Bell claims victory at Road America
Christopher Bell leads 10 laps on his way to his first road course win
Elkhart Lake, Wisc. (August 24, 2019) – Supra driver Christopher Bell drove to the win at the picturesque Road America in Wisconsin earlier today.
Toyota Racing Post-Race Recap
NASCAR Xfinity Series
Road America
Race 23 of 33 – 182.2 miles / 45 laps
TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS
1st, CHRISTOPHER BELL
2nd, Austin Cindric*
3th, Tyler Reddick*
4th, Noah Gragson*
5th, Kaz Grala*
16th, BRANDON JONES
19th, JOEY GASE
21st, RYAN ELLIS
25th, TOMMY JOE MARTINS
27th, MATT DiBENEDETTO
30th, DICK KARTH
35th, CHAD FINCHUM
*non-Toyota driver
• Christopher Bell scored the win at Road America today. It is his series-leading sixth win of the season and 14th victory of this career.
• It is the first road course win of Bell’s NASCAR career.
• Bell has finished top-five finishes in all three NASCAR Xfinity Series road course events this season.
TOYOTA QUOTES
CHRISTOPHER BELL, No. 20 Ruud Toyota Supra, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 1st
What a finish! You got a road course win!
“Yeah, how about that! I’m honestly in shock. I really butchered qualifying and tore the crap out of that left front. I felt like once we got in the race there we would be able to drive by those guys. Then they dropped the green flag and they were driving by me. That wasn’t very much fun. I told Jason (Ratcliff, crew chief) that I’m really, really tight. We got those tires off, and he said the left front was hurt pretty bad. Then we got pretty good there when we put our fresh tires on it. The strategy worked pretty good for us with us pitting and then the yellow coming out. This Ruud Supra was really, really fast. We’ve had a great road course season. I’m really honored to be a part of Joe Gibbs Racing. To get my first road course win is really special.”
Talk about your road course journey.
“I guess I get lucky on these things. I’m really heartbroken for Matt DiBenedetto. He was really, really fast. We knew from practice that both of our cars were going to be really good and that we would be right there racing each other. I don’t know exactly what happened, but I saw him go flying off of (turn) 14. That sucks. He’s in a tough spot right now. He needed a good run there.”
Is this the last bit of your driving arsenal that you needed to check off?
“Speedway racing is a struggle for me, but I’ll take that if I can go road course racing. I have to give a really big thank you to Ruud, Rheem, all of our partners at Toyota and Toyota Racing Development and all the fans that tuned in today. It’s an honor to be racing in the Xfinity Series. These cars are so much fun to drive. Luckily I get to drive one of the best one’s in the field.”
# # #
About Toyota
Toyota (NYSE:TM) has been a part of the cultural fabric in the U.S. and North America for more than 60 years, and is committed to advancing sustainable, next-generation mobility through our Toyota and Lexus brands. During that time, Toyota has created a tremendous value chain as our teams have contributed to world-class design, engineering, and assembly of more than 38 million cars and trucks in North America, where we have 14 manufacturing plants, 15 including our joint venture in Alabama (10 in the U.S.), and directly employ more than 47,000 people (over 36,000 in the U.S.). Our 1,800 North American dealerships (nearly 1,500 in the U.S.) sold 2.8 million cars and trucks (2.4 million in the U.S.) in 2018.
Through the Start Your Impossible campaign, Toyota highlights the way it partners with community, civic, academic and governmental organizations to address our society’s most pressing mobility challenges. We believe that when people are free to move, anything is possible. For more information about Toyota, visit ToyotaNewsroom.com.
