RACE: Rhino Pro Truck Outfitters 300
TRACK: Las Vegas Motor Speedway
START: 2nd
FINISH: 2nd
LAPS: 200

Bell Finishes Second at Vegas

Stage 1 Recap (Laps 1-45)

• Christopher Bell qualified second for 200 laps Saturday evening at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
• Bell took over the lead on the first lap and led all 45-laps of the caution-free opening stage.
• At the stage break Bell reported back that his No. 20 Rheem Supra had pretty good overall balance.
• Crew chief Jason Ratcliff brought Bell down pit road for four tires and fuel and with a fast pit stop by the Rheem team Bell came off pit road as the leader.

Stage 2 Recap (Laps 50-90)

• Bell started first, finished first.
• Stage two also went caution free and Bell put on another dominating performance around the 1.5-mile track, starting from the lead and taking the green-white-checkered to end the stage in front of the field.
• At the stage break Bell came down pit road for four tires, fuel and a small air pressure adjustment.
• With another fast pit stop Bell maintained his lead to start the final stage.

Stage 3 Recap (Laps 97-200)

• Bell started first, finished second.
• The No. 20 Rheem Supra continued to be the class of the field over the course of the final stage, only briefly giving up the lead.
• Bell made his final pit stop with 30 laps remaining as the field cycled through green flag pit stops.
• One competitor took a different approach and saved fuel to make it to the end without making a final pit stop.
• Bell made a hard charge to regain the lead and was on the heels of the leader when the checkered flag waved. The No. 2 of Tyler Reddick was able to save enough fuel to make it to the end.
• Despite leading 154 of the 200 laps raced, Bell was left crossing the finish line second at Las Vegas.

Additional Notes

• Bell led 154 of the 200 laps raced at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
• Bell is the Playoff points leader heading into Richmond Raceway for the first Playoff race.

How do you make sense of the end of this race?
“It’s the second time this year that we got beat by circumstances. At Iowa we put on our tires when we needed to and some guys banked on a yellow coming out later and they got it and they beat us. Today, they just kind of did the opposite of us and won the race. Very, very disappointing. Obviously, I’m really happy with how our Rheem Supra was – it was really fast. That’s a good sign.”

How much more could you have pushed if you had known Tyler Reddick was going to try to stretch fuel?
“I got beat by seven-tenths of a second there. At the end of the race, I was running hard when they told me he (Tyler Reddick) was going to try to make it. I don’t feel like I gave up very much at the end. At the beginning of the run, I definitely wasn’t running as hard as I could have once they told me the 98 (Chase Briscoe) sped on pit road. Was it seven-tenths over 30 laps or whatever it was, maybe. But, we got beat.”

What’s the state of this team heading into the Playoffs?
“it’s really gratifying to see how fast we were on a mile-and-a-half. Our short track stuff has been really, really good and the mile-and-a-half stuff, it seems like a couple guys have had us covered. We can say that we had them covered today.”

Up Next: The Xfinity Series returns to Richmond Raceway for the GoBowling 250 on Friday, September 20, 2019. Coverage will begin at 7:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN, SIRIUS XM Channel 90 and MRN radio.