Tag: Christopher Bell

Christopher Bell talks about winning the 2024 Coca-Cola 600

Christopher Bell talks about winning the 2024 Coca-Cola 600. Find out what Bell said about his first Crown Jewel victory!

[autotag]Christopher Bell[/autotag] had one of the best cars during the 2024 Coca-Cola 600. Bell drove through the top 10 spots in Stage 2 to win the playoff point. Then, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver held off Brad Keselowski in Stage 3 until the rain arrived. It seemed that NASCAR would restart the event; however, it was called at 11:30 p.m. ET, giving Bell his first career Coca-Cola 600 victory.

Following the event, Bell spoke about winning the Coca-Cola 600. While it wasn’t in a conventional way, it was still well deserved as the driver of the No. 20 car led the most laps and held off Keselowski.

“I knew there was going to be a chance of it,” Bell said. “Can the boys in the booth hear me right now? I’m literally on the couch like half asleep, and we’re going through this “Radioactive” stuff, and I am already like mentally prepared to go racing.”

“Then all of a sudden we come on, we see [Mike Joy], [Kevin Harvick], and [Clint Bowyer] in the booth, and I’m like, wait a minute, what’s going on, they start talking, and I’m like, what? Then the phone goes off and say they called it. What a twist of emotions. I have never been through that emotion swing before like that in my life.”

Bell has been through a rough stretch of races, but winning the Coca-Cola 600 is precisely what the No. 20 team needed. Sure, NASCAR may not have run 600 miles, but Bell had one of the best cars. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver needed something to go his way, and winning a Crown Jewel event will surely start the process of more success.

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Christopher Bell wins the 2024 Coca-Cola 600, full results and race recap

Christopher Bell wins the 2024 Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Check out the full results and race recap from the Coke 600!

The NASCAR Cup Series arrived at Charlotte Motor Speedway for one of its Crown Jewel events but didn’t even make it 400 miles. The weather that hit the Indianapolis 500 made its way to the Coca-Cola 600 and shorted the race. NASCAR tried to dry the track but the high humidity and a possible restart time after 1:00 a.m. ET made the sport call the event.

[autotag]Christopher Bell[/autotag] won the 2024 Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte on Sunday night. Bell won Stage 2 and proceeded to hold off Brad Keselowski at the beginning of Stage 3. Shortly after the start of Stage 3, NASCAR called a caution for rain and a red flag for lightning. What was expected to be a restarted event turned into a 375-mile race at Charlotte.

Nonetheless, Bell has won his first Coca-Cola 600, representing his first Crown Jewel victory. The driver of the No. 20 car led the most laps and won Stage 2, so it is well deserved. After a rough stretch of races, this is exactly what Bell and the No. 20 team needed.

2024 Coca-Cola 600 results:

  1. No. 20 Christopher Bell
  2. No. 6 Brad Keselowski
  3. No. 24 William Byron
  4. No. 45 Tyler Reddick
  5. No. 11 Denny Hamlin
  6. No. 54 Ty Gibbs
  7. No. 9 Chase Elliott
  8. No. 1 Ross Chastain
  9. No. 48 Alex Bowman
  10. No. 4 Josh Berry
  11. No. 23 Bubba Wallace
  12. No. 19 Martin Truex Jr.
  13. No. 5 Justin Allgaier
  14. No. 22 Joey Logano
  15. No. 8 Kyle Busch
  16. No. 34 Michael McDowell
  17. No. 38 Todd Gilliland
  18. No. 31 Daniel Hemric
  19. No. 43 Erik Jones
  20. No. 2 Austin Cindric
  21. No. 77 Carson Hocevar
  22. No. 51 Justin Haley
  23. No. 17 Chris Buescher
  24. No. 99 Daniel Suarez
  25. No. 14 Chase Briscoe
  26. No. 41 Ryan Preece
  27. No. 3 Austin Dillon
  28. No. 16 Shane van Gibsergen
  29. No. 84 Jimmie Johnson
  30. No. 42 John Hunter Nemechek
  31. No. 47 Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
  32. No. 21 Harrison Burton
  33. No. 71 Zane Smith
  34. No. 15 Kaz Grala
  35. No. 7 Corey LaJoie
  36. No. 50 Ty Dillon
  37. No. 66 B.J. McLeod
  38. No. 10 Noah Gragson
  39. No. 12 Ryan Blaney
  40. No. 44 J.J. Yeley

Bell wins rain-shortened Coca-Cola 600

A lightning delay that turned into a heavy rainstorm made a winner of Christopher Bell in Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Not that Bell didn’t deserve the victory in the rain-shortened race, which NASCAR was forced to call after …

A lightning delay that turned into a heavy rainstorm made a winner of Christopher Bell in Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Not that Bell didn’t deserve the victory in the rain-shortened race, which NASCAR was forced to call after 249 of 400 laps were complete.

