"I had to redeem myself": Christopher Bell gets real on avoiding last year's mistake with Kyle Busch at COTA

Christopher Bell earned his second consecutive win of the season after passing Kyle Busch for the lead and fending off William Byron in the closing laps of Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Circuit of the Americas. After the race, Bell reflected on his battle with Busch for the lead and how important it was for him to redeem himself after last year’s COTA mistake with #8 driver.

Last year at COTA, Bell made contact with Busch in Turn and spun him out, which hindered #8’s race. After the race, both drivers had a heated argument, but he avoided repeating that error this time with a clean performance.

In the post-race interview with SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, Bell spoke about racing against the #8 in the closing laps and referred to a mistake he made at COTA last year, calling it an “oopsie.”

Bell said:

“Yeah. I mean, I just had to redeem myself from last year. Clearly, I, you know, I don’t, I try to race respectful. I think everyone in the garage by this point knows that I’m going to do it the right way. And last year was an oopsie on my part, and glad I didn’t do have the same thing.”

The fight for the lead at the end of the race was entertaining, with Christopher Bell taking on several challenges from Kyle Busch, Tyler Reddick, and last year's COTA winner Byron. He finally grabbed the lead from Busch in Turn 1 on Lap 91 of 95 and then held off Byron on the final laps to take his back-to-back win of the season.

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“We can win at any race track at any time” time”—Christopher Bell after COTA win

The 2025 EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix at COTA was his third out of his 11 career wins in the NASCAR Cup Series. He beats 2025 Daytona winner Byron to cross the finish line by 0.433 seconds. He has had an impressive season so far with two wins in three races.

Expressing his emotions after winning the COTA race, Christopher Bell said:

“It's pretty cool. I never in a million years would have thought that I would be sitting here with three out of my whatever, however, three out of 11, couple wins on road courses. But it's awesome. And I think it's a testament to this team. Just they, they have no weaknesses, and we can win at any race track at any time. And it's just, I'm really proud of, proud of these guys. You know, they they've been working hard to get here, and I feel like we've, we may have arrived, I don't want to speak too early, but doing good so far.”

With two wins in a row, Christopher Bell has locked his playoff spot and is 12th in the Cup Series points table.