Bell On Kansas Finish: ‘We Left It All On The Table’

Christopher Bell (20) battles Bubba Wallace for the lead Sunday at Kansas Speedway. (John Harrelson/Nigel Kinrade Photography)

KANSAS CITY, Kan. – It isn’t often that a driver ends up disappointed or frustrated finishing a race in third, let alone a playoff race where they exit with a bigger gap over the cut line than what they entered with.

But for Joe Gibbs Racing’s Christopher Bell, leaving Kansas Speedway with a third place finish Sunday wasn’t indicative of the strong day he had – which could have ended with a win if things had played out a bit differently.

Bell qualified his No. 20 Rheem Toyota Camry XSE in fifth, entering the Hollywood Casino 400 with a 29-point advantage on the playoff cut line after a sixth-place finish in the Round of 12 opener at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

The Norman, Okla., native held serve early, staying in the top five through the first run to green flag pit stops. A caution on lap 55 brought the field to pit road, where the No. 20 came off third with fresh tires and an adjustment to get his car loosened up.

The end of stage one saw Bell grab a fourth place finish, and then win the race off pit road ahead of the stage two restart by taking two tires. Bell retained the lead before a caution two laps after that restart, then held serve again in a battle with Kyle Larson when the next green flag waved on lap 95.

Bell maintained the lead as other drivers traded positions in the top five, though Denny Hamlin chased him down just before the two Joe Gibbs Racing drivers made their green flag pit stops on lap 122.

The No. 20 nearly made contact with the No. 34 of Todd Gilliland when entering his pit box, allowing Hamlin to retake the lead. Bell climbed back after that, however, finishing second in stage two.

After pit stops, Bell left the pits in third, then chose the outside of row two to begin the final stage. He’d stay in third for a while before passing Chase Elliott for second with 67 laps to go.

A caution 10 laps later brought the field back down pit road, and Bell exited fourth, again in strong position to pounce.

After a massive crash behind him on the ensuing restart, Bell took the outside to line up alongside Hamlin with 45 to go. The No. 11, despite power steering issues, held steady with Bell in tow until a caution with 15 laps left – for the tire carcass from Kyle Busch’s Chevrolet – bunched the field yet again.

One more set of pit stops ensued, and Bell beat Bubba Wallace and Chase Briscoe off pit road to take the lead.

One lap after the restart, the caution flew again when Carson Hocevar spun and stalled on the backstretch. At the time of caution, NASCAR ruled Bell was second to Wallace, giving the No. 23 the advantage.

Bell got a shove from Briscoe on the ensuing overtime restart, and was side by side with Wallace the entire lap before the yellow flag waved yet again, this time for Zane Smith’s massive wall-ride in turn four that ended with his Ford flipping down the banking and necessitating a red-flag stoppage.

On the final, double-overtime restart, Bell and Wallace both got good launches and battled until Wallace forced Bell wide, leading his No. 20 out of the groove and right next to the wall in turns three and four coming to the white flag.

In the ensuing final lap chaos, Bell and Briscoe drag raced around Wallace coming onto the frontstretch, with Bell coming home third after leading 43 laps on the afternoon.

It was a solid points haul, but a bittersweet one, considering Bell believed he had a race-winning car.

“I honestly don’t know what I could have done,” Bell reflected after the race. “That was a bummer when I lost the lead on the restart when I caught the wrong timing line. Looking back, it was such a 50-50 call on those restarts whether you wanted to be on the outside or the inside.

“I don’t know what I would have done differently. I felt like we left it all on the table.”

Bell heads into the Round of 12 finale at the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL 44 points above the elimination line and, providing nothing goes drastically wrong, all but assured of a place in the semifinal round of the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs.

That made his Kansas effort a positive one, even if the competitor in Bell still wanted a bit more.

“It was rewarding to be restarting on that front row and knowing that if I win I advance, and [even if] I get out of here and don’t win, that we are in a really good spot. I’m proud of our team,” Bell noted. “We are doing a really good job of controlling what we can control and getting good finishes out of it and we are running well too.

“I’m excited about the ROVAL; we’ve been really excited about the road courses and we have some breathing room, so it should be a lot of fun.”

Bell is a past winner at the ROVAL, triumphing in 2022 in walk-off fashion to advance to the Round of 8. He finished second last year at the 2.32-mile hybrid circuit, which features portions of the 1.5-mile CMS oval, and has led laps in four of his five starts there.

Coverage of the Bank of America ROVAL 400 airs Sunday, Oct. 5 at 3 p.m. ET, live on USA, the Performance Racing Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.