Tag: Joe Gibbs Racing

Joe Gibbs Racing labeled as landing spot for big NASCAR sponsor in 2025

Joe Gibbs Racing has been labeled a landing spot for a big NASCAR sponsor in 2025. Which big NASCAR sponsor could move to Joe Gibbs Racing?

[autotag]Joe Gibbs Racing[/autotag] has been at the center of the NASCAR sponsorship conversations since the 2022 season. The NASCAR Cup Series organization had to deal with Mars’ departure from the former No. 18 team, while FedEx’s involvement with Denny Hamlin has decreased over the years. However, Joe Gibbs Racing could be on the receiving end of a sponsorship departure.

According to Sports Business Journal’s Adam Stern, several industry sources have labeled Joe Gibbs Racing as a possible destination for Kroger in 2025. This comes after Tad Geschickter, a co-owner at JTG Daugherty Racing, started working with Joe Gibbs Racing to sell sponsorship through his Brand Activation Maximizer agency.

Geschickter is a co-owner with Chevrolet while selling sponsorship with Toyota. Most notably, according to Stern, Geschickter has “close ties” with Kroger. If Joe Gibbs Racing were to exclusively acquire Geschickter and Kroger, it would be massive for its sponsorship needs. Kroger could be on the move, and Joe Gibbs Racing might be the landing spot.

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Almirola claims emotional Xfinity victory at Martinsville

With a dramatic victory Saturday night at Martinsville Speedway, Aric Almirola removed an asterisk from his career record and collected a $100,000 Dash 4 Cash bonus in the process. With considerable help-perhaps unintentional-from Joe Gibbs Racing …

With a dramatic victory Saturday night at Martinsville Speedway, Aric Almirola removed an asterisk from his career record and collected a $100,000 Dash 4 Cash bonus in the process.

With considerable help—perhaps unintentional—from Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Sheldon Creed after an overtime restart, Almirola grabbed the lead from Sam Mayer and won the DUDE Wipes 250 under caution when Riley Herbst, pole winner Brandon Jones and Ryan Ellis wrecked in Turn 2 on the final lap.

 

The victory was Almirola’s first since retiring from full-time NASCAR Cup Series competition and rejoining Joe Gibbs Racing this season. The record book will show that the driver of the No. 20 JGR Toyota has five NASCAR Xfinity Series wins to his credit, but Almirola has always considered his first one tainted.

In 2007, he won the pole at the Milwaukee Mile and started the race but turned the car over to Denny Hamlin, who was late in his commute from a Cup date at Sonoma Raceway. Hamlin won the race, but Almirola got credit for the victory as the driver of record.

“Man, this is so awesome,” Almirola said. “To win for Joe Gibbs Racing… I’ve had an asterisk next to a win for Coach (Joe Gibbs) for 17 years, and this is so awesome to finally put a real win banner up inside the shop at Joe Gibbs Racing.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you, Coach for calling me and giving me this opportunity to have some fun and still scratch the itch of racing but still get to spend a lot of time with our family.”

Though Almirola led 148 of 251 laps, the outcome was in doubt until he took command after the final restart. Race runner-up Sam Mayer held the lead at that point, but when Almirola’s JGR teammate Sheldon Creed took Almirola and Mayer three-wide in Turn 2 on the penultimate lap, contact slowed Mayer’s progress and allowed Almirola to break clear for the lead.

“Man, those restarts here are just ruthless,” said Mayer, who wrested the top spot from Almirola on lap 243, moments before a five-car pileup on the frontstretch caused the 10th caution of the race.

“Painful. Obviously, the No. 20 was really, really good today. It was good that I was able to keep up and be as fast as them and pass all those JGR cars there at the end and march up to the front. That’s the first time I’ve done that here…

“But at the end of the day, we needed a ‘W,’ and I got one I feel like stolen from me there a little bit.”

