Tag: Christopher Bell

LFR welcomes Bell, prepares for second year with TRD

From their first steps as a part-time team in 2011 to finishing in the top-25 in points and three top-fives in 2019, Leavine Family Racing (LFR) is looking to capitalize in 2020 as the young team continues their partnership with Toyota Racing Development (TRD) and brings in an Xfinity Series great to the stable.

In 2019, the No. 95 car led nearly a fourth of the Great American Race and produced an eighth-place finish during the July Coke Zero Sugar 400. And though it was rained out, Leavine states that Procore Toyota was one of the better cars left.

“I wanted to finish the race; I was not satisfied with an eighth-place finish,” says team owner Bob Leavine.

Looking to unload a strong car in Daytona for rookie Christopher Bell, who comes from Joe Gibbs Racing’s (JGR) Xfinity Series, Leavine calls the 25-year-old focused and very intense with a sense of urgency.

“He’s adapted at every level he’s come up through. Sure, there will be adjustments,” said Leavine. “He drives his heart out. From my standpoint, what more can I ask for?”

LFR announced in September 2019 that the Oklahoma-native prodigy would be behind the wheel of the No. 95 Toyota Camry in 2020. Bell, a 2017 NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series champion, has 16 career wins in the Xfinity Series with seven Truck Series wins. Bell moves with experienced crew chief Jason Ratcliff atop the pit box. Ratcliff has a combined total of eight years working on Sunday with multiple drivers including Matt Kenseth and Joey Logano.

Upon in-house conversation regarding maintaining continuity with Bell, Leavine says, it was decided to move Mike Wheeler as crew chief to the position of competition director, allowing Ratcliff to step up to the Cup Series once more with Bell.

“There’s always a comfort level when a driver is able to maintain his crew chief; it’s just familiarity,” Leavine said. “It’s difficult switching to somebody you don’t know. Wheels is a great engineer and we wanted to have additional engineering support, so we talked to Jason about it, how he felt about it. Wheels and Jason did a lot of visiting and in fact, the TRD people thought “man if you can pull that off, that’s kind of a dream team.’”

While starting with LFR during the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series will be a first for Bell, the season will mark LFR’s second season with TRD, who provides enginers and technology, data and technical assistance to the team.

“We were just one of a dozen or 15 cars when we were with Ford and with Chevrolet, and we saw absolutely no growth there because the big Chevy teams and the big Ford teams get all the support and then it’s a trickle-down effect to those teams that are in alliances,” Leavine added, calling their TRD support a relationship.

In a 2019 NASCAR press release when Bell’s upcoming tenure with LFR was announced, TRD president David Wilson made his support for both Bell and LFR clean.

“TRD and Toyota have worked with Bell since his early dirt track career and we’ve been proud to see him work his way to NASCAR’s highest level,” Wilson stated. “Christopher is a special talent and we’re happy to have him winning races and championships in a Toyota. We look forward to seeing his continued growth and success at LFR in 2020. We’re also pleased with how the relationship between JGR and LFR has progressed during their first season working together. We’re confident this enhanced alliance for 2020 will continue to make them a threat for race wins week in and week out.”

2020 marks LFR’s fifth full-time season and hopes to secure their first win with Bell after coming close following a second-place finish at Bristol Motor Speedway in August 2019 with Matt DiBenedetto. Bell will make his debut in the NASCAR Cup Series with the orange and black Procore colors during the 62nd running of the Daytona 500. Tune in to FOX at 3 p.m. ET on Sunday, Feb. 16, to catch the action.

January 26, 2020
Should NASCAR drivers be allowed to compete in other forms of motorsport?

NASCAR Cup Series stars Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell have been spending a busy offseason in New Zealand competing in the United Truck Parts International Midget Series. Despite going in aiming for success, however, both American drivers have seen their efforts end early. On the opening night of the event, Larson violently rolled his midget and was carried away on a stretcher. On Boxing Day, Bell suffered a similar fate but was able to walk away unhurt.

Despite walking away unharmed, however, Bell’s management team informed him not to compete in the remaining events, despite having won the event a year ago. The decision looks to be based on circumstance, according to Bell’s midget team owner Brian Theobald per Velocity News, as Bell and the team are looking at future opportunities to race again in New Zealand.

It’s easy to understand the decision to bring Bell back to the US following such an incident. Not only does he have a fourth Chili Bowl title to chase in just a few weeks time, but he also happens to be at the front of a promising class of NASCAR Cup rookies for the 2020 season. There’s a lot riding on Bell in terms of investments, and on the business side of things it makes sense to protect that investment.

But like Larson, Bell is from a dirt discipline, and made his bones slinging Sprint Cars at I-44 Speedway in Oklahoma. Both Larson and Bell are rarely far from a dirt track or the Sprint Car business, as both identify dirt racing as a way of life. Larson has made it clear that being able to race on dirt when he can will play a key role in contract negotiations when his contract is up.

That puts owners into the position of having to jostle a happy driver and a safe driver. Some team owners, such as Tony Stewart at Stewart-Haas Racing, understand how important it is to let their drivers race as much as possible wherever they can; Stewart is spending most of his racing time behind the wheel of a Sprint Car, which is where he also spent a lot of time during his driving career when he wasn’t in a stock car. Not to mention, Kurt Busch was also an SHR driver when he attempted the Memorial Day double in 2014, when he raced in the Indy 500 and the Coca-Cola 600.

