Christopher Bell appeared to be on his way to extending his recent hot streak during Sunday’s Ally 400 at Nashville Superspeedway. His No. 20 Toyota was best in class.
It took only 16 laps for Bell to take the lead from Denny Hamlin. Bell controlled the race until crew chief Adam Stevens called the No. 20 car to pit road. Once Michael McDowell pitted with 14 laps remaining in the opening stage, Bell resumed the lead and won his eighth stage of the season, tying Kyle Larson for the series high.
Much was the same during the second stage. After passing Hamlin for the lead again, Bell paced the field for 70 consecutive laps en route to his ninth stage victory of the season, now taking sole possession of the most stage wins in the series.
All was well for Bell until Lap 219 when Chase Elliott got loose off Turn 4 and spun through the infield to bring out the caution. Stevens called the No. 20 car to pit road, as a window opened up of making it on fuel to the end of the scheduled distance.
Multiple drivers stayed out to gain track position. Five drivers, including Ross Chastain, Joey Logano and Josh Berry, took two tires. Justin Haley and Kyle Busch took fuel only. Bell was the first car off pit road, but he wouldn’t even crack the top 10 on the restart.
On the ensuing restart, Bell spun entering Turn 1 and pounded the outside wall. His race was over.
“I just put myself in a pretty bad spot going into Turn 1,” Bell said from the infield care center. “I got bottled up there and just lost my cool to make something happen and I put myself in a bad spot and spun out.”
With the race winding down, Bell knew gaining track position at a rapid pace was crucial. He wanted to beat some of his toughest competition, such as Denny Hamlin, Tyler Reddick and Ty Gibbs, through the field, being the first driver on four fresh tires.
He never got the chance.
“It’s completely different, especially for me, I was out front all day long,” Bell told a group of reporters of his aero situation. “That was my first time experiencing being back in the pack.
“I got a very bad restart once I was buried and got frustrated and put myself in a bad aero spot. I’ve got nobody to blame but myself.”
Bell felt he let his team down. Entering the race, the No. 20 team was on a streak of five consecutive top-10 finishes, including a pair of victories at Charlotte Motor Speedway and New Hampshire Motor Speedway. By scoring 20 stage points, his 36th-place finish doesn’t look as bad as it would have if he didn’t sweep the two stages.
“I mean it’s disappointing, but there’s a lot to be positive about,” Bell added. “We won two stages, so we got more playoff points, which is really good. The performance of our team is doing really well, so hopefully we can keep the ball rolling and I think we can win a lot more races.”
Bell remains sixth in the regular season championship standings, but lost 23 points to Kyle Larson, and is now 88 markers below the lead.
It turned out there would be a record five overtimes and only Joey Logano made it the distance on fuel of drivers who pitted on Lap 221. In a race that was dominated by Joe Gibbs Racing, Hamlin had the organization’s best finish in 12th.