighten a lug nut so a wheel wouldn't come off. Bell on his 12th-place day: @NASCARONFOX pic.twitter.com/eUvG9qQApX
— Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass) March 17, 2025
After the race, Bell didn’t make excuses.
“It was just a bummer,” he said. “I thought that the performance in the car wasn’t what held us back.”
Bell’s 12th-place finish handed the points lead to William Byron, who now leads by 29. For Bell, the loss underscored NASCAR’s razor-thin margins. Three weeks of flawless teamwork had made history, but one loose wheel undid it all.
“Execution was not good on all fronts,” he said. “I knew we were going to lose at some point. You’re not going to win them all.”
As Josh Berry celebrated Wood Brothers Racing’s 101st win, Bell and his team were left reflecting. For now, the streak is over, but as Stevens noted, “We saved a bad day.”