What about Matt Crafton? The 2019 Gander Outdoor Truck Series champion went from testing modifieds in order to better himself at dirt racing since Eldora’s inclusion on the Truck Series tour, to regularly competing in his No. 88 open-wheel modified painted up to look like his ThorSport Racing F-150. He’s won at Eldora since (2017), and is a regular contender on the dirt.

Matt Crafton’s open-wheel modified. Photo by Tim Jarrold

But it all goes back to the investments that the backing organizations make and the management teams make. Many team owners aren’t keen on letting their drivers race elsewhere for fear of that driver getting hurt. It’s a reasonable affair, as that driver is supposed to be piloting their car for their team. It’s doubtful Bob Leavine would want to see Bell harmed in a crash before he took to Daytona’s high banks in his flagship No. 95 Toyota.

But racing is a dangerous sport. This goes without saying. Despite the major advances in safety over the last 60, 70 years, drivers still get hurt, and in many tragic instances, they are killed. Saying that a driver can race in discipline A but not discipline B is neglecting the fact that anything can happen at any moment, anywhere. Just because the 2010s’ didn’t see a single driver perish in NASCAR’s top touring divisions does not mean it couldn’t happen again in 2020.

So where is the line drawn? Where does a driver’s team and investors relax the reigns a bit and let them tear up a track elsewhere? Where do they tighten their reigns and tell their drivers “No more?” Does driver quality play a factor? Larson was able to convince Ganassi to turn him loose on dirt, and considering Larson is Ganassi’s best NASCAR driver since Sterling Marlin in the early 00s’, did Ganassi want to risk hindering his star driver’s on-track product? More importantly, what does it matter? Ganassi also owns an IndyCar team and an IMSA team. How is the risk any different across the disciplines?

Racers that are true at heart will race anything, anytime, anywhere, because they are at their happiest and best when they are behind the wheel. It doesn’t matter if it’s IndyCar, NASCAR, World of Outlaws, Formula One (See: Fernando Alonso’s foray from F1 into the Indianapolis 500), or even NHRA (See: NASCAR’s John Andretti and Kurt Busch). A happy driver translates into better results in some cases.

However, in others cases it’s a matter of getting too distracted (See: Kyle Busch’s 2012 results the same year he ventured into Nationwide Series ownership). It’s all a matter of balance, and while some drivers may prefer focusing on just one venue of racing, other drivers would rather be racing when they aren’t racing. That’s not to say there shouldn’t be limits, but drivers should be allowed a degree of freedom to race in other disciplines of motorsport. In the end, it’s all about the variables at play and what the team and investors are willing to concede.

December 28, 2019
Bell and Allgaier end up short of championship

After coming up short in last year’s Championship 4 race, Christopher Bell and the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing team were back for another chance at the Xfinity Series championship. This would be Bell’s last opportunity for the foreseeable future as he goes Cup Series racing next year for Leavine Family Racing. Already being an emotional week for the Oklahoma native, Bell had hopes of bringing home a championship to the No. 20 team.

Bell qualified seventh at Homestead-Miami Speedway and had a great car early on, finishing 12th in Stage 1 and second in Stage 2. He even had the lead multiple times throughout the race and at one point he led 23 laps out front. However, the last time we would see Bell at the front was right before green flag pit stops. A miscommunication call between the driver and spotter had Bell staying out instead of coming in to pit road.

Even with a fast car, Bell was unable to catch the other two championship drivers. There were no late-race cautions and the Oklahoma native had to settle for a disappointing fifth-place finish and third in the championship after a strong season with eight wins.

“Yeah, it was just a miscommunication,” Bell said describing the incident. “I don’t know if my spotter didn’t get told what our cue word was, but I told, got the cue word to pit, and then all of a sudden, I started pitting and he said, not now, not now. But that didn’t matter whenever you get beat by 17 seconds. I’m glad that didn’t have an effect on the outcome of the race.”

Even after the incident, Bell was making up ground but was just too far back in order to make anything happen.

“Well, that second to last run, I don’t know if I just did a better job blocking or what, but we definitely seemed to maintain a little bit better, and then whenever we pitted, I didn’t know ‑‑ you don’t know how many laps that we pitted earlier than the other two guys, but I was pretty happy whenever I drove by them because I think we only had 30‑something laps to go at that point, and my car had been okay for that distance.”

Bell ends his full-time Xfinity Series campaign with 16 wins, 41 top-fives and 46 top-10 finishes along with 12 poles.

Justin Allgaier, on the other hand, had a more disappointing race. The eventful weekend started out with practice when the No. 52 of David Starr came up when he was not clear and made slight contact with Allgaier off Turn 1. Rain showers came and washed out the practices for the rest of the day on Friday. Coming back on Saturday afternoon for qualifying, Allgaier struggled with a 16th place starting effort.

While it wasn’t a pretty Stage 1, Allgaier managed a third place for the second stage. However, after Stage 2, it was like you didn’t see the No. 7 team for the rest of the race. A major moment came late in the final stage, where Allgaier almost spun coming down to pit road. He held onto the car and made it to pit road for adjustments.

Despite those adjustments, the car continued to struggle in the remaining laps. With no late-race cautions, Allgaier finished 14th, one lap down and fourth of the four Championship 4 drivers.

“Yeah, I mean, that was probably the hardest one,” Allgaier said. “Chase sitting here probably got in the wall less than we did, and the caution came out, and it didn’t for us. So I was pretty bummed in that. But on the flip side of it, once this didn’t come out, there was no reason to try to cause a caution. We weren’t fast enough really to be in that position anyway and it ‑‑ at the end of the day, I probably could have done something to benefit ourselves there.”

