Toyota Racing – Christopher Bell
NASCAR Cup Series Quotes
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (February 12, 2020) – Leavine Family Racing driver Christopher Bell was made available to media at Daytona 500 Media Day:
CHRISTOPHER BELL, No.95 Procore Toyota Camry, Leavine Family Racing
What is it like to have that big spoiler?
“Well, I don’t have a ton of experience with it. We’ve got into, like, a little six‑car draft. I’ll be honest, I have not slipped one time yet. Grip does not seem to be an issue yet. I’m sure that will change whenever we get 40 of us out there. It’s definitely a lot different than what I’ve had in the past.”
In the Xfinity Series, you couldn’t lock bumpers. How much of an adjustment is that? How much of a challenge might that be?
“It’s definitely going to be an adjustment. The trucks, though, I remember it was a really similar feel to what I had on I guess it would have been Saturday in practice. The trucks have more horsepower, a lot more downforce, which is kind of similar to what we have with the big spoilers, bigger motors here. Just watching film, the cars definitely hook up nice. They can get some speed going whenever they get together. It’s going to be really interesting to see how that plays out in the Duels. The Duels will be an excellent practice session for us for Sunday as long as we don’t crash.”
Can you also give a perspective, people talk about the closing speed of these cars with the spoiler, how different is it from what you’re used to?
“It’s huge. I remember whenever I got into the Xfinity cars two years ago here, I was blown away by how just slow everything was. Obviously you draft at Daytona, but the draft was so minute compared to the trucks. All of a sudden you go from Xfinity to Cup, you’re back to these huge runs you get because the spoilers are so big, the air pocket is so big. It definitely makes it really exciting because it’s what you want. You want to be able to have runs and make runs and make moves. I think we’re going to get that on Sunday.”
How excited are you about competing with the rookies?
“It’s going to be really cool to see how we all fare out. How many rookies? There’s four rookies?”
Six rookies.
“Just speaking for myself, Cole (Custer), Tyler (Reddick) and John Hunter (Nemechek), I think we all are going to have our moments where each of us are better than each other. I think you saw that from the Xfinity races. One time one guy will be better, the next week the next guy will be better. I think we’ll all have our moments. It will be interesting to see who has more moments.”
Was it a point of pride to be the top rookie in the qualifying?
“I mean, Daytona qualifying has nothing to do with me. I was really, really proud for my team. My car chief, my crew chief, (Mike Wheeler) “Wheels”, everyone at LFR (Leavine Family Racing), they’ve done a great job preparing a really great racecar here. You don’t learn anything from the driver’s side on qualifying.”
What is your relationship with John Hunter Nemechek, Tyler Reddick and Cole Custer?
“I probably have the least relationship with Cole. I raced in micro sprints against Tyler a couple times. He was from California, I was from Oklahoma. He traveled a lot. He actually came to my home track, we raced against each other a couple times. John Hunter was actually the first guy that I guess kind of taught me how to be a pavement racer whenever I ran a pavement late model for the first time. John was out there kind of driver coaching me.”
Where was that?
“Hickory, North Carolina.”
You and Kyle Larson have been battling for many years. How is it to be at the highest level of NASCAR competing with him?
“It’s going to be a lot of fun. I hope I can whoop his butt at some time. I’m sure he has the upper hand right now. Ultimately, it’s going to be great to perform up to his level. My goal is to speed up that learning curve to where I get to compete with him and all the Cup regulars week in, week out.”
You talked about it in the past, a kid growing up from Oklahoma, Daytona 500. How has the experience been this week getting ready for your first Daytona 500 compared to the first time you went to the Chili Bowl?
“It’s totally different. I mean, the biggest thing is, whenever you’re a kid growing up in Oklahoma, really anywhere, competing in the Daytona 500 just seems so far out there. How do you ever even get there? Now that you’re here, it’s a worldwide event. I have all of my friends from Australia and New Zealand texting me saying, Holy smokes, I can’t believe you’re competing in the Daytona 500. It’s just a worldwide event. Even people that don’t like racing watch the Daytona 500. It’s a really big deal.”
Did you think you’d be here sooner? Did that happen faster?
“I wouldn’t say it’s happened faster just for the fact that once I got into NASCAR, my career has been I’m not going to say drawn out, I spent a lot of time, two and a half years in trucks, two years in Xfinity. I’ve seen it coming for a while now.”
Was it tough being a spectator on Sunday night?
“At Volusia? Yeah, part of my schedule was originally to be that Sunday, East Bay Tuesday. I’m so much of a fan of the sport, it was a great race. I got to see a great race. That kind of filled my satisfaction a little bit.”
Did you ride East Bay or go over there?
“No, I didn’t. After I crashed in New Zealand, I decided to put my dirt racing on hold for a minute.”
