-
Bob PockrassNASCAR
Christopher Bell won’t have Kyle Busch or Brad Keselowski to deal with when he races at Iowa Speedway this weekend. That probably makes the Joe Gibbs Racing driver the favorite after back-to-back victories at Kentucky and New Hampshire proved the rookie is learning how to win at the Xfinity level.
Or is he?
Ask Bell what he has learned or what he’s doing differently or how much better a driver he is than at the start of the year, and he dismisses it, despite outdueling Cup champions Busch and Keselowski in recent weeks.
Bell earned a pair of seconds, a third and a fourth in the first six races this year before capturing his first win in the eighth race, an event in which he led 120 laps at Richmond.
He went winless in the next eight events and led more than two laps in only one of them before the recent back-to-back victories. Bell sees his win at New Hampshire in some ways as his team having the winning strategy of taking four fresh tires on the final pit stop rather than Keselowski’s choice of two.
While Bell is feeling good going into Saturday’s race in Iowa, he isn’t thinking that he has reached a new level of performance in the past few weeks.
“I don’t think I’ve become [a better] driver [in the past three weeks],” Bell said. “You get more experience, which that helps. But as far as ability, you’ve either got it or you don’t got it.”
Bell’s 11 top-5 finishes lead the series, but he also had three races in which he failed to finish, so he sits second in the standings, six points behind winless Daniel Hemric. In the seven races in which he has finished outside the top five, Bell has finished outside the top 10.
“I don’t know that he’s done anything different,” crew chief Jason Ratcliff said. “If you look all the way back to [a third at] Atlanta [in February], he’s done a nice job of running in the top two or three at most of these tracks and competing against … all those [Cup] guys.
“He’s doing the same thing. We’re giving him better race cars. We’re learning a lot about what he needs, and we’re doing a better job of making adjustments through the race.”
Ratcliff, a former Cup crew chief who most recently worked with Matt Kenseth, said Bell has natural ability, but he also has spent time studying to improve his craft.
“What stands out to me is his desire to learn and be the best — not just at going out and winning the races but understanding the game, understanding the strategy,” Ratcliff said.
At the second race of the season at Atlanta, Bell said his team showed signs of strength, but he wasn’t able to pull through because Kevin Harvick was so strong.
“Even back to the beginning of the year, we have been really fast and competed for wins,” Bell said. “It’s just coming together now. At Phoenix earlier this year, we passed Keselowski for the lead late in the race and just got a little bit too loose on the last run.
“[At New Hampshire], Keselowski took two tires, and we took four tires. I’ve lost a couple of them that I could have, should have won. And now I’m winning a couple that I could have, should have lost.”
Bell, the 2017 truck champion, said he enjoys racing against the Cup drivers. He didn’t think he did anything special at New Hampshire, saying “it isn’t anything I’ve got going on” to be successful at NHMS.
“You see all this crap going around the internet where Cup guys shouldn’t be allowed in Xfinity,” Bell said. “Why? Why shouldn’t they be allowed in Xfinity? If you’re a great race car driver, you should be able to compete with them.
“As a kid, growing up sprint car racing, I strived to go race with the World of Outlaws because they were the best. I strived to race with Kyle Busch, Keselowski and all those guys.”
He likes to remind people that he’s teammates with Busch, so Bell should be winning.
“I’ve got the same cars as Kyle Busch. … Driving for Joe Gibbs Racing, you’ve got great equipment,” Bell said. “They’ve won before me. They’re going to win after me.
“So it’s my job to make sure they win with me. That’s the bottom line.”