Joe Gibbs Racing driver Christopher Bell isn’t only trying to maintain his Xfinity Series championship lead at Watkins Glen in Saturday’s Zippo 200 at The Glen (3 p.m. ET on NBC, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) – he’s got a shot at NASCAR history.
A win Saturday for the 23-year old Bell would tie Sam Ard’s mark of four consecutive Xfinity Series victories and also tie a series rookie season record of five victories – putting him in elite company with Greg Biffle, Carl Edwards and Kyle Busch. And it’s just the first week of August.
First up, however, Bell fully concedes he faces a big challenge at Watkins Glen and the road course portion of the schedule in general. As excited as he is to be in position to win four straight, the former dirt racer acknowledges his first try at The Glen may be his biggest challenge yet.
“Definitely the lack of experience is huge, but for me in my past, shifting has been extremely difficult going into road course races,” said Bell, who drives the JGR No. 20 Rheem Toyota. “I don’t know if I’ve had a road course weekend where I haven’t blown a motor yet by missing a downshift or missing an upshift and accidentally downshifting. So that’s the No. 1 goal to get through the weekend without blowing a motor.
“It’s just so opposite of everything that I’ve done in my past, but I’ve really enjoyed the road races that I’ve done, especially at Canada. I feel like I’ve been fairly competitive up there. The only thing that’s hindering my confidence right now is just the fact that I was so awful at Road America last year. I really struggled at Road America last year, and that’s the only reason that I don’t feel like I could compete for the win this week.”
But, Bell acknowledged, he’s doing all he can to feel more comfortable at The Glen and he has every intention of upping his road course game.
“Just trying to get as prepared as I can be going into a racetrack where I’ve never been before, not only a racetrack that I’ve never been before but going road racing, which is something that I haven’t had the most success at in the world,” Bell said. “Just trying to prepare for that and do as much homework as I can to try and get a good result this weekend.”
Source: Holly Cain | NASCAR Wire Service
