In a backup car, and starting in the rear of the field, Christopher Bell earned a hard-fought fourth-place finish in the inaugural Iowa Corn 350 at Iowa Speedway. The Oklahoma native and his Joe Gibbs Racing team overcame adversity all weekend and race long on the way to their fifth top-five of the season and fourth consecutive top-10.
Bell had a strong No. 20 Toyota Camry XSE, quickly driving up through the field after the green flag in Stage 1 and running mostly inside the top-10, and leading seven laps, in Stage 2. However, an ill-timed caution as he entered pit road in the lead moved him to the end of the lead lap, where he used the rest of the race to battle his way back up the running order to fourth.
Martin Truex Jr. battled back from a lap down early on to earn a 15th-place finish in his No. 19 Toyota Camry XSE, and Bubba Wallace, who finished fifth in Stage 2, came home 17th at the race’s end.
The Cup Series heads to New Hampshire Motor Speedway next Sunday, June 23.
Toyota Post-Race Recap
NASCAR Cup Series (NCS)
Iowa Speedway
Race 17 of 36 – 306.25 miles, 350 laps
TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS
1st, Ryan Blaney*
2nd, William Byron*
3rd, Chase Elliott*
4th, CHRISTOPHER BELL
5th, Ricky Stenhouse Jr.*
15th, MARTIN TRUEX JR.
17th, BUBBA WALLACE
22nd, TYLER REDDICK
24th, DENNY HAMLIN
25th, TY GIBBS
26th, JOHN HUNTER NEMECHEK
32nd, ERIK JONES
*non-Toyota driver
TOYOTA QUOTES
CHRISTOPHER BELL, No. 20 Rheem Toyota Camry XSE, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing position: 4th
Starting in the rear, and with a backup car, you have to be proud of a fourth-place finish.
“Yeah, I mean, a top-five, is a good day. Obviously, we had pace to be better than that, so that’s why I’m sitting here with mixed emotions. Great effort, and if we keep bringing cars like that, hopefully it’ll be our day one of these times.”
Did you make adjustments to the car to pick up speed at the end?
“I was just not good until the tires got hot. Once the tires got hot, it came in. I was literally the slowest car in the field when we took off on stickers, and all of a sudden, it started to come in, and we were really fast. I don’t know. It was an up and down day, and I don’t really quite know how to feel about it.”
What was the car like in the long runs tonight?
“Yeah, I mean it was a rocket ship on the long runs. Everything I needed. I don’t know how much faster I was, but I could see the leaders, and then all of a sudden, I couldn’t see them later on. It was good on the long runs, just struggled with strategy and on the short runs.”
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