Is this "Back to the Future" or another Round of 8 opener at Las Vegas Motor Speedway? It certainly seems like Christopher Bell is Marty McFly because he's seen this story play out before.
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For the third season in a row, he had a car capable of winning the playoff race at the 1.5-mile Nevada track. Yet once again, he watched one of his competitors celebrate after they punched their ticket to the Championship 4 while he left disappointed in a podium finish.
This year, teammate Denny Hamlin celebrated win No. 60 of his Cup Series career and his first Championship 4 berth of the Gen 7 era.
"Kind of déjà vu as last year," Bell said on Sunday after finishing third. "Just we were off a little bit at the beginning of the race, obviously got going pretty good there the second half of the race.
"I felt like at the second half, I had what I needed to go out there and win. I just didn't do a good job on the restarts, didn't get through there. I don't know. Feels a lot like last year. Hopefully we can execute the next two a little bit better than last year."
Bell had a day full of close calls. He raced in the back half of the top 10 in the first two stages while accumulating nine stage points.
He had a solid car early, but he didn't fully have the speed to contend with Kyle Larson and William Byron as the Hendrick Motorsports drivers combined to lead 184 laps.
The situation changed as the race progressed, much like it did in past playoff appearances. Bell's team put him in position to contend for the win late. Although he had to avoid two separate wrecks before doing so.
The first wreck featured Byron hitting Ty Dillon from behind as the No. 10 drastically slowed to make a pit stop. Byron did not know that Dillon wanted to pit, and he did not have time to avoid a collision. Bell raced right behind Byron as this incident unfolded, but he avoided calamity.
Big trouble for the No. 24 of @WilliamByron! pic.twitter.com/I2fncPZeWW
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) October 13, 2025
The second incident occurred with 22 laps remaining. Ty Gibbs spun in the middle of three-wide while racing Shane van Gisbergen and Hamlin. This kicked off a multi-car incident that collected many other cars.
This incident unfolded directly in front of Bell, but he avoided it by going wide in the No. 20. He kept the Toyota clean and in contention for the win.
"That's just being fortunate, being blessed," Bell said while describing the Byron-Dillon incident. "They crashed. The sun is right there. There's tire smoke. I had no idea where any of 'em were. Just kind of prayed, hit the brake, tried to keep it as far left as I could. Fortunately we missed it."
Despite avoiding two different wrecks, Bell could not get his first win at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. He fell short for the third season in a row, but he moved to 20 points above the Championship 4 cutline.
Although this does not provide any comfort considering that Bell left Las Vegas last season in a solid points position only to miss the Championship 4 after a fourth-place finish at Homestead-Miami Speedway and a penalty at Martinsville Speedway.
"Yeah, I don't know, it literally feels like déjà vu," Bell said. "Yeah, proud of everyone on this Rheem team. We didn't get a Rheem win this year, but came really close. Guess we'll roll the dice at Talladega."
