Toyota Post-Race Recap
NASCAR Xfinity Series (NXS)
Richmond Raceway
Race 27 of 33 – 187.5 miles, 250 laps
September 21, 2018
TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS
1st, CHRISTOPHER BELL
2nd, Ross Chastain*
3rd, Daniel Hemric*
4th, Dale Earnhardt Jr.*
5th, Matt Tifft*
8th, BRANDON JONES
18th, RYAN PREECE
26th, CHAD FINCHUM
29th, BAYLEY CURREY
30th, JOSH BILICKI
38th, JOHN JACKSON
*non-Toyota driver
TOYOTA PLAYOFFS DRIVER POINT STANDINGS**
1st, CHRISTOPHER BELL 2,090 points
2nd, Daniel Hemric* 2,062 points
3rd, Justin Allgaier* 2,056 points
4th, Ross Chastain* 2,053 points
5th, Elliott Sadler* 2,051 points
8th, BRANDON JONES 2,035 points
*non-Toyota driver
**unofficial point standings
· Camry driver Christopher Bell was victorious in the NASCAR Xfinity Series (NXS) race at Richmond Raceway on Friday night.
· The win came in the first Playoff race for the NXS automatically transferring Bell into the second round as he chases this year’s championship.
· Bell started from the pole for the fourth time this season in tonight’s race and led 67 laps (of 250) en route to his fifth victory of the season.
· Tonight’s fifth win ties Bell with Kyle Busch, Carl Edwards and Greg Biffle for the most wins by a driver in their rookie season.
· Joe Gibbs Racing and Toyota teammate Brandon Jones also earned a top-10 finish of eighth as he looks to transfer to the next round of the Playoffs.
TOYOTA QUOTES
CHRISTOPHER BELL, No. 20 Rheem Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 1st
How does it feel to advance in the Xfinity Series playoffs?
“I’ll tell you what buddy, that’s pretty cool. It’s not very often that you get to win with a car that’s not a winning car, so we’ll take it. Just thank you to my pit crew for the awesome pit stops tonight. Jason Ratcliff (crew chief) did a great job making this thing better each and every time we hit the pit road. Man, I’m just pumped. To be able to sweep Richmond and to get five wins on top of that just couldn’t be happier.”
What kind of a statement does it make to come out and win the first race of the Xfinity playoffs?
“That’s just really cool man. To be able to come out here and to win on a restart like that is really special. Just really proud of Jason (Ratcliff, crew chief). He’s done such an excellent job of taking care of me. I don’t have a ton of experience in the world and he does such a good job of making sure I’ve got what I need in the race. Each pit stop we kept getting closer and closer. We weren’t the best car, that’s for sure. On the long run those guys would just drive away from me. He kind of knew what we needed for a 10 to 15 lap run there at the end and gave me what I needed. The pit crew did an awesome job keeping me out front. Got to restart on the front row and that was key.”
What enabled you to get by Matt Tifft and take the lead in the final restart?
“Just a couple restarts and a couple practice attempts. I restarted on the top a couple of times and kind of knew what I needed to do. Luckily, I got to start in the middle of the race track instead of the top of the race track and that really helped. I don’t know if the 2 (Matt Tifft) car was getting pressure to the inside or not but I took the lead leaving (turn) two.”
What was the difference in your Camry at the end of the race to get you out to the front?
“It was all track position. Track position and then it was just a short run. If it was a long run at the end I don’t know if we had the best long run car, but whenever we came in we had really good pit stops so was able to get out and get position and then restarting on the front row there and was able to take the lead.”
How big is this not to have to worry about where you finish at the new road course at Charlotte next weekend?
“Now we can go to the Roval and race to win so I’m excited about that. We don’t have to go to the Roval and try to finish the race because we’re going to try and win that sucker.”
What does it mean to win this race and automatically transfer to the next round?
