Early leader Christopher Bell found trouble in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race, colliding with Todd Gilliland and crashing out at Texas Motor Speedway.
Bell had led 22 of 267 laps in the Würth 400 Presented by Liqui Moly when his No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota encountered the spinning No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford of Gilliland on Lap 68. The two made contact at the exit of Turn 4, and Bell’s clipped car careened into the outside retaining wall on the frontstretch.
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Bell, who started seventh, had moved to the front of the field on pit strategy as the first driver to make a green-flag stop in Stage 1. He drove to the garage after calamity struck, and his team determined the damage to be terminal. Bell ended up last in the 38-car field.
Bell was running in close proximity to JGR teammate Denny Hamlin when Gilliland — running 28th near the tail of the lead lap — lost control in front of them. Hamlin held his line and avoided Gilliland’s car on the high side; Bell’s decision to take evasive action on the low side was his undoing, but barely.
“It was another one of those 50-50 calls,” Bell said after he was checked and released at the track’s infield care center. “Me and Denny were side by side and I saw him (Gilliland) spinning and Denny lifted, and I thought that I could shoot the gap on the bottom. And I thought I did shoot the gap on the bottom but I got clipped.”
Bell entered Sunday’s 400-miler ranked ninth in the Cup Series standings, and he dropped four spots to 13th after his worst finish of the season. Gilliland slipped three spots to 25th. He was able to continue at reduced pace after sustaining front-end damage, and finished the race 32nd — 13 laps down — after he was once flagged by NASCAR officials for failing to meet the minimum-speed requirement.
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Bell is still searching for his first victory of the season, and he’s gone five consecutive races without a top-five finish. His mini-slump has caused him to slip back from his high-water mark of sixth in the points after Las Vegas in mid-March.
“Just, I don’t know. I’m very thankful to be in the position I am in, and I’ve got great race cars to drive, got great sponsors behind me, and obviously I wish that I could make them proud for other reasons, of good results,” Bell said. “We haven’t had that lately, but they’ve stuck behind me, and I’ve got more opportunities ahead of me, so that’s what I’m thankful for.”