“The unfortunate part is you’ve got a long way to go to get back to pit road at a slow speed and that ended up putting us two laps down, which we were able to drive our way back to one lap down, but the time that we lost just trying to get back to pit road really, really affected the outcome of where we finished tonight, which didn’t matter, but just for going into the off‑season you’d rather have a better finish than where we finished, 14th, 13th, 15th, something like that. Disappointing.”

Allgaier ends the 2019 Xfinity Series season with one win, 16 top fives and 24 top-10 finishes.

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November 16, 2019
Preview – 2019 Xfinity Series Championship at Homestead

Four drivers are set to compete for the 2019 NASCAR Xfinity Series championship title this weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway. It is a diverse group of drivers from four different teams representing Chevrolet, Ford and Toyota manufacturers.

Drivers listed alphabetically.

Justin Allgaier:

Allgaier drove his No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet to victory lane at ISM Raceway last Saturday to secure his spot in the Championship 4 with his first victory this season. This will be the third time in four years that Allgaier has competed for the title, finishing third in two previous attempts in 2016 and 2017. So far this season he has 16 top-fives and 24 top -10 finishes, leading 607 laps with an average finish of 8.9.

He is optimistic about his chances and feels as though the team has hit its stride at the perfect moment.

“We’re going to go to Homestead and have some fun. A lot of the storylines this year have been surrounding the other three contenders and they’ve been really strong and they’ve won a lot of races, but I feel like this BRANDT Professional Agriculture team is peaking at the right time and you can’t count us out,” Allgaier said. “We’re going into this weekend with a new mentality and a new energy and we’re going to have a shot at winning a championship. I can’t wait to see what we can go there and do this weekend.”

Christopher Bell:

The Joe Gibbs Racing driver has been impressive this season with a career-high eight wins in his No. 20 Toyota. His most recent win at Texas Motor Speedway locked him into the Championship 4. This is the second consecutive year that he has qualified for the Playoffs, finishing fourth in 2018. Bell has 19 top-fives and 20 top-10s this year along with six poles and has led 1,968 laps.

Bell obviously wants to win at Homestead but regardless of the outcome, he is happy with what he has already accomplished this season.

“I feel good so far. Yes, I want to win the championship so bad, but ultimately it comes down to the last run. If you have a bad pit stop, we saw Erik Jones win the race off pit road two years ago and had it in his hands and one guy stayed out and picked his lane on the restart and it was over. It’s just such a toss-up that you never know how things are going to play out. I would love to win it, but if not, the goal is to get there and we’ve accomplished that,” Bell said. “We’ve won races this year and that’s something I’m proud of. We’ve got an opportunity to win a championship and that’s all you can ask for.”

Cole Custer:

Custer has driven his No. 00 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford to seven victories this year. He earned a spot in the Championship 4 on points with a runner-up finish last weekend at ISM Raceway. He has 16 top-fives and 23 top-10s in 2019 with six poles and 907 laps led. It is his second consecutive time qualifying for the championship round, finishing second in 2018. Custer’s first career win was at Homestead in 2017. In three starts at the 1.5-mile track, he has an average finish of 6.7.

Custer says that it will take a “near-perfect” effort to win at Homestead and is confident that his team is capable of doing just that.

“In 2018, we had a great car and we were able to lead 95 laps during the race, but we struggled a little bit on the long runs. Tyler Reddick was able to get the top going and had great long-run speed and he was able to make it work for him. I tried late in the race to get the top going, but I couldn’t get it going as fast as him and watched him just drive away. Feeling that heartbreak has us set on kill for this weekend so we don’t have to experience that again and instead, we can hopefully be the ones celebrating on the frontstretch, but it’s going to take a near-perfect race from everyone, which I know we are capable of doing,” Custer said.

Tyler Reddick:

Reddick heads to Homestead-Miami Speedway Saturday hoping to win back-to-back Xfinity Series titles. He claimed a spot in the Championship 4 after his third-place finish at Phoenix, earning enough points to advance. He has five wins this season in his No. 2 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet along with 23 top-fives, 26 top-10s, four poles and 484 laps led.

Reddick is hoping to see a race that is similar to last year’s event.

“I would like it to end kind of the way it did last year with a long run and being able to run up by the fence and just do what I enjoy most, just trying to go as fast as I can on the long run,” he said. “Obviously, it’s just going to come down to who runs the best race all day, who is there at the end. So it’s whoever can do the best and that’ll be our champion.”

The Xfinity Series Ford EcoBoost 300 is set for Saturday afternoon at 3:30 ET on NBCSN with radio coverage on MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

Follow @angiecampbell_ for the latest NASCAR news and feature stories.

November 14, 2019
Allgaier fights for first win of 2019 in Round of 8 cutoff race

AVONDALE, Ariz. — When the Playoffs were on the line, Justin Allgaier rose to the occasion by winning the Desert Diamond West Valley Casino 200 as the NASCAR Xfinity Series Championship 4 has officially been declared.

“We had a hot rod today,” Allgaier declared.

After winning five races in 2018, Allgaier looks for redemption at Homestead-Miami Speedway this year by winning his first race of the season. It also came at the right time since the JR Motorsports driver was among the cutoff line throughout the race.

“I don’t think we could have beaten the 20 (Bell),” said Allgaier. “But when he made his mistake, we capitalized on it. That’s what it’s all about. No question (not winning) is a weight on your shoulders, man. You can’t even begin to describe it.”

Christopher Bell won last weekend at Texas Motor Speedway to secure his spot for the championship race. Bell led every green-flag lap in both opening stages, but a speeding penalty on pit road forced him to drop to the rear of the field on the restart of the final stage. Another caution, later on, forced him to pit again. The No. 20 car went one lap down and wasn’t able to recover.

