RACE: Kansas Lottery 300
TRACK: Kansas Speedway
START: 1st
FINISH: 12th
LAPS: 200

Bell Finishes 12th at Kansas Following Late Race Incident

Stage 1 Recap (Laps 1-45)

• Christopher Bell qualified on the pole for 200 laps Saturday afternoon at Kansas Speedway. The pole is Bell’s fifth of the 2019 season.
• Bell dominated stage one, leading every lap despite reporting that his No. 20 Rheem Supra was “edgy loose.”
• At the conclusion of the stage Bell brought his Supra down pit road for four tires and fuel. With fast service from the Rheem crew Bell returned to the track the leader to start the second stage.

Stage 2 Recap (Laps 51-90)

• Bell started 1st, finished 2nd.
• The No. 20 fired off tight to start stage two, but then the loose handling condition returned.
  Around 10 laps into stage two the No. 00 made a pass for the lead and was able to take the position from Bell.
• Bell was hot on his heels, but never could regain the lead and ultimately closed out stage two second.
• At the stage break crew chief Jason Ratcliff told Bell they’d get him tightened up. They called him down pit road for four tires, fuel, track bar and air pressure adjustments. The pit crew performed another fast stop and got Bell the lead off pit road.

Stage 3 Recap (Laps 96-200)

• Bell started 1st, finished 12th.
• Bell led the field to the green to kick off the final stage at Kansas. He maintained that position until the No. 98 got around him just past halfway in the race.
• The Rheem Supra had fired off free but got tight on exit as the laps had progressed. A caution on lap 145 allowed the team to bring Bell down pit road for four tires, fuel and adjustments.
• Bell spent the next run racing hard with the No. 98 for the lead and putting on a show for the fans with great racing on the track.
• Unfortunately, on lap 184 a lapped car didn’t realize the leaders were running the highline and coming up on him and he got into their line and the miscue resulted in three damaged race cars, including the No. 20.
• Bell came down pit road twice for repairs to the right front fender and fresh tires under caution for the accident.
• Bell restarted at the tail end of the field as a penalty for pitting before pit road was open, but despite the incident was able to stay on the lead lap and salvage a 12th-place finish.

Additional Notes

• Bell led four different times for a total of 69 laps.
• Bell leads the NXS Championship Point Standings, 11 points ahead of Cole Custer

Can you talk about what happened with the late-race accident?
“Yeah, we had a really, really fast car. We were pretty competitive. It seemed like we just that much off at moments to get where I needed to be to lead the race. Even when I was leading the first stage, I was this much off. I can’t really comment on what happened. I haven’t seen it yet.”

Talk about your day today, Christopher.
“It was a lot of fun out there. Me, 00 (Cole Custer) , the 2 (Tyler Reddick), the 98 (Chase Briscoe) were all racing really hard and for Brandon (Jones) to get a win is very cool. It’s great for Joe Gibbs Racing, and great for Brandon too. He has deserved that one. We were close, and ultimately it was a lot of fun racing.”

Next Up: The NASCAR Xfinity Series is off next weekend but will return to action in two weeks at Texas Motor Speedway. The race will be broadcast live Saturday, November 2 at 8:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN.