Christopher Bell couldn’t hide his disappointment after recording his fourth second-place finish this year, making him the only Joe Gibbs Racing driver who has yet to visit victory lane this season.
“Toyotas are fast. It seems like a monkey can drive them, so it’s just disappointing when you get beat by another monkey,” Bell said after his loss to JGR teammate Chase Briscoe at Chicagoland Speedway.
Briscoe defeated Bell by 0.276 second for his first victory this year and the sixth of his career. Bell’s teammates Ty Gibbs and Denny Hamlin have recorded one and four victories, respectively, this season.
Bell made his final pit stop with 49 laps remaining in the 267-lap event, two laps after Briscoe, but he could never get close enough to attempt a pass on his teammate.
“He blocked me and… took my line away and that was that,” said Bell, who’s still nursing a broken left wrist. “Needed to have a little bit more time and it would have been nice to have some open track, but it just didn’t work out with the lapped traffic in there.”
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Christopher Bell.
Bell said he needed to replay the race’s final green flag run, which began on lap 173, to determine what he could have done different.
“I was soft on my green flag entry for sure, which gave up a little bit of time,” Bell said. “So, just need to go back and study that green flag cycle on how I lost so much time to the first couple of cars.”
Bell was third with 40 laps remaining but had moved into second with 10 laps to go, 1.444 seconds behind Briscoe. With five laps remaining, Bell had cut the deficit to 0.547 second, but he could never get close enough to attempt a pass for the lead.
Historical night for Toyota
For the first time in Toyota history, the manufacturer had seven cars place in the top 10 in Chicagoland Speedway’s eero 400.
Prior to Sunday night’s race won by Joe Gibbs Racing’s Chase Briscoe, Toyota had placed six drivers in the top 10 in a Cup Series race eight times—Phoenix (March 2026), St. Louis (September 2025), Darlington (August 2025), Kansas (May 2022), Watkins Glen (August 2017), Pocono (July 2017), Charlotte (October 2012), and Dover (September 2012).
Briscoe’s JGR teammates Christopher Bell and Denny Hamlin made it a 1-2-3 finish for the organization, marking the eighth time it has swept the top three positions and the second this year with the other coming last month at Nashville.
The other Toyota drivers finishing in the top 10 were Bubba Wallace in sixth, Ty Gibbs in eighth, Corey Heim ninth, and Riley Herbst 10th.
In the In-Season Tournament, Briscoe, Hamlin, and Bell advance to next weekend’s third round at EchoPark Speedway in Atlanta.
Reddick loses ground to Hamlin
For the second straight week, mechanical issues have adversely affected Tyler Reddick’s bid for the regular season championship.
Early in the season, Reddick appeared unstoppable as he took more than a 100-point lead, winning five of the first nine races. However, at Sonoma his Toyota suffered power steering issues and at Chicagoland Speedway a piece of debris pierced the radiator. His team replaced the damaged radiator, but Reddick was 29 laps down when he returned to the race and eventually finished 36th in the 38-car field, 30 laps behind winner Chase Briscoe. Reddick has earned only four points in the last two races and now trails Denny Hamlin by 44 points.
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“Just back-to-back weeks of kind of uncertain things,” Reddick said.
Reddick said whatever he ran over “absolutely destroyed the radiator and the oil cooler.”
Just before the incident occurred on lap 133 of the 267-lap race, Reddick said he felt he was just starting to get his car’s handling turned around.
“We’ve got all the right things we need to succeed,” Reddick said. “We’ve just got to survive some of these races.”
Gilliland biggest upset in In-Season Challenge
In Todd Gilliland’s matchup with Carson Hocevar in the In-Season Challenge, the Front Row Motorsports driver pulled off the biggest upset and will advance to the third round at EchoPark Speedway at Atlanta.
Gilliland finished 16th at Chicagoland Speedway, while Hocevar placed 22nd. Hocevar’s Spire Motorsports Chevrolet was damaged on lap 36 of the 267-lap race when he tangled with Zane Smith.
In other matchups, Alex Bowman’s fifth-place finish allowed him to eliminate Austin Cindric, who placed 13th.
Chase Briscoe’s victory allowed him to send last year’s winner Ty Gibbs packing. Gibbs finished eighth.
Chase Elliott, with his 11th-place finish, eliminated Michael McDowell, who placed 29th.
Erik Jones, with a 15th-place finish, was eliminated by Denny Hamlin, who finished third.
Bell’s second-place finish allowed him to eliminate Chris Buescher, who placed 19th.
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Kyle Larson, getting a tow.
William Byron eliminated Hendrick Motorsports teammate Kyle Larson with his best race this season. Byron won the race’s first two Stages and was the top lap leader for the first time this season, leading 94 laps, en route to a fourth-place finish. Larson spun on lap 93, his car became stuck in the muddy front stretch apron, and it had to be pulled out of the mud. He finished 34th, two laps down.
Ryan Blaney advanced, finishing ahead of Shane van Gisbergen in their matchup. Blaney placed seventh, the only Ford in the top 10, while Van Gisbergen took 25th.
Zilisch’s frustrating season continues
Connor Zilisch knew his first NASCAR Cup season would be tough, but he’s experienced frustrations he never anticipated.
In the eero 400 at Chicagoland Speedway, Zilisch was eliminated from the event on the first lap. The field had just exited turn two when Erik Jones bumped Ryan Preece, sending him into Zilisch who was in the inside lane. Zilisch spun and hit the inside wall head-on. That left Zilisch with a last-place finish in the 38-car field.
Zilisch has now failed to finish seven of this season’s first 19 races and he has recorded nine finishes of 30th or worse. His lone top 10 came at Sonoma where he placed seventh.
A North Carolina native, Deb Williams is an award-winning motorsports journalist who is in her fourth decade covering auto racing. In addition to covering the sport for United Press International, she has written motorsports articles for several newspapers, magazines and websites including espnW.com, USA Today, and The Charlotte Observer. Her awards include the American Motorsports Media Award of Excellence, two-time National Motorsports Press Association writer of the year, and two-time recipient of the Russ Catlin award. She also has won an award in the North Carolina Press Association’s sports feature category. During her career, Deb has been managing editor of GT Motorsports magazine and was with Winston Cup Scene and NASCAR Winston Cup Scene for 18 years, serving as the publication’s editor for 10 years. In 2024 she was inducted into the NMPA Hall of Fame.