“I feel like I gave up a winner,” said Bell. “It all comes down to this one next week. I’m ready for it. I feel really good about where we’re at, and our car is going to be extremely strong next week.

“We’ve prepared a ton for this. Ever since we left Homestead last year, we knew that this race was where we needed to improve. Pretty much all year long, we’ve been focused on Homestead.”

Since Brandon Jones won at Martinsville, no other driver was completely locked in yet. In a combination of stage points and other competitors falling out of the race, Cole Custer had a large enough gap in the points standings to mathematically lock himself into Homestead.

“I never got the memo,” Custer laughed when asked if he was told about the championship status update after Stage 2. “I was giving it all I had. I was really struggling with the brake pedal. I kind of lost it at the start of the run. I had to save the whole run until like 15 laps to go, and then I just let it happen. I just came up a little bit short, but I think that was the best run we’ve had at Phoenix in a long time.”

“I’m looking forward to Homestead, and hopefully we can do one spot better.”

The regular-season champion, Tyler Reddick, will now go for a second consecutive championship in the Xfinity series. Last year, he won with JR Motorsports. This year, he’ll look to bring a title to Richard Childress Racing.

Chase Briscoe, Michael Annett, Austin Cindric, and Noah Gragson were the four drivers eliminated after Phoenix.

The NASCAR Xfinity Series will crown their champion next Saturday at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

November 9, 2019
Christopher Bell wins O’Reilly 300, Chastain takes second at Texas

FORT WORTH, Texas — Christopher Bell took the checkered flag in Saturday’s O’Reilly 300 at Texas Motor Speedway, punching his ticket to the Championship Round at Homestead-Miami Speedway in two weeks. Bell started third and took the checkered by 5.561-seconds over Kaulig Racing’s Ross Chastain.

“I can’t wait to go to Phoenix,” said Bell. “I love that race track. Now we get to go there and focus on one thing and that’s winning the race.”

“I don’t know if Jason [Ratcliff, Crew Chief] was thinking points tonight, but we’re definitely not going to have to think about points next week.”

Runner-up Chastain used pit strategy to lead 29 laps before spinning his tires on a restart late in the race.

“It was an up-and-down race,” said Chastain of his final start with Kaulig in 2019. “Up at the start, we ran fifth in that first stage. Then we got caught in that dirty air and couldn’t pass anybody, but then we got track position again and took control of the race for a little while.”

“The car was incredible. I made one pretty big mistake on that final restart and spun my tires, and from there we just had to run hard to finish second.”

Austin Cindric, Brandon Jones, and John Hunter Nemechek rounded out the top-five while Justin Allgaier, Harrison Burton, Cole Custer, Jeb Burton, and Ryan Sieg rounded out the top-10.

Cindric also had a strong run on the night, leading 38 laps on the way to his third-place finish.

“Yeah, we’re in a must-win situation as far as points go, and when you’re leading in the third stage and a caution comes out your heart kind of sinks a little bit,” said Cindric. “But I thought we had a Discount Tire Mustang good enough to win in clean air.”

“We had 50 or 60 people from Discount Tire come out today and was hoping we could get them in Victory Lane and get in the Final Four. But we got next week in Phoenix. It’s a bummer when you’re pissed at finishing third, but I guess that’s the sign of a good night, being able to execute on some of those restarts.”

The biggest incident of the night occurred on Lap 162 when contact between Playoff drivers Chase Briscoe and polesitter Tyler Reddick sent Reddick’s Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet hard into the backstretch wall.

Despite hitting the wall, Reddick still holds a 36-point edge over Briscoe heading into Phoenix. Meanwhile, fellow Playoff driver Noah Gragson scored his first DNF of 2019 following an incident on the frontstretch. Gragson finished 30th and is 57 points below the cutline heading into Phoenix.

There were nine cautions for 51 laps, with nine lead changes among four drivers.

The series makes its next appearance at ISM Speedway on Nov. 9 for the Desert Diamond West Valley Casino 200.

November 3, 2019
Battle for XFINITY Series Championship a throwback to NASCAR’s title fights of the 90s

Instituting the Playoff system in the NASCAR XFINITY Series was meant to be a way to level the playing field for NASCAR’s Triple-A division, a goal furthered when Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series regulars were further limited in the XFINITY Series attempts. However, while that has paved the way to the XFINITY regulars standing up and being noticed, it’s clear that the 2019 title campaign has instead brought three contenders to the forefront: Tyler Reddick, Cole Custer, and Christopher Bell.

While other drivers have managed to find their way to Victory Lane, such as series regulars Austin Cindric and Chase Briscoe, it’s the Big Three of Reddick, Custer, and Bell who have been switching the lead in terms of most wins on the season; Bell currently leads with seven wins to Custer’s six and Reddick’s five. While this posits them as the primary contenders for the championship, this also draws parallels to the championship battles of the late 90s, when Mark Martin, Dale Jarrett, and Jeff Gordon were constantly duking it out for NASCAR supremacy.

In 1997, Gordon took home the title with 10 wins in a 32-race season, with Jarrett finishing runner-up in the standings with seven wins, while Martin came home in third with four wins. Gordon again took the title in ’98 with 13 wins, while Martin came home in second with seven wins, while Jarrett finished third in points with three wins. The trio made up for 23 wins in the season’s 33 events. This was diced up a bit in ’99, as the Joe Gibbs Racing Pontiacs of Bobby Labonte and Tony Stewart finished second and fourth, respectively, winning eight of the season’s 34 events while season champion Jarrett won four times to Martin’s two (Martin finished third in points). Series win leaders Jeff Burton (6) and Jeff Gordon (7) finished fifth and sixth, respectively.

