T.J. Bell is building momentum. The driver of the No. 50 Green Smoke Chevrolet made good on his attempts to compete in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series events at Pocono (Penn.) Raceway and Indianapolis (Ind.) Motor Speedway. Now having three new cars in his LTD Powersport team’s arsenal, along with continued sponsor support from Green Smoke, Bell plans to keep that momentum rolling for the rest of the season.
Formed just this season, LTD Powersport has experienced the highs and lows of a small operation competing at NASCAR’s highest level. The team runs a limited Sprint Cup schedule and is outside of the top-35 in the point standings, requiring Bell to race his way into each event that he enters. The team’s first attempt was at Darlington Raceway, where Bell earned a spot in the Showtime Southern 500. The team narrowly missed their next two attempts, failing to make the show at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway and Kansas Speedway. Bell rebounded from the setbacks and successfully qualified his Green Smoke Chevrolet in the 5-Hour Energy 500 at Pocono Raceway and followed up the effort with another triumphant attempt to enter the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
LTD Powersport recently acquired three new cars and engines to add to its inventory of Green Smoke Chevrolets. Bell’s next effort will be at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International.
“Everything is coming together for our team,” Bell said. “We’ve experienced some growing pains this year, but we’re getting stronger and stronger as the season goes on. We made the race at Indianapolis and proved that we have fast cars. The Brickyard is one of the most competitive events to make the field and we qualified our way into it. That was a huge confidence builder for our team. And now that we have new cars and motors, we’ve got a lot of momentum behind us. It feels great.”
In addition to the new equipment, Bell has formed an alliance with the Helping Early Responders Organization (H.E.R.O.). H.E.R.O.’s primary mission is to support and assist the non-profit organizations that help the men and women who are firefighters, police officers, E.M.T.s, members of our armed services and their families in their time of greatest need. Bell and Green Smoke will host these heroes as their guests at each race the team is entering.
“I’m really proud to be working with H.E.R.O.,” Bell said. “They’re a phenomenal group of people and I’m excited that we can reward them for their hard work and dedication. We’ll do our best to show them a small token of our appreciation. Hopefully we’ll continue our on-track success and position ourselves for a full season of racing next year and we could do a lot more with H.E.R.O. I think we’re heading in the right direction for sure.”
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