RACE: Pocono Organics 350
TRACK: Pocono Raceway
START: 17th
FINISH: 39th
LAPS: 140 laps

Strong Run Ends Early for Bell at Pocono

Stage 1 Recap (Laps 1-30)

• Christopher Bell lined up 17th to start the Sunday race of the Pocono doubleheader race weekend. The top 20 from the Saturday race were inverted to set the starting lineup and by virtue of his fourth-place finish, Bell started 17th on Sunday in the No. 95 Rheem Toyota Camry.
• The cars rolled off pit road with some weather in the area and were brought back down pit road after lightning struck within an eight-mile radius of the track, leading to a red flag delay.
• Bell made fast work once the green flag waved, working his way to 10th on lap one and was up to eighth by lap two.
• On lap four the field was under caution again for rain on the track. Bell reported back under yellow the that balance on his Camry was “pretty nice.”
• NASCAR red flagged the field for 50 minutes and 50 seconds while the rain passed, and the track was dried.
• The field resumed racing on lap 12 and Bell was seventh.
• Some competitors opted to pit before the stage break and Bell was able to capitalize on that and race his way up to third to close out stage one at Pocono.
• At the conclusion of stage one Bell reported back that he didn’t have the rear grip he had yesterday, and he felt like he was out of the track.
• At the stage break Bell came down pit road for four tires, fuel and an air pressure adjustment.

Stage 2 Recap (Laps 36-85)

• Bell restarted 21st to start stage two on lap 36 and unfortunately on lap 39 the back end came around coming off the tunnel turn and backed the No. 95 into the outside wall.
• The damage was too severe to continue, leaving Bell with a 39th-place finish at Pocono.

Your day is done early. What exactly happened Christopher?

“Yeah, I don’t exactly know. I was kind of rolling out there by myself, and I had a good gap between the guy in front of me and behind me, and it just stepped out getting into turn two there. It’s disappointing, but I’m really happy with the speed that we’ve had these last couple weeks. Obviously, yesterday here we were really fast and we had another great car today, so these guys keep bringing really fast Rheem Camrys to the racetrack and we will have good shows.”

Up Next: The NASCAR Cup Series heads to Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the Big Machine Hand Sanitizer 400 Powered by Big Machine Records on Sunday, July 4th. The race will be broadcast at 4:00 p.m. ET on NBC.