The driver of the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota started third, led a race-high 90 laps and won the second stage of the 14th NASCAR Cup Series race of the season.

The decisive juncture in the Memorial Day weekend race came when Bell held off Darlington winner Brad Keselowski during a 10-lap run after a caution for Corey Lajoie’s spin in Turn 2 on lap 229.

 

On the ensuing lap 236 restart, Bell and Keselowski lined up side-by-side at the front of the field, with Bell prevailing and pulling out to a lead of roughly six car-lengths before NASCAR called the seventh caution for lightning in the area.

After the lightning came heavy rain, and though NASCAR attempted to dry the track when the rain subsided, heavy humidity thwarted efforts to do so in a timely manner.

As a result, Bell collected his second victory of the season, his first on the 1.5-mile Charlotte oval and the eighth of his career.

The victory was a welcome momentum shift for Bell, who had finished outside the top 10 in five of his previous six races.

“Man, it feels so good—to win or lose—just to have a great race to go off of,” Bell said. “A race where we led laps. We were able to pass cars. We lost the lead at times and were able to drive back to the lead.

“We had great pit stops. It was a team effort, and it was amazing to have a good race. Hopefully, this is something we can build on and get back to being more consistent.”

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Keselowski, who posted his third runner-up finish of the season, was convinced he had the fastest car.

“We just didn’t have time for it to play out,” said the driver of the No. 2 Roush Fenway Keselowski Ford, who pressured Bell throughout the final 10-lap run before weather intervened.

Stage 1 winner William Byron ran third behind Bell and Keselowski, with Tyler Reddick and Denny Hamlin finishing fourth and fifth, respectively.

Pole winner Ty Gibbs finished sixth after leading 74 laps, including the first 42 of the race. Chase Elliott finished seventh, followed by Ross Chastain, Alex Bowman and Josh Berry.

After finishing 18th in his Indianapolis 500 debut, Kyle Larson arrived at Charlotte Motor Speedway just before weather forced the stoppage. Larson intended to take over his No. 5 Chevrolet from Justin Allgaier, who had started the race at Charlotte because the Indy 500 was delayed by rain.

Allgaier was running 13th when the race was called, and Larson never had a chance to drive the car.

Defending race winner and reigning series champion Ryan Blaney slammed the outside wall in the second stage and exited the event after 143 laps.

“We’ll have to look if I hit something or… I don’t know,” Blaney said. “I just went into [Turn] 3 getting up to speed and blew a tire and hit the fence. It’s an unfortunate end to our night. That sucks.

“We’re not even halfway and just wanting to work on your stuff all night. I thought we were getting it a little better here and there, but won’t get a shot.”

RESULTS

NASCAR qualifying results for 2024 All-Star Race, Pit Crew Challenge

Check out the NASCAR Cup Series qualifying results for the 2024 All-Star Race. Plus, the winner of the Pit Crew Challenge!

The NASCAR Cup Series arrived at North Wilkesboro Speedway for the 2024 All-Star Race, and the method for setting the starting lineup is unique. NASCAR qualifying took place on Saturday morning, including a Pit Crew Challenge to set the pole position for the 2024 All-Star Race. However, the rest of the drivers set the starting lineups for the heat races on late Saturday.

[autotag]Joey Logano[/autotag] won the pole for the 2024 All-Star Race. Brad Keselowski was the second-place driver but will have to earn his front-row start later tonight. Meanwhile, [autotag]Christopher Bell[/autotag]’s No. 20 team won the 2024 Pit Crew Challenge, pocketing $100,000 and the first pit box selection for the All-Star Race on Sunday night.

The full NASCAR qualifying results are available below.

NASCAR qualifying results for the 2024 All-Star Race:

  1. No. 22 Joey Logano
  2. No. 6 Brad Keselowski
  3. No. 20 Christopher Bell
  4. No. 99 Daniel Suarez
  5. No. 17 Chris Buescher
  6. No. 45 Tyler Reddick
  7. No. 1 Ross Chastain
  8. No. 19 Martin Truex Jr.
  9. No. 34 Michael McDowell
  10. No. 16 A.J. Allmendinger
  11. No. 11 Denny Hamlin
  12. No. 5 Kevin Harvick
  13. No. 24 William Byron
  14. No. 8 Kyle Busch
  15. No. 9 Chase Elliott
  16. No. 47 Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
  17. No. 12 Ryan Blaney

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Bell hoping Kansas pole marks the end of his run of frustrations

Christopher Bell first acknowledged how nice it was to have success Saturday at Kansas Speedway after winning the pole for the NASCAR Cup Series and then cracked a joke. “My name’s Christopher for those who have forgotten,” Bell said. The calendar …

Christopher Bell first acknowledged how nice it was to have success Saturday at Kansas Speedway after winning the pole for the NASCAR Cup Series and then cracked a joke.

