Christopher Bell had the dominant car in Sunday’s Round of 12 opener at Kansas Speedway, but multiple mistakes hindered the No. 20 car’s performance.
Starting from the pole position for the third straight race at Kansas, Bell was dominant in the opening stage, leading 71 of the opening 72 laps. But with William Byron closing in on the No. 20 car with eight laps remaining in Stage 1, Bell got loose in the middle of Turns 1 and 2 and smacked the wall, allowing the No. 24 car to get by. Over the next eight laps, he dropped three additional positions, scoring six stage points in fifth position.
After racing back to the lead, Bell was one of the playoff drivers to stay out, hoping to earn stage points when Austin Cindric spun on the backstretch at Lap 156. When the race resumed, Bell was contesting for the stage win with four laps remaining when he smacked the wall coming off Turn 4, allowing Alex Bowman to get by to score his first stage win of the season. The second hit was more significant, dropping the No. 20 Toyota to 16th at the end of the stage.
“I wish I had a couple of corners back,” Bell told NBC Sports after the race. “It’s funny how you have 267 laps in a race and if you have a couple of corners back, your race would look a whole lot different.”
During a chaotic final stage, Bell lingered outside the top 10. But on what turned out to be the final restart, he raced from 13th position to finish seventh. It’s not a satisfying result for the driver who led a race-high 122 laps.
“At one point, I thought we were going to finish a lot worse than seventh, so we got out of here with a pretty decent points day,” Bell added. “But it sure feels like we left a little bit on the table.”
With a car capable of winning and two wild card races remaining in the Round of 12 at Talladega and the Charlotte Roval, Bell sits third on the playoff grid, 28 points above the elimination line.
The good news for Bell is the No. 20 team constantly brings among the best cars to the race track. This is the sixth time in 2024 that Bell has led at least 80 laps in a race, all coming in the last 17 races. He’s won two of those races (Charlotte and New Hampshire).
“It’s on to the next one,” Bell said of how he will put the seventh-place finish behind him. “I’m grateful that we got a good finish out of it, got some stage points in Stage 1; probably left nine or 10 stage points on the table in Stage 2, but you can’t take it back. [The No. 20 team] brought the heat this week at Kansas. If we keep bringing those racecars, we will be just fine.”
The bad news for Bell, he’s struggled to put finishes together at Talladega, entering next weekend’s race with an average finish of 21st in nine starts. His knack for superspeedway racing has improved in recent seasons, as he has three top-five finishes in the five drafting tracks this season. His other two results were outside the top 30, including a last-place finish at Talladega in the spring.
At Kansas, Bell salvaged what could have been a rough outing with multiple mishaps. Instead, it showed that he is a championship threat, as the No. 20 team is the only team to make it to the Championship 4 in each of the last two years.