Granted, that was in the Winston Cup Series. But looking at the NASCAR Busch Series (today’s XFINITY Series) results in the same time period, Randy LaJoie took the ’97 championship with five wins, while Todd Bodine finished second with a single win and Steve Park took third with three wins. But business picked up in ’98 when Dale Earnhardt Jr. took the championship with seven wins to Matt Kenseth’s three and Mike McLaughlin’s two. In ’99 Earnhardt repeated as the champion with six wins to Jeff Green’s three and Kenseth’s four.

To be champion, a driver needs to be consistent. But winning often also plays a big hand in winning a title, and while Reddick, Custer, and Bell have already surpassed their Busch Series counterparts of the 90s, they’re also making the title fight their own due to their constant winning. Bell is undoubtedly the odds-on favorite; with 15 wins in 68 starts since May 2017 he’s been a championship threat ever since he began his first full-time XFINITY Series campaign in February 2018. He won the 2017 Camping World (now Gander Outdoor) Truck Series championship, and in 2016 made it to the championship round at Homestead as a rookie. Bell’s known nothing but title fights, and he could seal the deal in 2019 as he has proven himself versatile on all types of tracks.

However, Custer and Reddick haven’t been far behind Bell, with both having breakout years despite Reddick having won last year’s championship. Both have also proven themselves to be adept at every type of track this season, with both of them looking to and possibly matching Bell’s Playoff performances in the upcoming races. They’re almost evenly matched, and it is difficult to say how each will fare in the upcoming events. Bell’s already crossed off a road course victory on his list, and he may very well prove himself to be adept at the upcoming Roval as he finished fifth there a year ago. But Reddick and Custer also recorded top-10 runs in that same race.

Point being, despite this being a Big Three battle in the XFINITY Series, this is anyone’s fight. Reddick, Custer, and Bell are winning with the same frequency and dominance as Gordon, Jarrett, Martin, Burton, Kenseth, and Earnhardt, but the Playoff campaign is actually magnifying their efforts and truly turning this battle into a Winner-Takes-All event, not unlike the 1992 Winston Cup campaign.

Then again, something to consider regarding the championship round at Homestead there’s always the fourth playoff driver to act as a foil to the Big Three. It was evident in last season’s Cup and XFINITY finale; could it happen again in November with shades of Alan Kulwicki in 1992? No matter what, this XFINITY battle is shaping up to be one for the ages.

September 25, 2019
Christopher Bell earns dominating win at Richmond
In what was dominating fashion, the No. 20 of Christopher Bell won at Richmond Raceway, the first race in the NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs. With the win, he is locked into the Round of 8.

“I think I told every one of my guys, that this is an important race right here,” Bell told MRN Radio. “If you win this, you’re pretty much safe until October, maybe middle of October, going to Kansas. This one means a lot and number 7, that’s pretty good too.”

The Go Bowling 250 marked the first race in the NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs and the beginning of the Round of 12. Playoff driver Austin Cindric qualified on the pole, while Justin Allgaier originally was second. However, Allgaier was forced to go to the rear before the start of the race, as he ran over a generator key during his qualifying run forcing the No. 7 team to change a tire on pit road prior to the start.

Also starting in the back was playoff driver John Hunter Nemechek. Nemechek had an ignition issue prior to his qualifying run and was unable to make qualifying lap.

Stage 1: Lap 1- Lap 75

Most of the action occurred in the first stage, especially on the very first lap. The No. 66 of Mike Marlar had an accident on the backstretch and the second caution was flown on Lap 50 for Vinnie Miller. Miller had smoke coming out of the back of his car and came to a stop in Turn 2. His car was eventually pulled behind the garage and Miller recorded a disappointing 35th place outing.

The final caution was for an incident that came on Lap 59 for the No. 74 of Tyler Matthews who went spinning in Turn 2. Matthews’ night was done early and he wound up 33rd. Under the caution, playoff drivers Michael Annett and Brandon Jones made pit stops. Both would have trouble during their sequence. For Jones, it was trouble with the jack but he was able to get the car off pit road with no damage.

Stage 1 came to a close on Lap 75 and Christopher Bell took the win. Cindric, Noah Gragson, Annett, Cole Custer, Justin Haley, Hunter Nemechek, Jones, Chase Briscoe, Allgaier and Harrison Burton rounded out the top-10 Stage 1 finishers.

Stage 2: Lap 83 – Lap 150

Brandon Jones stayed out to the assume the lead however, it was Christopher Bell who stayed out front. Bell would retake the lead and go on to sweep the stages at Richmond. There would be no yellow flags in the second stage.

One minor incident occurred under the stage break during pit stops. It was found that Justin Haley’s crew had too many men over the wall and he was penalized and was sent to the back for the start of Stage 3.

Stage 3: Lap 158 – Lap 250

Stage 3 was a repeat of Stage 2. However, one driver tried to put up a fight before lap traffic got in the way. Cole Custer closed in one time before his car started to go away.

In the end, it was Bell who wound up having the best car of the night leading 238 laps en route to victory number seven of the season, the 15th of his Xfinity Series career.

“It’s tough,” Bell added to MRN Radio. “The longer you go, the more you start slipping around. The 00 (Custer) was really good, he was keeping pace with us, gaining on me a little bit. I just had to stay focused and continue to hit my marks.”

