Kyle Larson forced into NASCAR admission at | Sports News

Kyle Larson is backing Christopher Bell to be fast again at Las Vegas Motor Speedway next Sunday after his victory at Phoenix Raceway.

Bell finished ahead of Denny Hamlin in second and Larson in third in the Shriners Children’s 500 this Sunday to win his third consecutive NASCAR Cup Series race. The 30-year-old has become the first man to win three straight races in the Cup Series since Larson achieved the feat four years ago.

Back in 2021, Larson won at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Texas Motor Speedway, and Kansas Speedway to book his spot in the Championship 4. He then won the deciding race in Phoenix to claim his maiden NASCAR Cup Series championship.

While it’s still early in the campaign, Bell will be hoping to emulate Larson this season after winning three of the first four Cup Series races in 2025. The only other driver to taste victory this year is William Byron, who clinched the Daytona 500.

Larson asked for his thoughts on Bell’s success by FOX Sports after Sunday’s race. “First off, it’s extremely tough to win two in a row… for them to win three in a row is really impressive,” admitted Larson.

“Their team is just strong. Their race cars are really fast. Bell’s a phenomenal race car driver, obviously.  The more wins you get, the more confidence you – as well as your team – gets. He’s getting to go to Vegas, another track where he’s stupid fast at.

“What is it? Homestead after that? I don’t know where we go after Homestead, but I’m sure he’ll be fast there as well! It’s good too to get on a streak this early in the year… three of the first four! It just sets your season up in a good spot.”

Bell was understandably delighted with his latest win. He said on the track: “How about that one, race fans? Oh my gosh! 

“Whenever you’re sitting there dreaming it up, that’s about as ugly as it gets. You put the red (option) tires on, and you’re like, all right, what I don’t want to happen is go 20, 30 laps, get a yellow. That happened. Then we went 10 more laps, had another yellow.

“It was all about who could get clear on the restart. Neither of us could. We were racing really hard coming to the line. JGR ran 1-2 – how about that?”

Bell’s Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Hamlin added: “Great job by the Sport Clips team, it got better as it went. Pit crew did a phenomenal job keeping us in the game. We had a bad stop in the middle but made up for it in the end.

“(The end) was the first time we were able to get some clean air all day, and our car was really fast. I really wanted it to stay green because I thought that’s where we’d excel, especially on these tires. 

“We got a good restart – the 5 (Larson] really gave me a good push on the frontstretch and down the backstretch. I had position on the 20, but I knew he was going to send it in there if he could. We just ran out of racetrack. But great finish.”