Bell collects first victory at Bristol
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| Christopher Bell, driver of the #20 Rheem Toyota, celebrates in victory lane by placing the Winner's sticker on his car after winning the NASCAR Xfinity Series Alsco 300 |
Christopher Bell overtook Brandon Jones with less than 20 laps remaining to capture Saturday’s Alsco 300 NASCAR Xfinity Series race and pocketed a $100,000 bonus for his efforts.
Bell, driver of the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, was one of four drivers competing for the series’ Dash 4 Cash bonus. Other eligible drivers didn’t finish far behind – Tyler Reddick finished second, Chase Briscoe finished fourth and Michael Annett wound up eighth.
“That’s pretty cool to get my first win here with the Dash 4 Cash bonus," Bell said in Victory Lane. “Joe Gibbs Racing has a really, really good package at Bristol. For whatever reason, we struggled to find that. I didn’t feel good basically all practice and didn’t qualify good.
“As soon as they dropped the green flag for the race, I was really, really loose. But the longer the runs went the better I got."
Third place went to Cole Custer while John Hunter Nemechek rounded out the top five.
Reddick, piloting the No. 2 Chevrolet out of the Richard Childress Racing shops, was second in both the first and second stages en route to his runner-up finish.
After leading 61 laps, he mistakenly thought the first stage had ended, and the hesitation while still under green allowed Justin Allgaier to shoot past for the stage win.
Reddick shadowed Allgaier for the entire second stage, only to finish second, then lost five spots on pit road due to a problem in the pits. Late contact with the wall wasn’t an issue, he said, as he tried to chase down Bell.
“Not necessarily getting into the wall," he said. “These composite bodies are just as durable as can be. I just needed a little bit more there to get past Christopher.
“The unfortunate part is when I got behind him it is hard to make the pass."
Allgaier (JR Motorsports No. 7 Chevrolet) won two stages and led 138 of the race’s 300 laps. But during a heated battle up front among himself, Bell, Reddick and Custer, Allgaier’s entry began to slow. Moments later he was pulling his blue and white entry behind pit wall, the victim of an apparent engine issue.
CHRISTOPHER BELL, No. 20 Rheem Toyota Supra, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 1st
Could you have scripted the win any better?
“I don’t know man. That’s pretty cool. To get my first win here with the Dash 4 Cash bonus. Thank you to Xfinity for doing that and more importantly thank you to Rheem, Ruud, everyone at Toyota, TRD (Toyota Racing Development), everyone at Joe Gibbs Racing. These Supras are super, super fast. Joe Gibbs Racing has a really, really good package here at Bristol, but for whatever reason we struggled to find it. I didn’t feel good basically all of practice and didn’t qualify good and as soon as they dropped the green flag for the race I was really, really loose. The longer the runs went, the better I got. I’m just very thankful to be here at Joe Gibbs Racing driving for such a wonderful team."
Talk about that battle you had going on in the last stage.
“It was tough. I knew that if it would stay green I’d have a better shot because this thing was really good on the long run. The yellow came out with 35 (laps) to go and I was like man, if I can get the lead off pit road I think I can hold them off and then Brandon (Jones), my teammate, got out there on old tires and was doing a really good job. Ultimately I was okay with that because I was still in the spot for the one hundred grand and then he started fading and my car started coming to me and I felt really good."
Your pit crew really delivered this race.
“They’ve been taking care of us. We’ve had fast race cars every single week. My guys on pit road have been outstanding. It seems like week in and week out, every stop they’re able to pick us up a couple of spots. That’s huge. That’s really huge."
How does it feel to hold a check for $100,000?
“It feels really good. Cardboard checks are my favorite trophies. I’ve got a couple of them from the dirt races, but none of them say a hundred grand so that’s pretty cool."
Was the most nerve-wracking part of the day the restarts for you?
“This thing was just really, really loose on taking off. Obviously it was really, really good in the long run and that’s what we needed. We needed a 35-lap run car and the longer that thing was going to go the better off we were."
Tell us about those last 25 laps.
“The last 25 (laps) were really probably some of the calmest laps I had out there except I was pretty loose. The longer we ran, my car just kept getting better and better and better. That was kind of the motto of our weekend. We never really fired off super fast but over the long run we were really, really good especially when the top came in. The Supra was rolling around there really nice."
Is it more rewarding to come back from the pack and be strong at the end of the race?