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Mayer’s pass on lap 243 was one of four lead changes over the final 12 laps. On lap 239, JGR’s Chandler Smith, who started from the back of the field after crashing in practice on Friday, muscled past Almirola, who returned the favor by moving his teammate into the top lane for a pass on lap 241.

“Chandler, I felt like used me up pretty good, so when I got back to him, I was going to make sure he knew it,” Almirola said. “From there the race was on. Mayer did a great job of getting to me and moving me out of the way.

“And then on that restart I knew it was going to be tough. I was really thankful to be able to hold on to it. They drilled me in the left rear, and I was able to hold on to it and get a good run off (Turn) 2.”

Smith ran third, followed by Carson Kvapil, who finished fourth in his Xfinity Series debut. Justin Allgaier came home fifth after starting from the rear. Creed, Sammy Smith, Cole Custer, Sunoco rookie Jesse Love and Josh Williams completed the top 10.

New Zealander Shane van Gisbergen was 11th in his first trip to Martinsville.

Almirola won the Dash 4 Cash bonus as the highest finisher among four eligible drivers. Since he is not competing at Texas next weekend, the four Dash 4 Cash drivers in Fort Worth are Mayer, Smith, Allgaier and Creed.

RESULTS

Taylor Gray to run five more Xfinity races for Joe Gibbs Racing in 2024

Taylor Gray will run five more NASCAR Xfinity Series races for Joe Gibbs Racing after making his debut at Richmond Raceway in 2024.

[autotag]Taylor Gray[/autotag] made his NASCAR Xfinity Series debut with [autotag]Joe Gibbs Racing[/autotag] at Richmond Raceway, and the results exceeded expectations. Gray came home with a third-place finish, as Toyota Racing had a 1-2-3-4 finish. Gray’s teammates Chandler Smith and Aric Almirola were the only drivers to finish ahead of him.

The full-time NASCAR Truck Series driver was announced as a part of the driver lineup before the new campaign, but there is now a firm number of starts for 2024. According to FOX Sports’ Bob Pockrass, Gray has six Xfinity Series starts with Joe Gibbs Racing during the 2024 season. After Richmond, he will have five more starts with the organization.

It is unclear if Joe Gibbs Racing has every race filled for its seats in 2024; however, Gray’s performance at Richmond could make him a candidate for more races if needed. The TRICON Garage driver has a lot of talent, and Joe Gibbs Racing has realized it. Gray is only 19 years old, but his future with Joe Gibbs Racing is bright if he keeps bringing home good finishes.

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Hamlin ruffles feathers en route to hometown win at Richmond

Denny Hamlin’s No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing team gave him a clutch pit stop to emerge with the lead out of the pits and then he was able to hold the advantage on a two-lap overtime shootout to claim the Toyota Owners 400 victory Saturday night at his …

Denny Hamlin’s No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing team gave him a clutch pit stop to emerge with the lead out of the pits and then he was able to hold the advantage on a two-lap overtime shootout to claim the Toyota Owners 400 victory Saturday night at his home track, Richmond (Va.) Raceway.

It was Hamlin’s 53rd career NASCAR Cup Series win, second of the season and his fifth victory at the three-quarter mile Richmond oval – a 0.269s margin of victory over Team Penske’s Joey Logano. And it came at the expense of his JGR teammate Martin Truex Jr. who finished fourth despite leading a dominant 228 of the race’s 407 laps.

“This was a team win for sure,” said Hamlin, who led 17 laps on the night. “Each one of these pit crew members just did an amazing job; they’ve been killing it all year.

“Such a great feeling when you can come in and have a pit crew like that.”

It was a certainly a frustrating ending for Truex, who had been out front 54 consecutive laps in his No. 19 JGR Toyota when a caution flag flew with only two laps of regulation remaining. On the ensuing pit stop, Hamlin beat him off pit road and Truex was unable to take the lead back in that final two lap run, ultimately getting passed by Logano for second and polesitter Kyle Larson for third.

