Christopher Bell had the losing hand at Las Vegas Motor Speedway for the second consecutive NASCAR Cup Series playoff race.
Bell, just like a year ago, was running down the race leader at the end of Sunday’s race but came up short. He dominated the afternoon for 155 laps led and a stage win, but Joey Logano and the No. 22 team rolled the dice and won at Bell’s expense. Logano jumped the field by his team playing the fuel mileage game.
“I definitely feel like I executed my race, our team executed our race, and it just wasn’t meant to be today,” Bell said. “That’s a dagger. That’s more of a dagger than last year.”
There wasn’t much more Bell could ask for over the final stint. The final caution of the South Point 400 flew with 75 laps to go and Bell kept the race lead on and off pit road, but he wound up being one of a handful of drivers who was brought to pit before the end of the race to ensure making it on fuel.
Bell pitted from the race lead with 38 laps to go. Logano took the lead with five laps to go; Bell had reached third place by then. The gap was 2.6s, and it was under a second at the white flag.
“They got on me with probably 15 laps to go and said we can’t afford to have any loss of time and I didn’t feel I gave up any chunks of time,” Bell said. “I felt like all the lapped traffic was pretty respectful and I was able to get through pretty good.”
There was no accounting for Logano having a teammate behind him. Ryan Blaney, the reigning series champion who was multiple laps down from an incident earlier in the day, helped Logano get to the race lead and then trailed his teammate to the finish. At that point, it didn’t matter how much time was left or how fast Bell was coming when he felt Blaney was playing defense.
“It was going to take the right move to get by him, but we had, what was it, 30, almost 40 lap newer tires than him and clearly a lot more pace than what he had at that time,” Bell said. “I just didn’t get there in 267 laps, though.”
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Blaney, however, saw things differently. He resented any suggestion he was blocking or doing anything to help Logano’s effort.
“[Bell] didn’t get to me until the last corner,” Blaney said. “I don’t know what [makes] you think I’m blocking him. I’m running the top. I’m not taking anyone’s air away. He should have maybe gotten to the [No.] 22 quicker; he would have been able to pass me pretty easy. But he was half a lap too late.”
Bell conceded it was fair game and credited Blaney with doing as much. Logano’s win and Blaney’s disappointing day not only put them on opposite ends of the cutline but created a big gap in points for the remaining seven drivers.
However, it still left Bell feeling disappointed, and also having a bit of deja vu.
“I lost an Xfinity race here — I think it was 2019 — in literally the exact same way where the yellow flag comes out on the outside of the window, I’m leading the race and have to make a pit stop, and someone in the back stretches,” Bell said. “I’ve seen it before, and I couldn’t believe it. When we went green, Adam [Stevens] told me that we were four or five [laps] short, and nobody topped off, so I didn’t think there was a chance anyone could make it at that point. Then he keyed up and said a couple of them are trying to stretch it, and I’m like, well, surely, they’re going to run out, right?
“They did not run out.”
Bell sits the highest above the cutline of the drivers without a victory. He is 42 points to the good going into the second race in the round.
“It’s a positive, but nothing is guaranteed in this sport,” Bell said. “We watched Justin Allgaier have a 40-something point lead going into Bristol and lose the regular season championship. Nothing is guaranteed except a win. A win is guaranteed.
“We had a win right at our fingertips.”
