On the right road
Fast-rising Bell wins twisty course
ELKHART LAKE – For the record, Christopher Bell still doesn’t particularly like road-course racing. Getting clobbered twice last season soured him.
But the Toyota NASCAR prodigy is a student of the sport. He’s quick learner. And after the Xfinity Series CTech Manufacturing 180 on Saturday, he can call himself a winner at one of the world’s most challenging road courses, twisty 4-mile Road America.
“Whenever I was racing sprint cars full time, I was a really good short-track racer, and when we came to the half miles I really struggled,” Bell said. “And then just after time and time of doing it again and focusing on that area to get better, the next thing you know, I became a pretty good half-mile racer.
“Same thing with the road courses. We weren’t very good, but I didn’t have a lot of experience at it.”
So Bell studied tape. He drives Trans Am sports cars when they race at a venue on the same weekends, just for the extra track time.
The lessons paid off as he fended off road-racing A.J. Allendinger for lap after lap and then beat him on a restart with two laps to go and drove away.
“He’s come a long way on the road
courses, and we know what he can do on the ovals, so when he gets in the Cup Series, I feel sorry for those guys,” said Allmendinger, who got knocked around on the restart and finished 24th.
“He's a wheelman. He's about an A+ in everything he gets in.”
All indications point to that being the Leavine Family Racing Toyota in the premier Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series. After two full years in the Xfinity Series – and with 14 wins on a variety of tracks – there's little else Bell can accomplish other than the season championship for Joe Gibbs Racing.
Bell had finished second to Austin Cindric in the season's first two road races, this month at Watkins Glen International and the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.
This time the places were reversed, as Cindric roared through the field and gained 17 spots during the shootout to finish second after stopping for fresh tires.
Tyler Reddick finished third, Noah Gragson fourth and Kaz Grala fifth.
Bell's victory made it 10 years without a repeat winner in the Xfinity Series at Road America. The 24-year-old from Norman, Oklahoma, became the first driver to win in a Toyota. With his sixth victory of the year, broke out of a tie with Cole Custer for the series lead.
Bell wrestled the lead away from Cindric after a restart on the 35th of 45 laps, and Cindric got bounced back to fourth.
Gray Gaulding's ride through the gravel trap in Turn 1 with five laps left wiped out Bell's lead of about threequarters of a second and set up the shootout.
“In my head anyway it was a little bit easier on a green-white-checkered than it is whenever you're leading with 10 or 12 to go just because it's like, man, that's a lot of corners to make a mistake,” Bell said. “When the yellow came out, the timing of yellow was disappointing for me because I'd just gapped Allmendinger a little bit, so I didn't want to see a yellow. But the yellow just means less laps to have a chance to make a mistake, so I was OK with it after it worked out.”
“You just never know how a restart is going to work out, if a guy's going to force it three-wide.”
Winning on a road course was among the goals Bell and crew chief Jason Ratcliff set before the season, as it would be a first for both of them.
Bell got a great jump, Allmendinger spun his tires and knocked his car into neutral and the leader drove away rather comfortably, having learned the lessons of the day well.
Allmendinger said it wasn't long ago that an experienced driver could fill Bell's mirrors and try to force him into a mistake.
“I honestly probably don't use my mirrors as much as I should,” said Bell, who appreciated the compliment even if he dismissed the premise. “So probably at times like today, that was a good thing.
“It's just a matter of going out there and executing. You've still got your spotter in your ear yelling, ‘three back, three back, still there. …' I'm glad that (Allmendinger) was there. I'm glad I had to race him, because he's one of the best road racers there are.”
Bell's work has made him pretty solid, himself.