By Luis Torres, Staff Writer/Photographer
Martinsville Speedway has provided the highs and lows for pole sitter Christopher Bell over the years.
From punching his ticket into the Championship 4 three years ago to being denied a title opportunity for wall riding last fall, Bell has had a complicated relationship with the half-mile circuit.
After Sunday’s Cook Out 400, Bell crossed the line in second for his best result in the 400-lap race with his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin taking the checkered flag.
Despite coming up short for his second grandfather clock, it’s Bell’s second top-five at Martinsville, a venue he put it bluntly hasn’t always been nice to the three-time winner this season.
“I felt really bad at the end of the run there. I was falling pretty far back behind Denny,” said Bell. “I think qualifying really good was a big part of our success this weekend. Hopefully we can come back a little bit better in the fall and be able to have a nice, solid day like we did today.
“Everyone executed really well. Thank you to my pit crew. They did a great job. The car was amazing in qualifying. Got us that number one pit stall, which was a big part of our success today as well. We did the details right and came home second.”
On a day where cautions breed cautions that set a record 10 cautions for the 400-lap race, the final green flag ran lasted 75 laps with Bell trying to best Hamlin on what turned out to be the final restart.
While Bell did lead his 25th and final lap of the afternoon, Hamlin would get by him for the final time entering Turn 4 and didn’t look back. All Bell could do is try to manage a loose handling No. 20 DeWalt Outdoors Toyota in the final run and not lose second to Bubba Wallace in the closing laps.
Bell successfully held him off to bring JGR its first 1-2 finish at Martinsville since Spring 2010. Ironically, Hamlin also won by besting his then-teammate Joey Logano in the No. 20 machine.
After the fire was put off and Hamlin celebrated some more, Bell stopped by to congratulate his teammate and had some laughs. While a fourth win of the season wasn’t in the cards, Bell was appreciative of having a strong points day to continue his strong start of the season that recently saw some fallbacks.
“We were back and forth on balance a little bit. I asked to be freer throughout the whole race. That last run I just went a little bit too loose and lost my drive off,” Bell explained.
“It was a great weekend for Joe Gibbs Racing. Showed a lot of pace. All four of the cars were really good. Really happy to kind of get back up front. The last two weeks have been rough for this 20 team.
“Proud of all our partners, DeWalt, Toyota, Joe Gibbs Racing. Really happy for Denny. He’s the Martinsville master. Second is not that bad.”
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