“My name’s Christopher for those who have forgotten,” Bell said.

The calendar turning to May was a welcome sight for Bell because April was not kind for him and the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing team. Bell’s best finish in four races was a 17th place at Texas Motor Speedway, a race in which he spun on his own and backed his Toyota into the Turn 4 wall. The last two weeks, at Talladega Superspeedway and Dover Motor Speedway, Bell failed to finish.

So, re-introducing himself to the media was in jest after basically being out of sight the last four weeks. But in qualifying for the AdventHealth 400, Bell was on top of the board at Kansas Speedway with his second consecutive pole at the racetrack.

Bell leads the Cup Series in poles in the Next Gen era.

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“It’s nice to have success, but what happens on Saturday has no dictation of what happens Sunday,” Bell said. “We’ve got a great starting spot and we’re in prime position to win some stage points, but 267 laps is a long time. I fully believe that we can have a great race (Sunday) and fully believe I can be talking to all of you guys … after the race, too.”

Bell has a win (at Phoenix Raceway) and is locked into the postseason. The slide through April has no bearing on his playoff hopes, but the team is well aware of the points they have missed out on. Bell fell from sixth in the standings going into April to 17th ahead of the race at Kansas, which kicks off May.

“It just all has to come together and honestly at this point, I’m not looking for a win, guys,” Bell said. “I’m literally looking to see the checkered flag. I know my car has great capabilities. If I just see the checkered flag with a clean car, we’re going to have a solid day and that’s what we’re after.”

Bell romps to his first pole of the season at Kansas

Christopher Bell won the pole for the NASCAR Cup Series race at Kansas Speedway with a qualifying lap of 183.107mph (29.491s). It is Bell’s first pole of the season and third at Kansas Speedway, as well as the 11th of his career. “Qualifying on the …

Christopher Bell won the pole for the NASCAR Cup Series race at Kansas Speedway with a qualifying lap of 183.107mph (29.491s).

It is Bell’s first pole of the season and third at Kansas Speedway, as well as the 11th of his career.

“Qualifying on the intermediates has been really, really good for this whole team ever since the introduction of the Next Gen car,” Bell said. “I can tell you right now, I live for those moments where it’s just on the verge of holding your foot down. I’m pretty sure we talked before qualifying about how I was perplexed about the amount of off-throttle time they had, and there was more of what I was expecting.”

Ross Chastain qualified second with a lap of 182.704mph.

Noah Gragson qualified third at 182.451mph. It is the second time in two weeks Gragson has qualified inside the top five, and he improves upon his career-best qualifying effort of fifth place last weekend at Dover.

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Kyle Larson qualified fourth at 182.383mph and Kyle Busch qualified fifth at 182.070mph

Ty Gibbs qualified sixth at 181.745mph, Austin Cindric, seventh at 180.318mph, Michael McDowell, eighth at 180.959mph and Chase Elliott, ninth at 180.012mph. Chase Briscoe, who scrubbed the wall on his lap, completed the top 10 qualifiers at 175.919mph.

The defending race winner at Kansas Speedway, Denny Hamlin, qualified 14th. Tyler Reddick, who won the fall race at Kansas Speedway, qualified 15th.

Jimmie Johnson qualified 19th after picking up his pace from practice. It’s the first time in seven starts driving for Legacy Motor Club that Johnson will start inside the top 20.

William Byron hit and rode the wall in Turns 1 and 2 during his qualifying lap. It was significant contact for Byron, who immediately took his car to the garage. He qualified 36th of 38 drivers.

The green flag at Kansas Speedway is set to fly after 3 p.m. ET Sunday.

RESULTS

NASCAR starting lineup for AdventHealth 400 at Kansas in 2024

Check out the NASCAR Cup Series starting lineup for the AdventHealth 400 at Kansas Speedway this weekend!

Kansas Speedway is next for the NASCAR Cup Series, and Joe Gibbs Racing will lead the field to the green flag. [autotag]Christopher Bell[/autotag] won the pole for the AdventHealth 400 at Kansas this weekend. Ross Chastain will join Bell on the front row for Sunday afternoon’s event. It was an incident-filled session for drivers.

