LONG POND, Pa. — In his first race back after suffering a broken wrist at Michigan International Speedway, a race where Brandon Jones was on standby for relief if needed — Christopher Bell nearly had a chance to win.
It didn’t look that way at first. In fact, Bell called his performance at Pocono Raceway “lackluster,” as he qualified 22nd for Sunday’s (June 14) Great American Getaway 400 and spent the majority of the race mired mid-pack.
“Going out early to qualifying really hurt us, and then I could never make ground on the restarts, and ultimately I was in the twenties,” Bell said. “I do think my wrist had an effect on the restarts and stuff like that.”
With nothing to lose, Bell’s crew chief Adam Stevens made the call to not pit and stretch the fuel to the finish, and that put Bell in the lead with 23 to go.
It appeared to be Hail Mary call at first glance, as Bell said that Stevens was making it sound like “there was no way we were going to make it.”
But as the laps ticked down, Bell continued to hold a sizeable lead over the competition. But the speed of the top five cars was ultimately too much to overcome, as Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin ran down Bell and passed him for the lead with five to go. To make matters worse, Bell had to pit for fuel from fourth place entering the final lap.
The last-lap pit stop dropped him down to 26th.
“I just tried to do what he (Adam) was telling me to do,” Bell said. “He’s got the SMT data on what my throttle percentage is, what the RPMs are. Just didn’t have enough.”
But in a year where Bell and the No. 20 team have come so close to winning multiple races this season, this finish isn’t one that Bell will be losing sleep over.
“This was not a would have, could have, should have,” Bell remarked. “I’ve had a lot of would have, could have, should have this year, but not this one. That was just a gamble, and we ran we ran around 20th all day. I applaud him (Stevens) on rolling the dice and trying to do it.”
As for Bell’s wrist, he told the media that it provided him some difficulty in tight situations.
“Whenever I banged with the No. 21 (Josh Berry) or whatever getting into (turn) 3, and then that wreck in front of me, I just don’t really have the ability to make sharp, quick corrections to the car,” Bell said. “Whenever I’m by myself and we got single-field out, I felt like it didn’t bother me, but I certainly think it affected my resources.”
As for next Sunday’s race in San Diego, Bell wasn’t able to confirm whether he would race and said that, “we’ll see how the week progresses.”
Bell sits 70 points above the Chase cut line leaving Pocono. And while he and the No. 20 team have had a year where almost nothing has gone right, it’s clear they won’t be going down without a fight.
“The year hasn’t gone our way, so whatever the future holds, it holds,” Bell said. “I feel confident that our time will come.”
Stephen Stumpf is the NASCAR Content Director for Frontstretch and is a three-year veteran of the site. His weekly column is “Stat Sheet,” and he formerly wrote "4 Burning Questions" for three years. He also writes commentaries, contributes to podcasts, edits articles and is frequently at the track for on-site coverage.
Find Stephen on Twitter @stephen_stumpf
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