 

“It’s unfortunate, but it’s happened a few times over the years,” Truex said. “We were in a great spot and had a great Auto Owners Camry all night long and the guys did a really good job. Just got beat out of the pits and then he [Hamlin] jumped the start and just used me up in Turn 1.

“Definitely sucks. Another car capable of winning. We’ll just have to come back next week and try to get one.”

The silver lining for Truex is that he still holds the championship lead by 14 points over Larson, who had a busy ending to the race. Contact between Hendrick Motorsports’ Larson and 23XI Racing’s Bubba Wallace brought out the final yellow flag to force the first overtime period for a NASCAR Cup Series race this season.

Larson was still able to come out fourth place on the pit stop and challenge for the win, although he and Truex banged doors in the closing laps fighting for position.

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“My pit crew did a really good job to get us off pit road and get us those spots to restart fourth and gain one more,” Larson said. “I’ll take third after what could have been a lot worse there on the front stretch. Proud of the HendrickCars.com team.

“It was a good weekend for us, winning the pole, winning a stage and getting back to third. Happy about that.”

As for the late race contact between him and a frustrated Truex, Larson said, “I think he was just mad. He was mad the No. 11 [Hamlin] used him up on the restart and that’s probably where it really started from.

“I think he was more mad at Denny but I was the closest one for him to take his anger out on,” Larson added with a smile.

Larson’s Hendrick teammate – and fellow front-row starter – Chase Elliott finished fifth.

Joe Gibbs Racing’s Christopher Bell, Hendrick’s William Byron, RFK Racing teammates Brad Keselowski and Chris Buescher and 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick rounded out the top 10. Stewart-Haas Racing’s Josh Berry finished 11th, having run in the top 10 most of the night, and Wallace, who also ran top 10 most of the race, finished 13th after that late race contact with Larson.

Of note, with the track still damp from afternoon showers, the field started the race on wet weather tires. NASCAR threw a competition caution at lap 30, bringing the cars down pit road for a mandatory change to racing slicks. Cars returned to the track in the order they were running at the time of caution. The move to use the wet weather tires allowed the race to start only a few minutes late and was widely praised.

The NASCAR Cup Series moves to another short track challenge next Sunday with the Cook Out 400 (3 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway. Larson is the defending race winner.

RESULTS

C. Smith cruises to Xfinity win in an all-Gibbs podium at Richmond

Chandler Smith led a Joe Gibbs Racing sweep at Richmond (Va.) Raceway Saturday afternoon cruising to a 4.495s victory over teammates Aric Almirola and Tanner Gray in the ToyotaCare 250 NASCAR Xfinity Series race. It marks back-to-back wins in this …

Chandler Smith led a Joe Gibbs Racing sweep at Richmond (Va.) Raceway Saturday afternoon cruising to a 4.495s victory over teammates Aric Almirola and Tanner Gray in the ToyotaCare 250 NASCAR Xfinity Series race.

It marks back-to-back wins in this race for Smith – answering his first career Xfinity Series victory last Spring – and he led the final 60 laps in the No. 81 JGR Toyota, 76 laps on the day for his third career win, second of the season. It was his teammate Almirola, who won both stages and led a race best 95 of the 250 laps in his No. 20 JGR Toyota, but the former full-time NASCAR Cup Series driver ultimately could not catch Smith, who pulled away in the closing laps.

“Never give up, never give up,” said Smith, who has top-10 finishes in all six races this year. “This car was not good. Stage 1 wasn’t good, but we were able to do some strategy there with this No. 81 Supra in Stage 2.

“Back here winning races on a consistent basis and took over the points lead too, I’m just blessed,” he added.

 

For his part, Almirola acknowledged he just didn’t have what he needed to catch the 21-year old Georgia-native in the closing laps. He’ll have another chance at victory next week as he’s in the car again at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway.

