Kyle Petty believes he’s found the secret to Christopher Bell’s success at Phoenix Raceway over the weekend.
First, the NBC analyst prefaced his theory via Kyle Petty’s Hot Take, heaping some praise on Bell’s performance throughout the afternoon in the desert, where he took home his first win of 2024.
“Phoenix is over. Vegas is over. The West Coast swing is over. They’re home and they’re unpacking. So let’s unpack what happened yesterday at Phoenix,” Petty started. “We saw a great performance by Christopher Bell and the Toyota teams. I believe anytime you have a change in the rules and a change in the package, one of the manufacturers steps up their game. Toyota stepped it up yesterday. And the guy that stepped up was Christopher Bell.
“He starts at the back. He drives his way to the front by the end of the second segment. He wins the second segment. He goes and takes it away. He wins that segment. A slow pitstop drops him back, and what’s he do? He drives his way back to the front. Now he’s not passing lapped cars. He’s not passing slower cars. He’s passing the competition. He’s passing the guys that matter. He drives to the front. And once he gets there, he doesn’t look back. It’s his race. At different times, we talked — or we heard talk that it was Tyler Reddick, and it was Denny Hamlin. Those were the two best cars. But the best car all day long was the No. 20.”
So how did Bell’s team have his car dialed up to perfection? Petty believes a testing session from December was what led Bell’s squad to greatness at Phoenix.
“It was because he had been out there to test before. I believe that’s part of it,” Petty added. “I’ve got to say that, and I know a lot of people don’t want to hear that. In December, they had a test. Five teams went out there to test. One of them, Christopher Bell. One of them, Chris Buescher. One of them. Erik Jones, and we saw Jones have a phenomenal qualifying effort. We saw Chris Buescher drive his way to the front with RFK, and drag his teammate Brad Keselowski along with him. And we saw Christopher Bell pass, pass, pass.
“That’s one thing I want to reiterate about this package, we saw passing yesterday, and I think we’re gonna see it at a lot more tracks this year than we did last year. If you don’t believe me, and you don’t believe it’s possible, just watch the tape from yesterday of Christopher Bell.”
That’s makes sense after watching Christopher Bell put on a show on Sunday. We’ll see if he can carry his momentum from Phoenix into Bristol this weekend, and beyond that into some more wins for the No. 20.