Richard Petty

Here’s another Toyota race winning weekend and what a sensational drive Christopher Bell has pulled off against both Chevys in William Byron and Kyle Busch right there & never looked back on his second race win of the new year with 6 laps to go on the final stretch at COTA.

Looks like he’s the early favourite tipped to be the next first-time champion at the No.20 Gibbs Camry even though there’s a whole lot of other races to get through after three weeks of 36 or 37 if you count the All-Star non-points weekend.

And yes for Legacy Motor Club, it may not have been the best weekend, especially when racing on a road course & also in qualifying where they rolled off at the back. But at least both cars came home all in one piece with #43 Erik Jones in 27th while #42 John Hunter Nemechek benefitted some yellows to gain some track position there & he finished 22nd – imagine what could happen if JHN started  a bit further afield with a fighting chance.

Still lots of time though as he’s been happy with the team’s good progress as of late with first two races being Top 10 & sure he will make it three out of four before he’ll be running after a Top 5 very soon.

Fantastic to hear another Legacy Motor Club Top 10 run of 2025 this time at Atlanta Motor Speedway (Race 2/36) by John Hunter Nemechek – who endured a decent No.42 Toyota Camry all afternoon from 22nd to staying right in between Top 10-15 for the most part even though there were multiple yellows where he had the chance at one stage up front – and there goes his solid result for crew chief Travis Mack & his crew on pit road and garage.

Yes, the real test does begin other than the unpredictable restrictor plate races like Daytona 500 last week as he’s 100% right post-race. It goes to show how competitive this can be when going after the regular front-runners for race wins that isn’t Daytona or Talladega but they are getting there though race after race.

You can see how the 77 Spire’s Carson Hocevar was oh so close there particularly at the final restart after he finished 2nd as sure he can go one better sooner rather than later that can mean anything including the Playoffs later this year.

Although unlucky for Erik Jones there in the other Legacy No.43 Camry when he was taken into the wall midway through Stage 2 – wasn’t a team-mate crash though as this was committed by the No.17 Chris Buescher from Ford’s RFK Racing.

But still not a bad weekend to keep themselves through the field from LMC and also Team Toyota in general with Christopher Bell being the 2nd early winner of 2025 for the No.20 Gibbs camp.