[autotag]Christopher Bell[/autotag] unloaded as the best car during practice at Iowa Speedway, but he blew a tire in the middle of the session. Bell was forced to start in the rear with a backup car and clawed his way to the top 4 spots before NASCAR threw a questionable caution. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver lost all of his track position and had to push again for a fourth-place finish.
Following the event, Bell spoke about his fourth-place finish at Iowa with Jayski and while he was proud about the No. 20 team’s resiliency throughout the weekend, there was mixed emotions about his day.
“A top five is a good day,” Bell said. “Obviously, we had pace to be a lot better than that, so that’s why I’m sitting here mixing emotions. Great effort, and if we keep bringing cars like that, hopefully it will be our day one of these times. It was a rocket ship on the long run. Everything I needed. I don’t know how much faster I was, but I couldn’t see the leaders and then all of a sudden, I could see them later on.”
Bell likely would have been in a better position to win without the sketchy caution by NASCAR and if he wasn’t forced to start in the rear. Yet, it is good that Bell is disappointed with a fourth-place finish in a backup car. The No. 20 team has a very high ceiling and the speed has been fantastic lately. Bell is starting to heat up with summer underway and more wins are likely coming.
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