Noah Gragson and Kyle Larson will follow the two drivers on the second row. Most notably, Bubba Wallace, Ryan Blaney, Brad Keselowski, and William Byron all qualified 20th or worse for Sunday’s event. It was a straightforward qualifying session where Byron and Chase Briscoe scrubbed the wall during their attempts.

The full starting lineup is available below.

AdventHealth 400 starting lineup:

  1. No. 20 Christopher Bell
  2. No. 1 Ross Chastain
  3. No. 10 Noah Gragson
  4. No. 5 Kyle Larson
  5. No. 8 Kyle Busch
  6. No. 54 Ty Gibbs
  7. No. 2 Austin Cindric
  8. No. 34 Michael McDowell
  9. No. 9 Chase Elliott
  10. No. 14 Chase Briscoe
  11. No. 22 Joey Logano
  12. No. 17 Chris Buescher
  13. No. 19 Martin Truex Jr,
  14. No. 11 Denny Hamlin
  15. No. 45 Tyler Reddick
  16. No. 3 Austin Dillon
  17. No. 4 Josh Berry
  18. No. 48 Alex Bowman
  19. No. 84 Jimmie Johnson
  20. No. 43 Corey Heim
  21. No. 47 Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
  22. No. 77 Carson Hocevar
  23. No. 23 Bubba Wallace
  24. No. 71 Zane Smith
  25. No. 38 Todd Gilliland
  26. No. 12 Ryan Blaney
  27. No. 99 Daniel Suarez
  28. No. 7 Corey LaJoie
  29. No. 42 John Hunter Nemechek
  30. No. 6 Brad Keselowski
  31. No. 21 Harrison Burton
  32. No. 41 Ryan Preece
  33. No. 31 Daniel Hemric
  34. No. 33 Austin Hill
  35. No. 51 Justin Haley
  36. No. 24 William Byron
  37. No. 15 Riley Herbst
  38. No. 16 Derek Kraus

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Bell and JGR have a Richmond win squarely in sight

Christopher Bell was plenty happy to talk about all things Richmond Raceway for multiple reasons Saturday. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver attracted a crowd when he entered the media center. Bell was the other player in the highly publicized pit road …

Christopher Bell was plenty happy to talk about all things Richmond Raceway for multiple reasons Saturday.

The Joe Gibbs Racing driver attracted a crowd when he entered the media center. Bell was the other player in the highly publicized pit road confrontation at Circuit of The Americas when Kyle Busch marched to his car to give him an earful about their contact on the racetrack. After Busch had earlier visited with the media, sharing his side of their phone conversation earlier this week, Bell knew the questions were coming.

The first two questions were indeed about Busch. The third shifted the conversation to the Virginia short track.

“And we’ve got the first winner that’s a non-Kyle question,” Bell quipped.

The change in topic had Bell eager to talk about something else, and do so with a smile on his face and enthusiasm in his voice. Richmond is a place Bell loves to compete at twice a year, and the betting favorites for Sunday night’s Toyota Owners 400 are Joe Gibbs Racing drivers.

“I just like driving for JGR here,” Bell said. “Their resume speaks for itself and the cars are super, super fast. This is arguably JGR’s best racetrack, so I just love going to racetracks where I know I’m going to have a shot at it.”

Of the active tracks on the Cup Series schedule, Joe Gibbs Racing has been the most successful at Richmond. Gibbs has won nine of the last 16 races in Virginia, and the 18 total they have celebrated through the years are the most for the organization at any racetrack.

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“It feels like this is JGR’s playhouse,” Bell said.

Although Bell has not contributed to those Cup Series victories, he does have an average finish of 7.7 at Richmond Raceway in seven starts. In a five-race stretch between 2021 and 2023, Bell finished no worse than sixth at Richmond with a runner-up effort in the summer of 2022. He’s led 99 laps at the track.

Sunday is an opportunity for Bell and the No. 20 team. With one check mark already notched in the win column, the hunt is on for more and the valuable playoff points that come with the accomplishment. Bell and his group aren’t tracking how the competition stacks up with playoff points, but he knows how many he has and that the long runway ahead offers more.

The long season and its many points available also means trying to keep up the same pace, and Bell doesn’t want to look too far ahead lest he veer off the right path. The good news is that Bell is driving cars right now that he described as the strongest he’s ever had in his Cup Series career.

“For me, I just focus on the task at hand,” he said. “I try not to look at the big picture and just focus on what’s coming up this week, and this week we’ve got a great racetrack for myself at Richmond and a great racetrack for our team, and a place that should suit our new car. With all those combined, you need to make the most of it.

“Whenever we go to another place in the future that might not be [our] place, the mentality’s going to be a little bit different. Definitely, here at Richmond, we have winning circled, and that’s what we want to do … whenever we think we have everything lined up to do it.”

Busch will race Bell harder until ‘he concedes that he’s sorry’

Kyle Busch and Christopher Bell had a much calmer conversation in the days after the Circuit of The Americas race when on-track contact resulted in a post-race confrontation. That doesn’t mean it’s all been resolved between them yet, though. Busch …

Kyle Busch and Christopher Bell had a much calmer conversation in the days after the Circuit of The Americas race when on-track contact resulted in a post-race confrontation. That doesn’t mean it’s all been resolved between them yet, though.

Busch marched to Bell on pit road after last weekend’s race to express his displeasure with being spun by his former teammate in the second stage. The contact that took Bell’s Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota into the left rear of Busch’s Richard Childress Racing Chevy as he tried to get inside Busch in the sharp Turn 4 left-hander. Bell felt Busch had opened his entry into the corner and there was a lane.

The two spoke via phone earlier this week to come to an understanding. In the immediate aftermath, Busch did most of the talking — and finger animation — on pit road at COTA.

Busch said the phone call was “just to give more of my side than what I said on pit road (and) to have him (get) a greater understanding into my objectives and what I have going on, versus what he might think that he’s got going on,” the RCR driver said Saturday as the series shifts to Richmond Raceway. “I think he understood that. I heard his side of it and didn’t really believe much (of) it when I didn’t even give consideration to him making a move because he was four lanes back. Then all of a sudden, he was there.

“So, I knew he was back there but too far to do anything and I got hit. It is what it is.”

The two-time Cup Series champion said he’ll race Bell harder going forward. Or at least until it seems Bell has gotten the message.

“Run him harder for a little bit until he concedes that he’s sorry on the racetrack,” Busch said, “and then get back to normal.”

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Busch has been on the receiving end of contact with Bell at COTA twice, although he conceded the first one two years ago wasn’t necessarily Bell’s fault. It’s particularly frustrating, Busch also admitted, to have it happen with a former teammate and Kyle Busch Motorsports alumni.

“When you’re racing against guys that have come through KBM, and you’ve helped them along the way and you feel as though they’re taking that extra 10% rather than giving a little bit out of respect,” Busch said. “But everybody’s got their own race out there, and they try to do what they got to do. But, obviously, Christopher’s in really good stuff at a really good place, and he needs to understand that.”

Bell knew the questions about Busch were coming when he faced the media Saturday. When it was the first question, Bell smiled and joked, “Ding, ding, ding, we have a winner.” But he also seemed ready to move forward and prove there would be no lingering issues between him and Busch.

“I was surprised that he called me back,” Bell said. “I called him Monday and he didn’t answer, and I thought that was going to be the end of it and I was really happy that he called me back. It was a good conversation.

“We don’t have a lot of run-ins, but the two times that we have had run-ins, he’s been on the losing side of it. I’ll just race him with respect as I always try to, and it is what it is.”

Christopher Bell talks about spinning Kyle Busch, Kyle Larson at COTA

Christopher Bell talks about accidentally spinning Kyle Busch and Kyle Larson at COTA. Find out what Bell had to say about the incidents!

[autotag]Christopher Bell[/autotag] almost won the NASCAR Cup Series race at Circuit of the Americas, but he didn’t make friends along the way. Bell accidentally spun out Kyle Busch and Kyle Larson, which prompted frustration from his former NASCAR Truck Series owner after the event. For the No. 20 car, it was a second-place finish behind William Byron.

After the event, Bell was asked about incidents involving Busch and Larson. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver apologized but needed to see a replay of the incident involving Busch.

“Obviously, [Kyle Busch] is very upset, which he ended up turned around,” Bell said. “First off, I’m sorry to [Kyle Larson] and the 5 car. I got him earlier in the race and by no intention at all. I didn’t mean to do that.”

“K.B. is frustrated about what happened in turn one. I don’t know. They were two-wide going in there. I haven’t obviously seen a replay yet, but I had no intentions of turning him. I’m sure we’ll talk it out before the next race.”

Busch let his frustration known after the race at COTA, and Bell knows that something might be coming his way in return. Either way, the driver of the No. 20 car has shown a lot of speed in 2024. Bell is a weekly threat for the win, and despite the enemies made at COTA, he will look to win his second race of the year at Richmond Raceway this weekend.

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