Toyota Post-Race Recap
NASCAR Xfinity Series (NXS)
Dover International Speedway
Race 29 of 33 – 200 miles, 200 laps
October 6, 2018
TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS
1st, CHRISTOPHER BELL
2nd, Cole Custer*
3rd, Justin Allgaier*
4th, RYAN PREECE
5th, Spencer Gallagher*
6th, BRANDON JONES
29th, BAYLEY CURREY
31st, JOSH BILICKI
34th, CHAD FINCHUM
36th, CARL LONG
*non-Toyota driver
TOYOTA PLAYOFFS DRIVER POINT STANDINGS**
1st, CHRISTOPHER BELL 3,044 points
2nd, Justin Allgaier* 3,039, points
3rd, Daniel Hemric 3,013 points
4th, Cole Custer* 3,011 points
5th, Elliott Sadler* 3,011 points
10th, BRANDON JONES 2,088 points
*non-Toyota driver
**unofficial point standings
· Camry driver Christopher Bell was victorious in the NASCAR Xfinity Series (NXS) elimination Playoffs race on Saturday at Dover International Speedway.
· With the win, Bell earned his sixth NXS victory of the season and became the winningest rookie in series history.
· In his rookie season in the NXS, Bell has six wins, 17 top-fives, 19 top-10s and 621 laps led.
· Bell sits first in the NXS Playoffs standings as the series heads to the Round of 8.
· Camry drivers Ryan Preece (fourth) and Brandon Jones (sixth) both finished inside the top-10 at Dover.
· With his finish, Jones has been eliminated from the 2018 NXS Playoffs.
TOYOTA QUOTES
CHRISTOPHER BELL, No. 20 Rheem Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 1st
What’s it mean to bypass Carl Edwards, Greg Biffle and Kyle Busch in wins in your rookie year?
“It’s the means the world. To be able to have the season we had, it’s been a career year for me. It’s all credit to everyone at Joe Gibbs Racing and my crew chief Jason Ratcliff. Everyone that works at the shop to put these Camry’s together. We have really fast cars every time we go to the track. All of our partners deserve it. Today we had Rheem on the car, other weeks we’ve had Ruud and GameStop. Everyone that makes this happen, I am thankful to be a part of it and drive for them.”
How did your pit crew impact this race?
“We’re all in this together. I’ve sped down pit road before, I’ve butchered restarts and they don’t yell at me. It’s not my job to yell at them. They know and came back to rebound better than ever.”
Describe your run today
“Whenever you’re back in traffic, this track is so fast. The concrete, the tires. Everything is so fast and everyone is really fast for awhile until the track rubbers up and gets greasy. It’s hard to do anything until the laps get put on the race track and it starts to widen up. This Rheem Camry was so fast on the long-run and especially when I could get the top going. It was really good.”
What was it about your car that made you so good up at the top?
“I would start tight on the stickers. Then I got more free and I would get loose on the bottom, so I could move up and still turn and get really good on exit to take the throttle down and get really good runs on the straightaway.”
Six wins this season – what does it mean to get that wins record your rookie year?
“It’s a credit to my team. As a race car driver, you’re only as good as your race car. Really fortunate to drive for Joe Gibbs Racing. My crew chief and team work their butts off and bring really face cars to these tracks. Makes my job easy.”
What does the momentum say about this next round in the playoffs?
“Racing is such a mental sport. Confidence is everything. I’m able to go to Kansas with confidence and I can run harder and feel better about that. We got a lot of confidence right now and everyone on this team is pumped.”
As being the only driver advanced, could you run your own pace today?
“I guess a little bit. The last two weeks the only things we’ve been racing for are the stage wins and the race wins. The rest of it doesn’t matter to us. I guess I am able to be a little more aggressive to win stages or races. At the same point, you don’t want to crash. To say I raced today any different than I raced any other day – probably not. We definitely put more emphasis on winning races and stages. Normally when you go in there, like today, when I was running stage two, it would have been content to ride in third and get stage points. Instead, I was able to get aggressive and try to win the stage. I didn’t but maybe a difference. For the most part, it’s the same mentality.”
What’s been the difference from when you began this season to now?
“Execution is the bottom line. It’s gotten a lot better. I don’t know – to say the race cars are better, we were good at the beginning of the year. To be honest, not having a bunch of Cup Series guys in there helps us. We’ve won races with the Cup guys in it. I think it’s all coming together. That’s really good. My race cars have been really fast. Thankful to be driving to for Joe Gibbs Racing with these fast cars. A race car driver is only as good as his race car. I’m sitting in one of the best race cars in the garage and I am really thankful.”
Is this your championship to lose?
“I don’t think it’s anyone’s championship to lose. It boils down to once race. If you look further into that, it boils down to the last pit stop. Do you execute on the last pit stop? Is your last restart good? Are your final 10 laps good? You have to have short-run speed at Homestead. It all boils down to one run to decide who the champion is. I don’t think anyone is a clear favorite and we won’t know that until about lap 100.”
What do you think you did in this round to separate yourself?