“We just got a little bit too loose,” Almirola said. “The run before that in Stage 2, when I took off my car was really, really good. At the end, it just felt a little tight and that last run, for whatever reason, different set of tires or what, I let Chandler go and when I started to just creep back to him, I didn’t have anything to go with.

“I was too loose in and couldn’t get throttle down on exit. Hate that to win both stages and feel like we had the dominant car, and then to let it slip away there at the end is disappointing.”

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The JGR team can also take pride in its third-place finish – considering it was the 19-year old Gray’s series debut. NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series full-timer Corey Heim was fourth followed by series rookie Jesse Love.

It was also a big outing for renowned late model racer Bubba Pollard, punctuating his series debut with a sixth-place finish in the No. 88 JR Motorsports Chevrolet – particularly impressive considering Pollard started 37th.

“I just got behind in qualifying there and it made for a long day,” Pollard said. “But these guys gave me a great race car, JR Motorsports.

“I needed that long green flag run just to get in a rhythm. This place is tough, it’s technical and probably one of the toughest places I’ve been to, and I’ve been to a lot of places.

“I’m happy with it. I enjoyed it and had fun and hopefully the fans enjoyed it too.”

Big Machine Racing’s Parker Kligerman, Richard Childress Racing’s Austin Hill, JR Motorsports Sammy Smith and reigning series champion Cole Custer rounded out the top 10. The 20-year old Parker Retzlaff, who won his first career pole position Saturday, finished 16th in the No. 31 Jordan Anderson Chevrolet and led a career high 27 laps.

With their work, Smith, Almirola, Love and Kligerman have qualified for next week’s Dash 4 Cash event at Martinsville Speedway, and the highest finisher of the four Dash 4 Cash drivers in the race will collect an extra $100,000 bonus.

With the win, Smith takes a 10-point driver standings lead over Hill to next Saturday’s DUDE Wipes 250 (7:30 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). John Hunter Nemechek is the defending race winner.

RESULTS

Bell and JGR have a Richmond win squarely in sight

Christopher Bell was plenty happy to talk about all things Richmond Raceway for multiple reasons Saturday. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver attracted a crowd when he entered the media center. Bell was the other player in the highly publicized pit road …

Christopher Bell was plenty happy to talk about all things Richmond Raceway for multiple reasons Saturday.

The Joe Gibbs Racing driver attracted a crowd when he entered the media center. Bell was the other player in the highly publicized pit road confrontation at Circuit of The Americas when Kyle Busch marched to his car to give him an earful about their contact on the racetrack. After Busch had earlier visited with the media, sharing his side of their phone conversation earlier this week, Bell knew the questions were coming.

The first two questions were indeed about Busch. The third shifted the conversation to the Virginia short track.

“And we’ve got the first winner that’s a non-Kyle question,” Bell quipped.

The change in topic had Bell eager to talk about something else, and do so with a smile on his face and enthusiasm in his voice. Richmond is a place Bell loves to compete at twice a year, and the betting favorites for Sunday night’s Toyota Owners 400 are Joe Gibbs Racing drivers.

“I just like driving for JGR here,” Bell said. “Their resume speaks for itself and the cars are super, super fast. This is arguably JGR’s best racetrack, so I just love going to racetracks where I know I’m going to have a shot at it.”

Of the active tracks on the Cup Series schedule, Joe Gibbs Racing has been the most successful at Richmond. Gibbs has won nine of the last 16 races in Virginia, and the 18 total they have celebrated through the years are the most for the organization at any racetrack.

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“It feels like this is JGR’s playhouse,” Bell said.

Although Bell has not contributed to those Cup Series victories, he does have an average finish of 7.7 at Richmond Raceway in seven starts. In a five-race stretch between 2021 and 2023, Bell finished no worse than sixth at Richmond with a runner-up effort in the summer of 2022. He’s led 99 laps at the track.

Sunday is an opportunity for Bell and the No. 20 team. With one check mark already notched in the win column, the hunt is on for more and the valuable playoff points that come with the accomplishment. Bell and his group aren’t tracking how the competition stacks up with playoff points, but he knows how many he has and that the long runway ahead offers more.

The long season and its many points available also means trying to keep up the same pace, and Bell doesn’t want to look too far ahead lest he veer off the right path. The good news is that Bell is driving cars right now that he described as the strongest he’s ever had in his Cup Series career.

“For me, I just focus on the task at hand,” he said. “I try not to look at the big picture and just focus on what’s coming up this week, and this week we’ve got a great racetrack for myself at Richmond and a great racetrack for our team, and a place that should suit our new car. With all those combined, you need to make the most of it.

“Whenever we go to another place in the future that might not be [our] place, the mentality’s going to be a little bit different. Definitely, here at Richmond, we have winning circled, and that’s what we want to do … whenever we think we have everything lined up to do it.”

Bell needed a Byron mistake in order to make a run for COTA win

Christopher Bell was fast enough to erase a 9s deficit in the final stint of Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Circuit of The Americas, but he also needed a little fortune to take the victory. Bell and the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing team finished …

Christopher Bell was fast enough to erase a 9s deficit in the final stint of Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Circuit of The Americas, but he also needed a little fortune to take the victory.

Bell and the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing team finished second to William Byron in the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix. Pitting for the final time under green with 20 laps to go, Bell cycled out in sixth position, 9s behind the lead. He took third with seven laps to go, now 5.6 seconds behind, and took second with three laps to go.

The gap was 2.7s when he took second place. At the white flag, his Camry was 1.7s behind Byron.

“Obviously, when I got close to him, it was going to be tough to pass him,” Bell said. “I needed a couple of mistakes. William has been really, really good on the road courses, and he was flawless when it mattered today.”

Bell felt at least one more lap would have put him even closer to Byron, but there was no guarantee he would overtake the Hendrick Motorsports driver.

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“It seems like another lap and I would have got there for sure with our DEWALT Camry,” Bell said. “Passing was going to be a little more difficult and I needed him to make a mistake.”

Byron was the dominant car Sunday, leading the most laps (42) from the pole. Bell, however, led nine laps and won the first stage as the team kept to a two-stop strategy.

While the day ended on a high note, it wasn’t smooth for Bell, who spun two of his competitors. The first was contact with Kyle Larson on lap 21.

“I completely take ownership of [that],” Bell said. “I’m completely sorry about that and had no intention of that.”

Bell’s second incident came in the final stage when he got into former teammate Kyle Busch. After the race, Busch confronted Bell on pit road.

“The Kyle Busch incident was a little bit different [from Larson] because I wasn’t trying to make a move or pass him,” Bell said. “He opened his entry up because he was too wide, and I was obviously under him when he came down. I had no intentions of spinning him out at all.”

Gibbs looking to ride the hot streak wave on COTA’s twists

If everything is bigger in Texas, Ty Gibbs hopes his NASCAR Cup Series hot streak reaches its crescendo this weekend with his first career victory. Gibbs is third in the championship points standings and leads the series with four top-10 finishes in …

If everything is bigger in Texas, Ty Gibbs hopes his NASCAR Cup Series hot streak reaches its crescendo this weekend with his first career victory.

Gibbs is third in the championship points standings and leads the series with four top-10 finishes in five races. His average finish is 8.8, second only to Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Martin Truex Jr. at 8.6. Truex is a spot ahead of Gibbs in the points standings.

“It’s been great,” Gibbs said. “It’s just been really good. My team has been doing a really good job. We are working really well together. I’ve been having a lot of fun racing in the Cup Series. It’s really cool.”

Circuit of The Americas, the first road course race of the Cup Series season, is a welcome sight for the 21-year-old. He earned four road course wins in the Xfinity Series and has shown similar strength in the Cup Series so far. Last year, Gibbs finished ninth at COTA.