“To me it feels better to know that I don’t have to worry about getting crashed or crashing so I can be aggressive and go race and try to win so that’s the biggest thing for me. Me and Jason (Ratcliff, crew chief) sat down a couple weeks ago and kind of went over our little Playoff schedule here and there are race tracks on here that are circled that we can win at — and for the most part, that’s all of them, but Richmond is definitely one of them that we had highlighted that we should be really good at and we should be able to contend for a win. To be able to win two here is really special and the thing about winning the first race is you have the target on your back. Everyone is working to get better to beat you and that really showed. We weren’t the dominant car by any means, but Jason did an excellent job of tuning on that thing and getting it right at the right time and that was kind of the story of our day. Even qualifying, I’m not going to say a mid-pack car, but we were fifth to 10th and each round of qualifying until that last round and he put the magic setup on it and we went out there and got the pole. Kind of the same deal, I was right there in the hunt and would fall back a little bit and when it mattered, he put the tune-up on it.”
Is there anything you need to execute better for the upcoming rounds?
“We definitely weren’t as fast as what we needed to be tonight and that’s really two weeks in a row – Vegas and here – where we haven’t been fast enough to compete for the lead all race long, but at the same point, we still won the race and that’s because my team executed. Not just me, but my pit crew did a good job of maintaining our track position. We gained a couple spots over the course of the night and Jason tuned on it and made sure we weren’t setup for the long run when we only had 20 laps left and he made it good at the end. We have to get faster, but that’s track dependent and we’ve got a lot of really good race tracks that we’re fast at coming up.”
Is there something special to win a race that Dale Earnhardt Jr. competed in and led laps in?
“Yeah, it’s cool. I got to race with him last year in this race and I raced alongside of him and I think we battled a little bit throughout the course of the race – it wasn’t for the lead. It’s cool, but at the same time whenever you strap the helmet on, you don’t realize who’s in the race car. They just become cars and drivers. Whenever you’re out there racing, you don’t think about who you’re racing against.”
How gratifying is it to get this win and complete the sweep at Richmond this season?
“It’s really cool and to be able to win two races here is really special and to be able to pull into victory lane there with all the fans there, that was really cool and to be the first one to do it is really something that you don’t get to be in the history books very often. I’m the first guy to pull into Richmond victory lane now or the new one anyway. It’s really good to be able to win and racing is such a mental sport, I put a high percentage – probably 70 or 80 percent mental and confidence is everything. Winning gets you confidence and now unfortunately we have to go to a road course that might shake it a little bit. I think we’re in a really good spot.”
JASON RATCLIFF, crew chief, No. 20 Rheem Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
How have you developed this relationship with Christopher?
“Winning races helps and we have something in common and that’s we enjoy racing and we enjoy winning. And hanging out, we make sure that we schedule time every week to talk about what did we do well the week before and what do we need to do better the next week. It’s obviously been a good pairing for myself and for him and the race team to go out there and we have five wins now this season. We’re in a good spot. I think we still have a lot of things that we can do better, but at this point I think we’re right on par with where we need to be and we’ll see. We got the first round under our belt and I think the Roval is one that there’s a lot of unknowns there and there’s a lot of guys going in there next week that are concerned. For us to be able to go in there and not have any concerns and hopefully go in there and win would be fun. It’s good to know that we don’t have any pressure until we get to Kansas and then it will be back on.”
BRANDON JONES, No. 19 Juniper Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 8th
How was your race today?
“I think we had a phenomenal day today with it being a one-day show – practice, qualifying and race all packed in together. The car was great and I think we qualified really well too. We didn’t really have the long run speed and that’s kind of what we had in the spring. The short run speed was there, but just had so many long runs tonight so that didn’t really play into our favor too well with that. That late-race restart played into our favor a lot because we were able to make some gains a little bit. We stayed in the fight all day long and finished in the eighth place and all in all, I think we have to keep doing that to keep advancing to the next round. Hopefully next weekend at the Roval goes well for us.”