Cindric qualified on the pole, led eight laps and came home to finish second behind Bell.

“Just trying to figure out what the track conditions were and what we needed with our race car, short run, long run and we were able to execute well there at the end,” Cindric said to MRN Radio. “Just trying to save my stuff because this track is great. You can manipulate the run with your hands and feet driving. Spotter Coleman (Pressley) did a great job tonight to help me manage that as well. The pit crew did an awesome job. All in all, a pretty good day for the MoneyLion Ford Mustang.”

There were five cautions for 31 laps and four lead changes among three drivers. Bell led twice for 238 laps and all but 12 laps for his third Richmond win.

Playoff Standings
1. Christopher Bell, Advanced to Round of 8
2. Cole Custer, +60
3. Tyler Reddick, +38
4. Austin Cindric, +34
5. Justin Allgaier, +21
6. Michael Annett, +18
7. Chase Briscoe, +17
8. Noah Gragson, +15
  
  Below the Cut Line
9. Brandon Jones, -15
10. Ryan Sieg, -19
11. Justin Haley, -20
12. John Hunter Nemechek, -21
Official Results
1. Christopher Bell, led 238 laps, won both stages
2. Austin Cindric, led eight laps
3. Cole Custer
4. Justin Allgaier
5. Chase Briscoe
6. Harrison Burton
7. Noah Gragson
8. Zane Smith
9. Michael Annett
10. Tyler Reddick
11. Brandon Jones
12. Ryan Sieg
13. Dillon Bassett, one lap down
14. Joe Graf Jr, one lap down
15. John Hunter Nemechek, one lap down
16. Jeremy Clements, one lap down
17. Justin Haley, one lap down
18. Ray Black Jr, two laps down
19. Ryan Repko, two laps down
20. Joey Gase, two laps down
21. J.J. Yeley, three laps down
22. Gray Gaulding, three laps down
23. Josh Williams, three laps down
24. Hermie Sadler, three laps down
25. David Starr, three laps down
26. Chad Finchum, four laps down
27. Garrett Smithley, four laps down
28. Matt Mills, six laps down
29. Stephen Leicht, nine laps down
30. B.J. McLeod, 10 laps down
31. C.J. McLaughlin, OUT, Axle
32. Joe Nemechek, OUT, Brakes
33. Tyler Matthews, OUT, Crash
34. Brandon Brown, OUT, Engine
35. Vinnie Miller, OUT, Engine
36. Landon Cassill, OUT, Handling
37. Stan Mullis, OUT, Suspension
38. Mike Marlar, OUT, Crash
Up Next: The NASCAR Xfinity Series heads to the Charlotte Roval next Saturday, Sept. 28.
September 21, 2019

Reddick Hits the Royal Flush of Fuel Mileage to Win at Vegas

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA — Tyler Reddick takes the fuel mileage gamble at Las Vegas Motor Speedway to edge out the dominant Christopher Bell and wins the Rhino Pro Truck Outfitters 300 in the NASCAR Xfinity Series.

“That was nerve-wracking to say the least,” Reddick told NBCSN. “Those last three laps, I was losing fuel pressure.”

The bold call took place during the final caution when C.J. McLaughlin crashed into the Turn 4 wall. Most of the leaders stayed out, but Reddick came to pit road to begin what would be the race-winning fuel mileage strategy. The Richard Childress Racing team recognized they didn’t have the speed to catch or pass Bell, so they played the long game and had the dice roll in their favor over the next 105 miles.

“We came in for fuel and tires and had to save a lot,” Reddick said after a sigh of relief crossing the line under power. ”It allowed us to run some really, really fast laps there before we had on tires at the end to keep us out front. Our car was fast on the long run and that’s what we needed to get a buffer at the end.

“We’ve had a really, really fast car here in the past. Today we didn’t have it but we got them on strategy again.”

Reddick clinched the regular season championship part way through Stage 2 as other cars retired from the race. However with the postseason reset, Bell will take over the points lead by 11 points, leaving Reddick and pole sitter Cole Custer tied for second.

“We ain’t done yet. We got to go to Homestead and get another trophy,” said Reddick who seemed unphased about losing the points lead after dominating the regular season.

Bell led a race high 154 laps, but fell short by just 0.738 seconds. The gap was over 20 seconds after the final pit stops, but Reddick was able to outsmart and out-luck Bell with his strategy.

“It’s the second time this year that we got beat by circumstances,” Bell told NBCSN. “At Iowa we put on our tires when we needed to and some guys banked on a yellow coming out later and they got it and they beat us. Today those guys did the opposite of us and they won the race. Very, very disappointing.”

Brandon Jones, Custer and Justin Allgaier completed the top five. Las Vegas native Noah Gragson finished sixth. Gray Gaulding also gambled with his fuel and had it pay off to finish in seventh, becoming the first non-Playoff driver in the finishing order. John Hunter Nemecheck, Riley Herbst and Elliott Sadler finished in the top 10 respectively. It was Sadler’s final NASCAR race. Ryan Sieg finished in the 14th position, but was disqualified after post-race inspection found his No. 39 Lombar Bros. Gaming Chevrolet Camaro too low in both the right front and left front. He still has enough points to carry him into the postseason.

Bell Shows Strength Early in Stage One

As the series’ final regular season race, the points gap was larger than the other two national touring series. For those outside of the top 12, they were all too far back to point their way in, so only a win could sneak their way into the Playoffs.

