FORT WORTH, Texas – The winningest driver in the NASCAR Xfinity Series this year finds himself in a must-win situation next weekend at ISM (Ariz.) Raceway after being eliminated from a Lap 134 crash in Saturday’s O’Reilly Auto Parts 300.
For the second straight race in the Round of 8, Christopher Bell has suffered setbacks that have derailed a plan to enter the Championship 4 picture as one of the favorites to win the series’ championship.
Bell who has won a series-high six races in 2018 was swept into a Lap 1 accident at Kansas Speedway and finished 37th.
On Saturday, Bell again experienced trouble on Lap 1 but was able to recover. Still, Bell’s race at Texas ended in the garage and below the cutoff line in the race to advance to Homestead-Miami (Fla.) Speedway on Nov. 17.
Winning his fifth pole of the season, Bell’s No. 20 GameStop NBA 2K19 Toyota broke loose underneath Shane Lee in Turn 1 sending cars scattering and Bell emerging unscathed.
Putting on a show back to the front, Bell roared from 40th to fourth at the end of Stage 1 – and finished fifth at Stage 2 after pitting earlier in the stage.
Bell led the field back to the start of Stage 3 on Lap 97, but his race derailed shortly thereafter.
Leading the field until the event’s eighth caution on Lap 125, Bell pitted for four tires and fuel and found himself fourth on the restart.
Like the start of the race, Bell’s Toyota bobbled and drifted up the race track forcing the reigning Truck Series champion to get out of the gas and recover – despite being trapped on the outside lane. Still fighting for position and trying to get to the bottom of the race track, Bell was clipped by Austin Cindric sending his car around in Turn 2 causing significant damage to the right side of his Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.
The Norman, Oklahoma native lipped his car back to pit road where crew chief Jason Ratcliff deemed the damage terminal – leaving Bell with a 32nd place finish.
“I don’t know I haven’t seen it. Tough racing,” said Bell after being released from the infield care center. “This place is tough. It’s the toughest it’s been since they repaved it. I don’t know if it’s the tire combination or what.”
Bell said he wasn’t expecting any issues at Lap 1 – but described the incident as similar to what happened with fellow Playoff contender Justin Allgaier at Kansas last month.
“It caught me off guard,” Bell explained. “You saw the same thing from the No. 7 at Kansas. I didn’t feel like I was up to speed at all. The next thing I knew, I spun out. I don’t know, it has to be the tire combination. It’s tricky. There wasn’t much room for error.”
When asked about how to approach the championship after Texas, Bell had a quipped response.
“I’ve won six races this year. I’ve had a great season. I’ve got a chance to win two more,” Bell said. “I’m going to go out there and try to win races. I’ve never been a points racer and my results show for that.
“It doesn’t matter that my back is up against the wall, we’re going to go out there and try to win two races and that’s the only thing we can do. “At least we know what we have to do. Today, I came in here with a different mentality to just survive and I didn’t survive so screw that, I’m going to try to win.”
Cindric insisted the contact was a product of hard racing.
“I have been in a must-win position since Kansas. For me, that hasn’t changed. I was the car stuck on the bottom with one guy all over my tail and one guy all over my door. I moved up two inches and those were the two inches that the 20 was off my door.
“I think it is just a racing incident. I don’t think it was anything intentional. We were just racing hard. I knew he was going to be stuck on the top and I wanted to be on the bottom. I don’t see anything further than that. That is his decision to race hard. He was in a points position and I was in a must-win position. I don’t’ think there was anything to be done different there. I am just glad we didn’t get caught up in it.”
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