“We’re in really good shape right now. The bottom line is my race cars have been so fast. Every single week since day one. Driving for Joe Gibbs Racing, they will be fast. We went to Atlanta and were right there contending for the win. Kevin Harvick was a little bit better than us but it’s Kevin Harvick at Atlanta. Our cars have been so fast all year long. Now we’re just proving that. To able to win two of three this round is really cool. We’ve added to our bonus points going into the next round. It would be nice to win Kansas and be on offense again the entire next round. Kansas is a good race track for me and for Joe Gibbs Racing as well.”
Which of the next three tracks do you think will be most difficult?
“To me, Texas perhaps. It’s a repave. Everyone is typically fast there. The field is a lot tighter. At Kansas and Phoenix, our package is really good. We’ve been good at Phoenix like earlier this year. I expect to be good there again. Texas is a great race track for us. That’ll be the hardest out of three for us.”
Do the off-weeks break up the momentum of you winning?
“I am going sprint car racing next week. It won’t hurt my momentum at all. If it was an off-week for me, then yes. But the fact that these guys let me go race, it won’t matter. I will be just as sharp at Kansas.”
Where does this trophy rank?
“Pretty special. Ever since I started racing in NASCAR, Miles has been up there on the priority list. This track hasn’t been great to me the last couple of years. I was telling Jason, this is my fourth race here but only my second or third time qualifying here because of rain or getting through tech. I don’t know. I’ve crashed here once. I lost power steering in the fall. It’s never been great to me. Today it was really nice to me. Our car was fast and our pit stop was good at the end of the race. I get to hold Miles.”
JASON RATCLIFF, crew chief, No. 20 Rheem Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Which of the next three tracks do you think will be most difficult?
“All three of them are good for us. We ran second at Texas. Christopher won Kansas last year. We led some laps at Phoenix against Brad Keselowski and Kyle Busch. Realistically, we can go in and have a shot for all three. That’s our plan. Let’s be real, there are a lot of fast race cars in this series. Today we saw that. The 21 was fast. If he doesn’t get a pit road speeding penalty, he’s going to be right there. The 00. There are four or five guys who can win at any weekend. I like our chances.”
Do the off-weeks break up the momentum of you winning?
“I don’t think so. Hats off to our race team. They work super hard. The No. 20 team will get this car going. After today, we’ll get this ready for Kansas. That will keep them busy for a week. They will get a few days off. Next Monday we’ll be back at schedule and hard at it. I like the momentum and the rest here this week. We’ll stay busy and focused.”
How has Christopher developed this year?
“I think a lot of it is going back to race tracks the second time and that’s probably as much the race team bringing a better car back than it is Christopher coming to the track for a second time with this race team. I think as we make a trip back to these race tracks for a second time. Richmond we had a good outing in the spring and were able to come back and capitalize on it again. We ran okay here in the first race. Coming back, I feel like we’ve been better at some of these places. I think that’s a lot of it. The communication obviously every week continues to get better. Not that it was ever bad. Throughout the race, I felt we were falling behind. I felt we had a fast race car and I wouldn’t make the right adjustments. Hats off to him Monday through Wednesday, he’s in the shop asking questions on what he can do better. How can I communicate better? We continue to grow and that’s something we’ll continue to do and get better. That’s a lot of it, the second time at a track and our communication.”
When was the last time you saw a driver of this talent come along?
“Occasionally, you look at the guys who race on Sunday. Especially the ‘Big 3’ so called. They did well in this series. I was telling someone earlier, as long as this series has been around, for a guy to come in, and in 2018, and win six races as a rookie. It hasn’t been done. Still setting records as long as this series has been around. Hopefully Christopher can win a few more before the season ends, it’s impressive. It’s very impressive and that speaks to his talent level and what he’s capable of doing. I think his future in this sport is big. I think it’s going to go as far as he wants. If he stays focused, he has all the talent in the world. He’s setting records right now. I think that speaks to where he is as a driver.”
RYAN PREECE, No. 18 Craftsman Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 4th
How was your race today?
“We have the stuff to contend for wins. We’re just missing it a little bit. I got too loose under that last restart under the 7 car. If I was in front of him, I probably could have held him off. We were at-most a third-place car. We were struggling for grip today. Fourth place moves us into the next round of the owner points so we got more work to do.”
BRANDON JONES, No. 19 Menards Atlas Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 6th
How was your race today?
“Today went really well. We got behind on our first pit stop there. It was difficult to pass today for sure. We tried to move around so much, even at the top. I kept hearing (Christopher) Bell was moving up to the top and making it work. We tried a couple of times but we really didn’t feel our car was made to get up to the top and the bottom was more dominant for us. We gambled on two tires at the end because we had nothing to lose. It worked pretty well for us.”
Is there solace in being able to race for wins now after being eliminated?
“Yes. We’ve got a shot at a lot of the 1.5-mile tracks coming up and I think we have a shot at all of them. We started fifth today and finished sixth. Still not a bad day. We wanted to advance after all this but it was a pretty fun challenge trying to hold everyone off on the two tires.”
