Toyota Racing – Christopher Bell
NASCAR Xfinity Series (NXS)
Auto Club Speedway – March 16, 2018
Joe Gibbs Racing driver Christopher Bell was made available to the media at Auto Club Speedway:
CHRISTOPHER BELL, No. 20 GameStop Turtle Beach Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
How do you feel about racing at Auto Club Speedway for the first time?
“Just trying to learn as much as I can. This place is unique. There’s not another race track out there that’s similar to this. Michigan is another two-mile track, but the pavement doesn’t really relate at all, so just going to go out there and try to learn as much as I can throughout the two practice sessions. My GameStop Camry will be really fast, so I’ve just got to do my job and try a put it up front.”
What’s your take on drivers taking appearance fees to go grassroots racing?
“Well, yeah, that’s a tough position there. All of us are professional race car drivers and this is what we do for a living, but at the same time NASCAR is our job. That’s how we make our living and for me and Kyle and I think the majority of us whenever we go back down to the lower levels, that’s for fun. We go back down there to enjoy racing, so you go back down there for the fun aspect – not to make money or at least that’s where I’m at on it.”
How is your relationship developing with crew chief Jason Ratcliff?
“Well, it’s been everything that I could have hoped for. We started out our season really strong at a test in Atlanta end of January and when we went there, we were really fast and had a lot of speed and that related to race weekend at Atlanta and we’ve just been able to carry that momentum, so going into the 2018 season I knew that I was in good hands with Jason (Ratcliff, crew chief), but it’s just a matter of if you guys can click, if he understands my language, if we can be on the same page and it’s a total change of pace from Rudy Fugle last year in the Truck Series. They’re two totally different personalities, but they both provide really fast race cars, so that’s a big part of building up that relationship and if you have success, it’s really easy to get along with somebody, so that’s definitely aided in our communication process, so hopefully we can continue to run good and keep building that up.”
How’s your season been to date?
“And for me in the words of Kyle Busch, ‘Everything’s great’.”
