Christopher Bell Capitalizes on Late Restart At Road America To Win Sixth Race Of 2019

Christopher Bell Capitalizes on Late Restart At Road America To Win Sixth Race Of 2019

by August 24, 2019 0 comments

ELKHART LAKE, Wis. – Christopher Bell continued his winning ways by dominating a restart with just two laps to go to win Saturday’s CTECH Manufacturing 180 at Road America.

An accident involving Gray Gaulding set the field up for a two-lap dash to the finish. On the restart, Bell took off AJ Allmendinger appeared to have spun his tires. As the field rounded the first few corners, Bell continued out front, as Tyler Reddick moved into second and Allmendinger spun after contact with Noah Gragson. Bell held on for the victory, his sixth of the 2019 season.

“I’m honestly in shock,” said Bell, driver of the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 20 Rudd Toyota. “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.”

Austin Cindric, who won road courses, Watkins Glen and Mid-Ohio came up one position short of a win. The runner-up finish marked Cindric’s fourth consecutive top-five finish.

Reddick finished third, followed by Gragson, Kaz Grala, Justin Haley, Chase Briscoe, South Carolina’s Jeremy Clements, Justin Allgaier and Cole Custer.

Matt DiBenedetto led a race high of 18 laps, but on the final lap while running inside the top-three, he went off track and had to settle for a disappointing 27th-place finish.

There were only four cautions for eight laps. No cautions were for multicar accidents.

Reddick Leads Bell in the standings by 45 points.

The NASCAR Xfinity Series will visit Darlington Raceway for the Sport Clips Haircuts 200 at Darlington Raceway. Live coverage will broadcast on NBC and the Motor Racing Network (MRN) at 4 p.m. ET on Saturday, August 31.

Photo Credit: Stacy Revere/Getty Images

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