SPARTA, Ky: After back-to-back races finishing outside the top-10 at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway and Indianapolis Motor Speedway, NASCAR Cup Series rookie Christopher Bell bounced back with a solid seventh-place finish in Sunday’s Quaker State 400 at Kentucky Speedway.
Despite a difficult 267-lap race where passing was incredibly difficult, Bell and crew chief Jason Ratcliff had to use strategy to their advantage to maneuver their way forward.
Finishing Stage 1 in 21st, Bell pitted for four tires, fuel and an air pressure adjustment.
Restarting 17th for the start of Stage 2, a long-green flag run kept Bell pinned near the back-half of the field. While the Norman, Ok. native reported he had an amazingly fast No. 95 Leavine Family Racing Toyota, the driver reported the difficulty to pass was hindering his opportunity to make a charge forward.
When the caution waved in the closing laps of Stage 2, Bell pitted for four tires, fuel and another air pressure adjustment. Restarting 19th, he held his own to finish 19th and set his team up for the final haul to the finish.
Although he was tight to start Stage 3, Bell held his ground during the cycle of green-flag pit stops.
Fortunately for the Cup Series rookie, he was about to make a scheduled green-flag pit stop when the caution waved for debris – keeping Bell out on the track and allowing him to gain coveted track position for the restart.
Restarting inside the top-10 with 30 laps to go, Bell was again fighting a tight-handling race car, but a stack of late-race cautions allowed for a few short runs that put the 2017 NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series champion 10th for a green-white-checkered run to the finish.
Over the final three miles of the race, Bell was able to muscle to seventh, his second-best finish of the season behind a fourth-place run in the first Pocono Raceway Cup race last month.
“It was a very confusing day,” said Bell. “I have moments where I felt like my Camry was really fast and I could run really good lap times, and then I had moments where – I wasn’t very good in traffic today for whatever reason.
“Normally, that is our strong suit is being able to pass guys, and today I really struggled with that. Obviously, I’m happy with getting out of there with a seventh but disappointed. I wish we could have been a little bit better when we had that track position.”
With just nine races before the Playoffs begin, Bell is 23rd in the championship standings, 46 points from the cutoff position of 15th – occupied by Jimmie Johnson.
Cole Custer’s victory during Sunday’s Quaker State 400 at Kentucky moves him to the last spot in the Playoff grid – 16th – even though Custer sits three positions ahead of Bell in 20th.
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