Custer started on pole, but was beat on the first lap by Bell. Custer quickly fell back to third as Justin Allgaier made his way around for the second position. Las Vegas native Gragson spun earlier in qualifying and was forced to start at the rear of the field. He quickly climbed through the field and cracked the top 15 halfway through the stage. Sadler, who was making his final NASCAR start, began the day from the eighth position and ran in the top 10 most of the stage before fading back to the 15th position.

Bell went on the lead all the laps and win the first stage. Sadler was the first car one lap down. Landon Cassell, after a fantastic qualifying run for the ninth starting position, fell out of the race early after overheating issues.

The field came down pit road for service, but Austin Cindric’s crew was penalized for an uncontrolled tire. He came off pit road fourth and was forced to the rear of the field.

Dominance by Bell Was Outplayed by Reddick’s Gamble

Bell took the restart and had a strong challenge by Allgaier before reclaiming the lead. A few cars were declared out of the race due to part failures and mechanical issues, which clinched Reddick as the regular season series champion. He looks to make a run at back-to-back championships in the Xfinity series.

By the end of the stage, Bell led all but two laps up to this point and wins his 15th stage of the regular season.

Drivers began to get more aggressive as they took the green flag for the final stage. Bell continued to dominate, but Allgaier and Custer stayed closer to him. On Lap 110, Tommy Joe Martins spun to bring out the caution. That brought all the leaders to pit road. Cindric had fought his way up to fourth, but with too many crew members over the pit wall and NASCAR penalized him to put him at the tail end of the field.

The field restarted on Lap 115, and Allgaier stayed aggressive. He was able to complete the pass by the exit of Turn 2 and claim the lead, putting Bell into a fight for the second position. Bell stayed patient and was able to reclaim the lead by Lap 123. The caution flew just one lap later as McLaughlin crashed into the outside wall of Turn 4. Most lead lap cars elected to stay on the track, as they could not make it to the end on fuel without coming to pit road again, but Reddick came down pit road for fresh tires and fuel.

When the green flag came out again for what would be the final restart of the race, Bell took over the lead but Briscoe began his late race charge. Halfway through the run, he was able to get by Custer and Allgaier and find himself in the second position. As everyone came down pit road for green flag pit stops, Briscoe speeds on the entrance of pit road, and gets a pass-through penalty.

As the final pit stop cycle completes itself, Reddick elects to stay out to extend his fuel run to the end of the race. He was able to stretch his fuel for 70 laps (105 miles) to the end for his fifth win of the season.

The Playoff field was also set as the regular season concludes. Bell will inherit the points lead, 51 points above the cutoff line. Custer and Reddick will tie for second with a 40 point margin. The rest of the drivers above the cutoff line include Cindric, Briscoe, Allgaier, Michael Annett and Gragson. Jones is the first car in the elimination spot, just one point out of the next round. Justin Haley, Sieg and Nemecheck sit out by two, four and five points respectively.

The NASCAR Xfinity Series compete next at Richmond Raceway on Friday, September 20.

Source: Racing Reference

Fin	St	#	Driver	Sponsor / Owner	Car	Laps	Status	Led	Pts	PPts
1	4	2	Tyler Reddick	Tame the Beast (Richard Childress)	Chevrolet	200	running	30	54	5
2	2	20	Christopher Bell	Rheem / Smurfit Kappa (Joe Gibbs)	Toyota	200	running	154	55	2
3	6	19	Brandon Jones	Juniper Networks (Joe Gibbs)	Toyota	200	running	0	44	0
4	1	00	Cole Custer	Haas Automation (Stewart Haas Racing)	Ford	200	running	0	47	0
5	3	7	Justin Allgaier	Brandt (JR Motorsports)	Chevrolet	200	running	15	50	0
6	36	9	Noah Gragson	Switch (JR Motorsports)	Chevrolet	200	running	0	31	0
7	16	08	Gray Gaulding	JT Marine (Bobby Dotter)	Chevrolet	199	running	0	30	0
8	13	23	John Hunter Nemechek	Berry’s Manufacturing (Maury Gallagher)	Chevrolet	199	running	0	35	0
9	15	18	Riley Herbst	Monster Energy (Joe Gibbs)	Toyota	199	running	0	0	0
10	8	10	Elliott Sadler	Nutrien Ag Solutions (Matthew Kaulig)	Chevrolet	199	running	0	27	0
11	7	98	Chase Briscoe	Ford Performance (Fred Biagi)	Ford	199	running	1	36	0
12	5	22	Austin Cindric	Money Lion (Roger Penske)	Ford	199	running	0	36	0
13	11	1	Michael Annett	Pilot / Flying J (JR Motorsports)	Chevrolet	199	running	0	27	0
14	22	8	Ryan Truex	Bar Harbor (JR Motorsports)	Chevrolet	199	running	0	26	0
15	10	11	Justin Haley	Leaf Filter Gutter Protection (Matthew Kaulig)	Chevrolet	199	running	0	23	0
16	17	86	Brandon Brown	Vero True Social (Jerry Brown)	Chevrolet	198	running	0	21	0
17	37	90	Alex Labbe	Martin & Cain Warehousing (Mario Gosselin)	Chevrolet	198	running	0	20	0
18	29	36	Josh Williams	Star Brite / Star Tron / Simcraft (Mario Gosselin)	Chevrolet	198	running	0	19	0
19	20	07	Ray Black, Jr.	Isokern Fireplaces & Chimneys / Scuba Life (Bobby Dotter)	Chevrolet	197	running	0	18	0
20	12	51	Jeremy Clements	RepairableVehicles.com (Jeremy Clements)	Chevrolet	197	running	0	17	0
21	23	01	Stephen Leicht	JD Motorsports (Johnny Davis)	Chevrolet	197	running	0	16	0
22	21	4	B.J. McLeod	JD Motorsports (Johnny Davis)	Chevrolet	196	running	0	15	0
23	26	0	Garrett Smithley	JD Motorsports (Johnny Davis)	Chevrolet	196	running	0	14	0
24	24	5	Matt Mills	J.F. Electric (B.J. McLeod)	Chevrolet	195	running	0	13	0
25	18	61	Tommy Joe Martins	Diamond Gusset Jeans (Carl Long)	Toyota	194	running	0	12	0
26	30	52	David Starr	Circle Track / Franklin’s Signs (Jimmy Means)	Chevrolet	194	running	0	11	0
27	38	99	Jairo Avila, Jr.	ART General Contractor (B.J. McLeod)	Toyota	193	running	0	10	0
28	28	15	Tyler Matthews	LineTec Services (Johnny Davis)	Chevrolet	191	running	0	9	0
29	32	35	Joey Gase	Nevada Donor Network (Carl Long)	Toyota	187	vibration	0	8	0
30	34	78	Vinnie Miller	Pit Viper Sunglasses (B.J. McLeod)	Chevrolet	186	running	0	7	0
31	31	93	C.J. McLaughlin	Sci Aps (Rod Sieg)	Chevrolet	121	crash	0	6	0
32	25	74	Kyle Weatherman	(Mike Harmon)	Chevrolet	66	suspension	0	5	0
33	27	17	Joe Nemechek	RWR (Rick Ware)	Chevrolet	56	steering	0	0	0
34	33	66	Chad Finchum	LasVegas.net (Carl Long)	Toyota	52	suspension	0	3	0
35	35	13	Stan Mullis	LasVegas.net (Carl Long)	Toyota	22	carburetor	0	2	0
36	9	89	Landon Cassill	Visone RV (Morgan Shepherd)	Chevrolet	20	overheating	0	1	0
37	14	38	J.J. Yeley	RSS Racing (Rod Sieg)	Chevrolet	2	fuel pump	0	1	0
38	19	39	Ryan Sieg	Lombar Bros. Gaming (Rod Sieg)	Chevrolet	199	disqualified	0	1	0

