‘Just a Bummer’: Bell Dominates Las Vegas, Has to Settle for Runner-Up Finish

By David Morgan, Associate Editor

Christopher Bell was the class of the field all day long in Sunday’s South Point 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, but he’ll have to settle for a disappointing runner-up finish instead of what looked to be an inevitable win.

After starting on pole, the driver of the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota led 63 of the first 80 laps in the first stage, where he would finish second to Tyler Reddick.

Bell would go on to lead an additional 92 laps and the second stage to bring his laps led total up to 155 on the day, far surpassing the next closest driver by almost 100 laps.

But with 37 laps to go, Bell peeled off onto pit road for his final stop of the day, dropping him to 11^th place, some 30 seconds back of the new race leader Daniel Suarez, who was playing the fuel mileage gamble to be able to stretch it to the finish.

With Suarez, Joey Logano, and others conserving fuel up front, Bell would be on full offense for the final run of the day, chewing up the track position between himself and the leaders to try and reclaim his spot at the top of the scoring pylon.

At the 30 to go mark, Bell was running ninth, 23 seconds back of the leaders.

He had closed that gap to 15 seconds and climbed to sixth place.

With 10 to go, he sat seven seconds back, running much faster lap times than Logano and Suarez up front.

As each lap clicked away, he got closer and closer until he could see them out of his windshield. The only question would be was there enough time to get there?

On the last lap, Bell closed to within a second of Logano, but even as he was charging back to the front, time was not on his side, as he fell just 0.662 seconds short of the win.

Climbing from his car in defeat on pit road afterwards, Bell admitted he was still trying to comprehend how this race slipped from his grasp when it seemed to be a lock that he would be the driver celebrating in Victory Lane.

I don’t think I’ve come to terms with it yet. Just a bummer,” said Bell.

“Everyone on this team did everything perfect today. This thing was obviously on rails, the pit crew did an amazing job, Adam (Stevens, crew chief) called an amazing race. We did everything we needed to put the Rheem Camry into victory lane, and unfortunately, it wasn’t meant to be today.”

Though he leaves Las Vegas disappointed, Bell and the No. 20 team head to Homestead-Miami Speedway next week, where Bell won a year ago. Despite his past performance in South Florida, Bell isn’t taking anything for granted as he seeks another berth in the Championship 4.

“It is a whole new race next week,” Bell added. “This track means nothing for next week, and fortunately, we were able to go and win in Homestead last year, but nothing is guaranteed. Just because I ran second this week, doesn’t mean I’m going to finish anywhere next week.

“I think the points look pretty good, which is a positive, but you are never safe in this deal. We needed to win today, and unfortunately, we didn’t. We will go on to the next one.”