LOUDON, N.H. — With 30 laps to go in Monday’s Crayon 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Adam Stevens made the call. “Superman,” the crew chief told driver Christopher Bell.
The No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing team was running on the edge of the top five and looking to strategize their way to a podium finish, if not a win. They pitted and took four tires when all the other leaders took two. They had no way of knowing the call was irrelevant, with kryptonite waiting right around the corner.
Racing hard on his new tires with 14 laps to go, Bell spun in Turn 3 and backed his right rear into the wall. The damage was significant. He fell two laps down over the final stretch of the race and limped to a 29th-place finish.
“Just got loose over the bumps and spun it,” a dejected Bell said after the race.
The crash was the final chapter of a nightmare Monday for the No. 20 team. A loose wheel during a caution in the first stage forced Bell to pit a second time and restart at the back of the pack. Slow pit stops doomed the team all day.
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For these reasons, there were no smiles to be found in the garage area as the team packed its impaired Rheem Toyota Camry into their hauler.
But Bell, who started on the Busch Light Pole at New Hampshire, displayed impressive speed throughout the Crayon 301. After that loose wheel cost Bell his track position, the 28-year-old powered through the field. He was running some of his best laps of the race during the final stage before the spin.
This was the silver lining on an otherwise green and gloomy New England day for the team.
“It feels good to have good car potential,” Bell said. “We’ve had good car potential the last couple weeks, so hopefully we keep that going.”
Added Stevens: “I think we had another good car. I don’t think we had the best car, but we didn’t get a chance to keep our track position and tune on it up front. Was able to battle back through the field, show some strength.
“And it all slipped away at the end.”
The manic nature of Bell’s Monday epitomizes the challenge of NASCAR Cup Series racing. The winner of last year’s New Hampshire race, Bell once again had one of the fastest cars at the track all weekend. Yet a couple of mistakes were the difference between another championship-level run and a junked race car.
There’s no telling how Bell’s race would have played out had he not dropped to the back so early. Asked whether Bell could have competed with the race winner, JGR teammate Martin Truex Jr., both the driver and the crew chief imagined a victory would have been possible.
“I was right there with him when we were up front,” Bell said. “That’s all I know.”
Stevens called Truex the “class of the field” at New Hampshire, but he knows not to count out Bell.
“I think [Truex] was a little better,” Stevens said. “If we would have stayed up there and been able to work on it in that cleaner air, there’s a chance.”
RACE REWIND: Best moments from Monday | Truex does massive burnout on frontstretch
There’s also a chance Stevens’ strategy would have worked had Bell not slipped on Lap 287.
Stevens figured at least a few of the cars in front of Bell would take right-side tires during the final pit stop. The crew chief calculated that Bell would restart sixth with two tires and ninth with four tires. That made for a relatively simple call.
“If we’re going to have two [tires] and be behind the guys, we’re not going to pass them,” Stevens explained. “If we’re already going to be behind them, we needed four tires. I’d much rather be ninth with four than sixth with two.”
Bell didn’t have a say in the “Superman” strategy, but he did mention the new tire setup at New Hampshire — plus the extreme July heat — made for a slicker race than he anticipated. In theory, fresh rubber was a legitimate advantage, given the circumstances.
Bell and his team will enjoy the bigger picture when they look at points post-New Hampshire. They entered the race fourth in the regular-season standings, one point back from Kyle Busch in fourth. They left the Crayon 301 third in the standings, thanks in large part to Busch’s last-place finish.
The bigger picture that is the upcoming Cup Series schedule is also a pretty one for this team. Four of Bell’s five career victories have come on road courses and short tracks. Three of the six races remaining on the regular-season schedule (Richmond Raceway, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Watkins Glen International) will take place on a short track or road course.
There will be multiple chances in the coming weeks for Superman to fly.