September 15, 2019

Christopher Bell wins at Road America, first on road course and sixth of season

Despite wild closing laps with road course ringers and Cup regulars spinning off track, Christopher Bell displays his talent and wins the CTECH Manufacturing 180 at Road America in the NASCAR Xfinity Series.

“Man, I’m honestly in shock,” Bell said. “I really butchered qualifying and tore the crap out of the left front. I felt like once we got in the race there, we’d be able to drive by those guys. Instead, they dropped the green flag and they were driving by me. That wasn’t much fun.

“Then I told Jason (Ratcliff, crew chief) I was really, really tight. We got those tires off and he said the left-front was hurt pretty bad. We got pretty good there when we put our new set of tires on.

“That strategy worked out well for us coming in there (with 14 to go) and then the yellow coming out. This car was really, really fast today. We’ve had a great road course season.”

NASCAR was forced to throw a caution for debris, setting up the race for a two-lap shootout for the win. Bell controlled the restart perfectly, but AJ Allmendinger spun his tires and fell back from the outside front row. Bell would hold off the field for the win, but it was eventful throughout the field behind him.

Austin Cindric pitted during the last caution flag to make a late-race charge through the field. After restarting in the 20th position, he had passed 15 cars and found himself on the heels of Matt DiBenedetto. Coming through Turn 14, DiBenedetto ended up spinning his No. 18 iK9 Toyota Supra, allowing Cindric to cross the start-finish line second — 1.891 seconds behind Bell.

“We talked about a five-to-go plan, that was like a green-white-checkered,” said Cindric, who came a position short of claiming three straight road-course wins in August. “I wasn’t 100 percent confident, but at the same time, we were battling a lot of wheel hop after four or five laps on tires and we had a lot more than on tires.

“In this kind of racing, you pretty much know that you’re going to get used up if you’re slower, so we wanted to go on offense and that was our strategy all day and we probably just needed one or two laps to get our Menards–Richmond Ford Mustang in Victory Lane. All in all, a good day, good points. P-2 is all right.”

Cindric also shared his viewpoint in the last two laps fittingly.

“It was chaos, it was insane. I think it’s why all these people show up at Road America and enjoy this type of racing. You never know what you’re going to get, it always comes down to those last-lap dashes to the finish, I’m glad to be able to put on a show at a place like this.”

Allmendinger admitted to the poor restart, but also collided with Noah Gragson after Turn 1 and spun off course. He would later be collected in a different off-course exchange and finished in a dismal 24th position.

The rest of the top five included points leader and Bristol Motor Speedway winner Tyler Reddick. Gragson and Kaz Grala. Justin Haley, Chase Briscoe, Jeremy Clements, Justin Allgaier and Cole Custer completed the top 10. Allgaier and Custer both recovered from earlier race incidents.

It was Bell’s 14th career Xfinity Series victory but his first triumph on a road course.

“I guess I just get lucky on these things, that’s for sure,” Bell said.

Just three races remain in the regular Xfinity Series season. They compete next in the throwback weekend at Darlington Raceway with the Sport Clips Haircuts VFW 200 (Saturday, 4 p.m. ET, NBC/NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

August 24, 2019

Tag: Christopher Bell

Justin Allgaier:

Christopher Bell:

Cole Custer:

Tyler Reddick:

Bell Shows Strength Early in Stage One

Dominance by Bell Was Outplayed by Reddick’s Gamble