“Vegas and Phoenix I was really, really fast early and I didn’t finish good. It was good to have a race where we finished and capitalized on that. Really even the first run of the race I got mired back in traffic, but I was faster than everybody that I was around. I knew our pit crew was really good and was just trying to take care of my car. We were kind of in a hornet’s nest there and there were a bunch of opportunities that I had to make moves on guys whenever I was back in that seventh to 10th range but I decided not to just because I didn’t want to crash. It’s pretty easy to make it three wide on somebody and if you make it three wide, you’re either going to complete the pass or you’re going to crash. One or the other. There were just a bunch of opportunities like that going through lap traffic that man, it was right there and I could’ve done it but I decided not to just because I knew that there was a lot of race left, my pit crew is going to help me out and we had a really good car. Getting stuck in the back like that at the beginning of the race, I wasn’t too concerned about it. Once we got up front, obviously this Supra was really, really fast on the long runs. I was a little bit nervous when we had that yellow with 30 (laps) to go because I didn’t know if that was going to be enough time and then it worked out perfect with our teammate staying out. I was able to get cleared up behind him (Brandon Jones). He did a great job on older tires, but for him to win the race with that old of tires was going to be pretty difficult."
What are you going to do with the $100,000 Dash 4 Cash bonus now that you have it in your hands?
“I don’t know. I need to look and see how much I get of it first. I don’t know. I’m definitely going to have a sprint car at some point so it’ll probably go to that."
Are you surprised it took you this long to win at Bristol Motor Speedway given how good you are on short tracks?
“Obviously you want to win them all. In trucks I struggled here. I never really had a truck race where I was competitive, so that being aside I’ve had three Xfinity races now. The first race last year I was really, really competitive before crashing and then the second race I was close. I ran second. No, I’m not really surprised that it took me that long to win. It’s definitely a race track that I really enjoy. It’s probably P1 on my favorites list."
What are your plans for the sword trophy? It’s pretty iconic.
“It’ll go up with my other trophies. I love that thing man. Jason’s (Ratcliff) had one sitting in his office ever since he moved to the Xfinity shop so I’ve been looking at that sucker for a year and half now and now I get my own."
Can you take us through the winning move when you passed Brandon Jones?
“He (Brandon Jones) did a great job. He really did. This place for whatever reason suits his driving style. He should’ve won this race last year. He was really, really good. He did a good job on the restart getting out front there. He just couldn’t quite hang on, on those older tires. As my air pressures built up, I was able to kind of run him back down. He just wasn’t good enough to hold me off. I knew I was going to have to do kind of the slide job and then hopefully take the top away which I was able to do."
How encouraged are you to qualify for the Dash 4 Cash at Richmond Raceway too?
“I love going to Richmond. It’s really not one of my favorite race tracks. For whatever reason it fits our cars and our cars are really, really fast there. It’s good. I haven’t seen the driver lineup for the Dash 4 Cash there, but obviously wining both the races there gives me a lot of confidence. I have a lot of confidence going in there and I’m liking the way this Dash 4 Cash deal works. If you run well, you’re able to continue on."
JASON RATCLIFF, crew chief of No. 20 Rheem Toyota Supra, Joe Gibbs Racing
From the crew chief perspective what kind of calls were you making and what was going through your mind as the race was winding down?
“After practice yesterday Christopher (Bell) and I were talking about it, I think this is the best that I’ve seen the track as far as the top lane and the bottom lane and the parity between the both and allowing the guys to race and work through lap traffic. I think it made for a great race today. Whatever the application was they did on the bottom and the tire that Goodyear brought, I thought this was one of the better Bristol races in a while. They’re all good. Don’t get me wrong, but I thought this was a good one for sure."
What measures did you take to get the car balanced for the final segment?
“It was hard to tell how our car was going to stack up in the first stage because we were – as Christopher (Bell) mentioned we were kind of back in traffic the whole time. At the end of the second stage he drove it back up through there and I think we finished third. At that point the car was really quick. We didn’t want to do too much to it. We knew that at that point it was fast enough to win and we didn’t want to spend any extra time on pit road. This is a track that – and I just came in from outside – it’s pretty warm out there. As much rubber is on this race track, it changes pretty quick especially at the end of these races. Sometimes you can have the best car at one point in the race and if you don’t go the right direction or you go too far then you put yourself with a fifth-place car. We made some small adjustments to try to tighten it up at the end but we didn’t do a lot to it."
What do you like about having a driver like Christopher Bell?
“He likes to win. I think that’s what I enjoy the most. He’s super talented obviously. I think everyone saw another example of that today. That keeps myself and the team motivated, driving forward and putting the long hours in because we know when we get to the race track, he’s going to get in there and wheel that thing. He’s just a great guy on and off the race track. We really enjoy working with him and obviously winning is fun too."