JOLIET, Ill. — For the fourth time this year, Christopher Bell finished one spot short of his first win of the season.
Bell reeled in Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Chase Briscoe in the closing laps but ultimately couldn’t pass the No. 19 car and finished second, rebounding from mid-race contact on pit road to earn his second straight top-five finish.
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On the surface, there was plenty to be happy with, especially with Bell earning such a strong result while actively recovering from a fractured left wrist. Instead, Bell climbed dejectedly from his No. 20 Toyota, walked to his right-front fender to assess the damage and returned to his driver-side door, slamming the side of the car in frustration with his healthy hand.
“I don’t know. It was a great race for us, great track, great car,” Bell said seconds later. “I don’t know. I don’t know what else to say.”
Bell’s disappointment overshadowed any positives from Sunday’s comeback in a race where he at one point fell far behind the leaders. His post-race demeanor was reminiscent of his Nashville Superspeedway runner-up on May 31, where he blamed himself for not beating Briscoe and fellow JGR driver Denny Hamlin in the final lap.
“It’s just disappointing to continue to lose races,” Bell said. “We’ve lost them every way possible, and … I’m just not good enough, man. Just not good enough. Our cars are amazing. I have the fastest car a lot. Toyota is great, and I’m not winning the races. Just not good enough right now.”
Being close offered him no solace. Bell closed to Briscoe’s bumper with five laps to go, but a mixture of lapped traffic and elite defense from Briscoe and spotter Drew Herring kept Bell from making the winning pass.
“Him and Drew do really good at blocking, and the game was on the line,” Bell said. “The race was on the line, and he knew that. I knew that, and yeah, I didn’t get it done.”
Briscoe admitted he was glad it was Bell who was in pursuit because he knew he could trust Bell to race him cleanly. But he also knew Bell would make him earn it.
“It was super close. He about won the race in (Turns) 3 and 4 with like two or three to go,” Briscoe said. “We caught a lapped car, and we were going to have to run the top because the lapped car was going to the bottom, and I kind of ran a little too high and he almost — I mean, he was so close to getting my left-rear. And if he gets to my left-rear, he instantly wins the race. But I was able to just barely squirt in front of him. And then the lapped cars is what made it — he was gonna catch me, I think, either way, but the lapped cars really just made it happen way faster.
“But then, honestly, at the end, the last two laps, lapped cars are what saved me because it made it where he didn’t have a clean lane. Like there was always another lapped car running the bottom or running the middle, but I could just kind of block him in a sense. I had to make sure I drove it in deep enough he couldn’t get to my left-rear, then just make sure I had a somewhat decent exit, but I was, I mean, sideways and drifting on exit a lot of the time. It was a super intense battle. Out of all the people that were going to catch me, I was glad it was him just because I knew he was going to race me super clean.”
Bell’s race was nearly derailed during the Lap 49 caution. After stopping for two tires under caution, crew chief Adam Stevens released Bell from his pit stall — but Todd Gilliland was wheeling his No. 34 Ford into a nearby stall just ahead. Bell’s right front hit Gilliland’s left-rear and spun Gilliland into his stall. Bell said the result of that contact was a loss in car performance that made his car “really, really loose,” necessitating multiple pit stops to repair the damage. Stevens took the blame over the radio for not informing his driver of the oncoming Gilliland, but Bell backed his crew chief.
“I just didn’t get the information quick enough to stop in my box and not accelerate out,” Bell said. “It’s just a mistake. It’s 50-50 — I’m driving the car. He’s the one on top of the pit box. We work together, so it’s not all on him.”