You love the dirt. You also have some experience on the pavement side. The asphalt side has struggled a little bit. Anything you see from your experience that maybe the asphalt side of things can take from the dirt community?
“That’s a great question. I think my best answer for you, coming from the dirt side and seeing the pavement side, is that they need more Bubba Pollards, maybe Matt Hirschmans, stuff like that, professional racecar drivers that compete with those guys week in, week out. On the dirt side, you have a solid group of professional racers that race. Those professional racers have their fan bases. On the pavement side, it just doesn’t seem that way. Maybe if you get guys like Kyle who grew up late model racing, Erik Jones, if they would go back and compete more, it would bring more of a fan base back to the pavement side of things. But, yeah, I guess that’s my biggest thing looking at asphalt late model racing versus sprints and midgets.”
The accident Down Under, dirt track racing, is that a momentary pause, something that’s going to be a lot longer?
“No, I mean, really it’s just a scheduling conflict. For me, I was originally planning on running Volusia, East Bay, East Bay. When I started looking at the details of it, I’m like, Man, this is my first Cup race weekend. I really need to focus on that. I just decided to skip Florida. Unfortunately the dirt racing doesn’t really start again until later on in the year. You’ll be able to hopefully catch me in a car Easter weekend.”
Have you wrecked as viciously as you did in New Zealand? I’ve never seen you get out of a car and slump by the door. We were concerned for you.
“Yeah, I’ve crashed a couple times that hard. Not very many, but a couple times.”
Would it have been here in the trucks?
“Honestly the truck crash here, I guess just because there’s so much material around you, the material absorbs the impact, whereas open‑wheel cars, your body has to absorb the impact. Yeah, that definitely hurt a lot worse than my Daytona truck flip.”
How important is it for drivers to be versatile?
“I think it’s huge. The biggest thing is being able to compete at all the different racetracks. They’re all extremely different. Being able to be versatile and good anywhere is a very big part of being successful in our sport.”
Having been through practice, qualifying, work a little bit in the draft, how do you feel going into Thursday and Sunday? Do you feel you are going to have a legitimate shot to win if you can survive till the end?
“Absolutely, I think we have a legitimate shot. Unfortunately at Daytona, you can ask anybody in the garage area, they all do have a legitimate shot if they don’t crash. That’s what makes Daytona special, though, is you never know who is going to win. I think our car is wonderful. To be able to go out there and qualify ninth, even more so than that, whenever we were all drafting together, we were really good. Seems like all the Toyotas have really good speed this week. It’s giving me butterflies to realize I’m racing in the Daytona 500, I do have a shot at winning.”
Is there a Toyota game plan for the 500 the way there has been in the past?
“I’m sure we’ll talk about that later on in the week. But it’s tough because we’re outnumbered so bad, it’s hard to think all the Toyotas are going to be able to compete against all that Ford and Chevrolet have. Whenever you get down to the end of it, it’s totally different. Typically a lot of crashes have taken a lot of cars out. You have to look around and see what’s left. Yeah, I would imagine we’re going to do everything we can to help each other.”
Is concentrating on the Daytona 500 for yourself or to send a message to your team that this is my number one priority?
“That’s a good question. I mean, I haven’t even talked ‑‑ the last that I talked to the team about it, they were giving me approval to go do it. But I felt like I owed it to them to show them that this is my job and I am solely focused on the Daytona 500, starting my Cup season out right.”
Do you have any idea how much focus you’re going to need to go Cup racing? It could be a lot more intense than what you’ve been doing.
“I don’t know. It’s tough because even whenever you’re Xfinity racing or truck racing, it’s similar. We got to get a couple races in here to where whenever we go to the racetrack we understand if we’re fast enough to compete for top fives or if we’re running 25th. I guess I would be able to give you a better answer to that later on in the season after we get a couple races under our belt.”
Do you have any sprint car races scheduled or waiting to see how the Cup stuff goes?
“I would imagine you’ll be able to see me somewhere Easter weekend. I haven’t pinpointed a race yet. Easter weekend I’ll probably be back somewhere.”
Have you done anything at all to prepare for the fact that you’re going to be running 500 miles?
“Yeah, it’s definitely the longest race I’ve ever run. Yeah, I mean, I feel like I’m in the best shape now that I’ve ever been in in my life. It’s definitely worried me, but everyone else does it, so I’ve got to be able to do it, too. It all starts on Sunday, getting through that first one. We’ll go to Las Vegas. Las Vegas is a 400‑mile race, a little bit shorter. But just getting acclimated week in, week out.”
You had a lot of success in Xfinity at Bristol, how excited are you to race Cup there?
“It’s going to be a blast. With the new package, the lower downforce package is going to resemble what we’ve raced there the last I guess four times that I’ve been there. It’s one of the races I have circled on my calendar, that’s for sure.”
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