Bell Falls Short In Quest For Four Straight Cup Wins

Christopher Bell (HHP/Tom Copeland photo)

LAS VEGAS – Joe Gibbs Racing driver Christopher Bell’s attempt at earning a historic fourth consecutive win in the NASCAR Cup Series fell short in Sunday’s Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

The grind started before the green flag even waved, as the JGR team changed the throttle body on the No. 20 Interstate Batteries Toyota Camry XSE. The part change forced Bell to relinquish his 13th-place starting spot and drop to the rear of the grid.

The Norman, Okla., native struggled to climb up the running order in the first green flag run of the race. However, a detached wheel from teammate Chase Briscoe during a cycle of green flag pit stops proved to be a coup in track position.

When the race restarted, Bell found himself ninth, though he slipped back one position to 10th when stage one ended at lap 80.

Bell’s grind restarted 20 laps into the second stage. As the field pitted under caution at lap 111, following a spin by Shane van Gisbergen, the left front tire was left loose. The 30-year-old left the pit box before the Adam Stevens-led pit crew could tighten the wheel.

At the behest of Stevens on the radio, Bell stopped in Briscoe’s pit box, having their tire changer tighten the wheel. NASCAR officials then penalized the winner of three consecutive races, forcing him to restart at the rear of the field for “pitting outside the box.”

Stuck in turbulent dirty air, Bell struggled to make any headway forward, finding himself outside the top 20 for much of the race’s second half. He briefly re-entered the top 10 in the final 19-lap green flag run.

However, his quest for four consecutive wins ended in a 12th-place finish, leaving Bell unsure of his emotions after the checkered flag.

“It was a grind today for sure,” Bell admitted. “I don’t really know how I feel yet, but we certainly didn’t do what we did the last couple of weeks and that was just to have a nice clean race.

“I think the Interstate Camry was definitely capable of competing for the win when we were at our best, but just going from the back to the front then back to the back and to the front again, we just didn’t get a handle on the balance because it changes so much when you’re back there [in traffic]. I felt like we were in position in stage two to contend for another win, but it got away from us.”

Despite his up and down day, Bell remained second in the Cup Series point standings, behind only Daytona 500 winner William Byron. His three wins at Atlanta (Ga.) Motor Speedway in February, Texas’ Circuit of the Americas and Arizona’s Phoenix Raceway have Bell locked into the Cup Series playoffs.

Next for Bell and the rest of the Cup Series field is the Straight Talk Wireless 400 at Homestead. On his way to victory there in 2023, Bell led 26 of 267 laps.

Broadcast coverage is scheduled for Sunday, March 23 at 3 p.m. ET on FS1, the Motor Racing Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.