“We’ve been really strong,” Gibbs said. “I feel like last year, we were really good at the road courses. Indy – we were really fast, but we never got a caution again. We’ve been really good at the road courses; just have to hit it right, hit the right thing and then hopefully that will lead to more success.”

“It started on sim racing with my buddy, Austin Green,” Gibbs said about his road course speed. “He’s actually in the Xfinity Series race this weekend for his first time. We would always do those joint sessions together and practice. It could be in any different car. It could be dirt racing, asphalt racing, ovals or road courses – we were always really fast, and he was always just a little bit better than I was, so that is what helped me.

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“Studying it and then having off-seasons to do something else, and not having to race all of the time – I think those are all things that I can say led to my success on road courses. It was the Xfinity Series, not the Cup Series yet. We are still working on that.”

Gibbs qualified second Saturday afternoon at COTA, the second time he’ll start on the front row in three weeks. He entered the weekend having led 194 laps in the last two races (Phoenix Raceway and Bristol Motor Speedway).

“It’s really cool,” Gibbs said. “I’ve been going to Bristol since I was a young man. I’ve been there a lot, so to be able to lead laps like I did last year in the night race is really cool. It’s a place that is really special to me.

“It is fun to come run laps there, but at the same time, we are working hard and having fun. We are going there to do the best we can, and if we can’t do the best we can, then we are looking to finish the best that we can.”

Gibbs has six career top-five finishes in 56 starts. A second-place finish at Phoenix Raceway earlier this month was the first time he’s been the runner-up in a Cup Series event.

Hamlin’s veteran savvy masters tire wear chess match at Bristol

How appropriate. On a day where tire management was the essential element in a NASCAR Cup Series race, three veterans swept the podium positions, with Denny Hamlin winning Sunday’s Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway. In a race that produced 54 …

How appropriate.

On a day where tire management was the essential element in a NASCAR Cup Series race, three veterans swept the podium positions, with Denny Hamlin winning Sunday’s Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway.

In a race that produced 54 lead changes—a record for Cup Series short tracks—Hamlin lost the lead briefly to Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Martin Truex Jr. in the closing laps but regained it in traffic and beat Truex to the finish line by 1.083s.

In a return to concrete after three straight spring races on dirt, Hamlin won his second straight race at the 0.533-mile speedway and his fourth overall, second most among active drivers to Kyle Busch’s eight.

The victory was the 52nd of Hamlin’s career, 13th all-time, and his first this season.

But the story was the tires and the mysterious way they behaved in a race that saw the track start to eat through to the cords 45 laps into a green-flag run.

 

Goodyear brought the same tire that ran without issues in last fall’s night race, but on Sunday, the concrete surface did not take rubber. Instead, marbles (small balls of rubber from degraded tires) accumulated high in the corners, making the top of the track untenable.

There were two variables that might have helped to account for the tire issues. The temperature was roughly 10-15 degrees cooler than it was for last year’s night race, which was run on Sept. 16.

NASCAR also opted for a different resin the bottom lane from the PJ1 traction compound previously in use.

Whatever the cause, with his short-track background, Hamlin was best equipped to deal with the surprising situation.

“That’s what I grew up here doing in the short tracks in the Mid Atlantic, South Boston (Va.), Martinsville,” said Hamlin, who grew up in Chesterfield, Va. “Once it became a tire-management race, I really liked our chances.

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“Obviously, the veteran in Martin, he knew how to do it as well. We just had a great car, great team. The pit crew just did a phenomenal job all day. Can’t say enough about them… Man, it feels so good to win in Bristol.”

Truex passed Hamlin for the lead in traffic on lap 483 but surrendered the top spot to the race winner one lap later, as the teammates worked around slower cars. Truex’s tires gave up the ghost on the last few circuits, as Hamlin pulled away.

“Apparently, that’s what I needed to have happen here at Bristol to have a shot at winning—I guess this tire management thing fit into my wheelhouse here at Bristol,” Truex said.

