Many wondered how Christopher Bell would be able to race in Sunday’s The Great American Getaway 400 at Pocono Raceway after seeing the driver’s incredible impact into the outside wall on Lap 148 of last week’s FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway.
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Well, not only did Bell compete in Sunday’s race, but thanks to some pit strategy by his crew chief, Adam Stevens, he was in the thick of the late-race battle for the win.
Bell held the lead late in the 400-mile race around the 2.5-mile triangular track, and, for a moment, it appeared like the driver, who was nursing a fractured left wrist, could pull off the unthinkable.
“I mean, I didn’t know what to think,” Bell said of leading the race late. “I was just trying to stay open-minded and do my job inside of our Rheem Camry.”
However, with a dwindling fuel load, Bell was unable to push his car to its full potential, as he had to try to conserve gas if he wanted any hope of making it to the checkered flag. This allowed Denny Hamlin to carve into his 11-second advantage.
In the end, Bell was unable to keep Hamlin at bay, as his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate made the race-winning pass on Bell with five laps to go.
Four laps later, Bell found out the gamble was all for not, as his No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota Camry XSE sputtered off of Turn 3 as he was coming to the white flag.
The end result was a 26th-place finish. Yet another disappointing result in what has been a trying season for Bell.
“Obviously, when they start telling me that we’re getting good gas mileage and we are in a good position, I’m starting to get excited in there, but it just wasn’t meant to be,” Bell explained.
While the 26th-place finish wasn’t what Bell and Stevens had hoped their gamble would achieve, Bell says he’s glad that Stevens tried something, as they were running close to where they finished for the majority of the race, anyway.
“We were mired back in the 20s, and so I think it was an amazing gamble,” Bell said of Stevens’ call. “The situation is so hard, because you don’t know if you are racing for the win, or if you are racing to finish the race, and so I didn’t stop shifting until about 10 to go – I left it in fifth – and then, I certainly could have given up more pace and fallen back and maybe finished outside of the top-10, and it would have been a net gain, but we ended up about where were going to be.”
The gamble didn’t pan out, and that’s disappointing, but considering everything Bell went through over the last week, the fact that he competed and had a shot in the closing laps at a win was nothing short of remarkable.
While nobody wants to compete with a fractured left wrist, Bell said under normal racing conditions, his situation behind the wheel of the No. 20 Toyota was very comfortable despite his injuries.
“So, whenever the field got strung out, I felt fine,” Bell explained. “Running by myself, I felt like it was normal.”
Bell said he did experience some discomfort during the race, though, particularly on restarts.
“Certainly, adverse conditions, when people were making quick moves on restarts, or you get put three-wide, the car gets loose – those are very difficult. Under normal circumstances, I think I’m fine, but restarts were very difficult,” Bell said.
By gutting it out and competing in this weekend’s race, Bell was able to maintain his 10th position in the NASCAR Cup Series championship standings, although he did give up 11 points of his advantage to the cutline.
With 10 races remaining until the Chase for the Championship begins, he has a 70-point advantage over Brad Keselowski, the first driver outside of the 16-driver Chase Grid after Pocono Raceway.
If Bell does drive his way into the 16-driver Chase for the Championship, it’ll all be due to his ability to drive through the pain of a fractured left wrist following his massive impact at Michigan International Speedway.
