William Byron, who topped the charts with six wins in 2023, proved he’s the king of the road at COTA by clinching the second race of the season. It was a first for Byron, winning a race right from pole position. But, it wasn’t a walk in the park. Hendrick Motorsports’ VP, Chad Knaus, spilled the beans in his post-race chat, saying Christopher Bell almost turned into a roadblock to Byron’s win.

William Byron appreciates Toyota’s pace

From the Daytona 500 to the Circuit of the Americas, despite the track’s hair-raising turns that could’ve easily led to chaos if the drivers hadn’t eased up just right, everyone behind the wheel did an impressive job from the get-go. William Byron won the pole position and was out in front for 43 of the 68 laps on this tricky 20-turn, 3.4-mile road course. The only times Byron wasn’t leading were when pit-stop strategies mixed up the pack. Christopher Bell, trailing by more than 15 seconds after his last pit stop, closed into just a half-second behind Byron by the race’s end. Given a couple more laps, Bell might have made a play for the top spot.

Hendrick Motorsports’ VP, Chad Knaus, didn’t hide his worries when it came to Christopher Bell closing in fast towards the race’s end. Asked about Bell catching up and potentially overtaking, Knaus admitted, “Oh obviously very concerned… You never know what can happen here one little slip-up and somebody can gain a second or two seconds on you pretty quickly. So he narrowed it and we saw that his pace was high. He hit a little bit later than what we did, so he had fresher tires. And we were watching it was closing, you know, but hey we got to buy a lot.”

Even #24 shared the same sentiments. “Yeah, (Bell) was really fast at the end. The Toyotas had the long run speed kind of all weekend, so for us, it was just trying to get a gap on the short run; manage our tires, and just kind of keep our car in a good spot. I definitely gave up a lot of time the last five laps, so we still have work to do,” Byron said after the win to the media.

And Knaus and Byron had every reason to be wary, especially since Bell had been aggressive right from the start, causing spins for both Kyle Larson and Kyle Busch.

Christopher Bell stirred up quite the storm by spinning Kyle Larson to climb up the ranks

While racing to a second-place finish, Christopher Bell from Joe Gibbs Racing’s #20 team shook up the scene by tangling with NASCAR Cup Series champs Kyle Larson and Kyle Busch. Midway through Stage 2, around lap 22, Bell nudged Kyle Larson right out of the top-5, causing Larson to drop from 5th all the way down to 35th for a bit. It was a real headache for the Hendrick Motorsports #5 crew.

Larson had been flying high in the top-5 from the get-go. Bell, on the other hand, was stretching his tires and fuel more than most. While jockeying for position, Bell clipped Larson on a turn.

Fast forward about 20 laps to lap 41, and Bell pulled a similar move on Kyle Busch, fighting for fifth. Busch, despite the spin in the last green-flag stage, pulled off a ninth-place finish. Not surprisingly, Busch wasn’t too thrilled, confronting Bell post-race to express his frustration. After the pit road chat with Busch, Bell seemed remorseful about the clashes and said he didn’t mean to spin either driver. He’s planning to clear the air with Busch before hitting Richmond Raceway next weekend.

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The real issue is Bell’s pattern this season of spinning others to advance. Take Bristol, for example, where he seemed to target William Byron in a similar fashion. Amid a race already complicated by tire problems, Bell seemed to single out another HMS driver. He bumped Joey Logano, who then nudged Byron into a crash, cutting his race short.

Now, the question is whether Bell will rethink this aggressive approach in the races ahead.