BELL COMPLETES SWEEP, WINS WILD RACE IN NEW HAMPSHIRE
Truex’s battle for the win comes up short in final laps
LOUDON, NH (June 23, 2024) – Christopher Bell finished the weekend sweep and won his second Cup Series race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in wild conditions. After an extended rain delay, NASCAR elected to go with the wet weather tires to finish the race and Bell was able to drive to the front. The Oklahoma-native also won the first stage to continue to showcase his continued skills at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, where he has won seven NASCAR national series events.
Tyler Reddick, who was leading when the rain fell, finished in sixth, while John Hunter Nemechek battled back from two laps down to score an eighth-place finish. Martin Truex Jr. was able to overcome a pit stop issue and an on-track incident to finish in ninth.
Toyota Post-Race Recap
NASCAR Cup Series (NCS)
New Hampshire Motor Speedway
Race 17 of 36 – 318.46 miles, 301 laps
TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS
1st, CHRISTOPHER BELL
2nd, Chase Briscoe*
3rd, Josh Berry*
4th, Kyle Larson*
5th, Chris Buescher*
6th, TYLER REDDICK
8th, JOHN HUNTER NEMECHEK
9th, MARTIN TRUEX JR.
13th, ERIK JONES
16th, TY GIBBS
24th, DENNY HAMLIN
34th, BUBBA WALLACE
*non-Toyota driver
TOYOTA QUOTES
CHRISTOPHER BELL, No. 20 Rheem Toyota Camry XSE, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 1st
How are you feeling?
“I love this place. It is absolutely amazing. This place – I don’t know – it has been special to me since we came here for that late model race back in, I think, 2015. This one was different though. Rain tires, the track was really slippery – it was just so much fun out there in those adverse conditions, the track was changing around so much. That was one a lot of fun, and I’m really happy for our partners – Rheem, Toyota, DEWALT. We have Watts on the car again. I think we we’ve won every time they have been on the car. Just a really cool weekend.”
What was it like out there?
“I think just trials and tribulations on the wet weather tires. We did it in Richmond and we learned from that on what my car needed and how I needed to drive it and they – Adam Stevens (crew chief) and my team were able to make great adjustments to get this thing where it was driving really good on rain tires.”
TYLER REDDICK, No. 45 SiriusXM Toyota Camry XSE, 23XI Racing
Finishing Position: 6th
Can you talk about this race?
“Yeah, it was a really interesting day – that is for sure. It was a real shame we couldn’t find victory lane today in our SiriusXM Toyota Camry, but for us to take a risk and have a potential to win the race if it continued to rain and to turn that into a top-10 finish is good for our team. We will take the sixth place finish, and move on from it and get ready for the next one, but it was certainly an interesting day and a wild experience.”
JOHN HUNTER NEMECHEK, No. 42 Family Dollar Toyota Camry XSE, LEGACY MOTOR CLUB
Finishing Position: 8th
Where did you come from at the end of the race?
“We were stuck two laps down until we got all of the cautions. I was sitting on the top of the box with Ben (Beshore, crew chief) praying that we were going to be able to go back racing. We were awful the first run of the race, and just worked on it all day. These guys gave it all they had. A lot of adjustments throughout the day. Thank you to Dollar Tree, Family Dollar for all that they do for us here at LEGACY MOTOR CLUB and Toyota, TRD. I’ll take eighth after the day we had. I think we were stuck in 31st or 32nd pretty much all day, so solid finish for us and something that we needed. Hopefully we can build some momentum off of this.”
MARTIN TRUEX JR., No. 19 Reser’s Fine Foods Toyota Camry XSE, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 9th
With everything you went through, did you think you would come out of here with a top-10?
“Definitely not. When it was pouring rain, I thought we were headed home. Definitely a tough day. We had a speed in our Reser’s Camry. It is a shame the way things worked out, but definitely happy to get a top-10. It has been a rough four weeks, so we needed a good finish. We had good stage points, and we needed a good finish, so glad that we got it, but it hurts to have a tough day here, probably being my last one.”
ERIK JONES, No. 43 Dollar Tree Toyota Camry XSE, LEGACY MOTOR CLUB
Finishing Position: 13th
Can you talk about the end of that race?
“We put the wets on the Dollar Tree Camry, weren’t really good on them, and had to make some big changes to get better, and just ran out of time in the end trying to get our track position better. Okay day, wish we could have just run on the dries and ran a normal race. We will take what we learned and hopefully be better for the wet next time.”
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