RELATED: Complete race results | Detailed breakdown
CONCORD, N.C. — A spin on Lap 3 wasn’t the start Christopher Bell was hoping for in his NASCAR XFINITY Series debut, but the afternoon’s twists and turns over 300 miles ended with a hearty handshake from team owner Joe Gibbs.
Gibbs came by to extend his congratulations to Bell following his fourth-place run in the Hisense 4K TV 300. The 22-year-old Oklahoma native was the lone non-Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series regular to finish inside the top six and the top Joe Gibbs Racing car in Saturday’s race at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Coach Gibbs’ message to the young driver: “Good job. That was well done.”
The early incident involving Bell and Ryan Reed could have easily been discouraging for Bell, but he kept pushing forward.
“We had to fight through a lot of adversity there,” Bell said. “We had a lot of issues where we’d start passing guys and we’d have to come back and start at the tail. I’m glad it was a 200-lapper because we used every single bit of it.”
Part of Bell’s adversity on the day was seven pit stops during the race – many of the cars in the top 10 only made four stops on the day – to repeatedly work on the car after the early-race incident.
“I felt like we were coming back a lot,” Bell said. “It’s nice to know I can do it and we can run back up through the field, but I just have to put it all together. It sucks having to come back up through there. Your day is a lot easier when you can stay up front; you’re in cleaner air, the car drives better. I just have to execute and do a better job at the beginning of races and not make these mistakes.”
Bell kept digging and grinding toward the front, getting back into the top 10 on Lap 170. From there several cautions late in the race and fortuitous positioning on restarts — the outside lane — helped Bell come home in fourth. In post-race inspection, the No. 18 Toyota was found to be too low. Any penalties would be announced next week.
Earlier this month, a test session for the XFINITY and Camping World Truck Series was held at Charlotte. A test that Bell said was extremely beneficial for this start.
“The test was huge,” Bell said. “I had never sat in one of these cars before the test. Whenever Toyota came to me and said they have some XFINITY races, I was pretty excited that they said Charlotte was the first one because Charlotte was one of my favorite race tracks whenever we got to run the Truck race in the daytime (in 2016).
“Being able to just get seat time and just get a feel for it … I don’t think I was very fast at the test, so I knew … all I needed to do was get a feel for it and get some laps and come here this weekend and show speed. Thankfully our SiriusXM Camry was really, really good.”
Bell’s performance was the latest by a young driver to turn some heads. Race runner-up and Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series star Kevin Harvick took notice.
“There’s a lot of these guys that are going to be really good,” Harvick said. “I think when you look at (race winner Ryan) Blaney and Christopher and you could just keep going on and on … The sport’s in good hands and as you look at the experience these guys are getting at a young age, they are going to be well-seasoned by the time they’re 25.”
Next up on Bell’s XFINITY schedule is a June start at Iowa Speedway, followed by five more starts toward the end of the 2017 season.
“I can’t wait man,” Bell said. “These things are a ton of fun to drive. JGR brings awesome cars so I’m excited for the next one.”