“Man, the difference was just coming out of the pits so far behind Denny (after green-flag pit stops during the final run). I had to use mine up more on the last run. The last four, five laps of the race was cord.”

Hamlin led a race-high 163 laps, as the four JGR drivers spent a combined 383 of 500 laps at the front field, with Ty Gibbs leading 137, Truex 54 and Christopher Bell 29.

Brad Keselowski, a three-time winner at the track, finished third, 7.284s behind Hamlin. Hendrick Motorsports drivers Alex Bowman and Kyle Larson were fourth and fifth, respectively, as only five drivers finished on the lead lap.

The last time five or fewer drivers finished on the lead lap was the June 6, 2004 race at Dover.

John Hunter Nemechek, Chris Buescher, Chase Elliott, Gibbs and Bell came home sixth through 10th, respectively.

Larson and Truex leave Bristol tied for the series lead, passing defending series champion Ryan Blaney, who finished 16th.

RESULTS

Bell’s Phoenix win ‘momentous’ for Toyota – TRD’s Wilson

Any questions or concerns about the Toyota teams evaporated in the Phoenix desert Sunday afternoon. Christopher Bell’s victory in the NASCAR Cup Series race capped off a dominating day for the manufacturer. Bell led 50 laps en route to winning, the …

Any questions or concerns about the Toyota teams evaporated in the Phoenix desert Sunday afternoon.

Christopher Bell’s victory in the NASCAR Cup Series race capped off a dominating day for the manufacturer. Bell led 50 laps en route to winning, the first for Joe Gibbs Racing and Toyota in 2024. Chevrolet already swept the first three races.

Bell, though, was just one of five Toyota drivers who spent time in the front, along with polesitter Denny Hamlin, 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick, Martin Truex Jr., and Ty Gibbs — all combining to lead 298 of 312 laps.

“This was a momentous win,” Toyota Racing Development president David Wilson said. “This was the first win with our new Camry body. I was clear to say at the beginning of the year that we have struggled here recently. I didn’t realize this statistic until it was brought to my attention, but the four previous Phoenix races, Toyota’s led a combined 15 laps.

“Today, we led everything but 14 laps. That’s a credit to the Joe Gibbs organization, TRD USA, Calty Design, who helped us with this new Camry body. At the same time, I will say that the secret to longevity in sports — in motorsports — is never get too high when the day goes your way, and never get too low when it doesn’t, because we’re going to be racing again next week. Phoenix will be in our rearview mirror.”

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Four Toyota drivers finished inside the top 10 at Phoenix Raceway, led by Bell’s win. Hamlin and Reddick tied for a race-high 68 laps led.

Hamlin was taken out of contention when he spun on lap 215 while battling for the lead with Reddick. He finished 11th. As for Reddick, he never made it back through the field after pitting under the final caution (for Hamlin) while nine other drivers stayed out, and ultimately finished 10th.

Reddick, however, earned the first stage win for Toyota at Phoenix. Hamlin earned the manufacturer’s first pole during Saturday’s qualifying session.

“It was unprecedented how much TRD USA and Joe Gibbs Racing worked together on that body,” Wilson said. “I may have said, because I say this all the time — you don’t race wind tunnels, you don’t race dynos. You could be the best on paper, but unless you have the talent behind the steering wheel and the team and the pit crews to put an entire race together, the rest is meaningless.

“Certainly, what we’ve seen four races in validates a lot of our optimism, but we have a whole lot of racing to go — more intermediates, more big tracks, and short tracks to truly evaluate where we are.”

Through four races, Cup Series teams have competed at two superspeedway drafting tracks (Daytona and Atlanta), an intermediate (Las Vegas), and a short track (Phoenix), with another short track coming next week when the series heads to Bristol. The final puzzle piece — a road course — is just two weeks away at Circuit of The Americas.