Christopher Bell – No. 20 Rheem Toyota Camry XSE Preview – Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway - Speedway Digest

No. 20 Rheem Toyota Camry XSE News and Notes

BELL AT DARLINGTON: Christopher Bell had one of his strongest NASCAR Cup Series (NCS) runs at Darlington a year ago when he qualified on the pole and led 40 laps. Overall, Bell has one top five and two top-10 finishes in his previous 10 starts at Darlington Raceway.
DOUBLE DUTY: Bell will be driving the No. 20 Sport Clips Toyota GR Supra for Joe Gibbs Racing in Saturday’s Sport Clips Haircuts VFW Help a Hero 200. This is the second NASCAR Xfinity Series (NXS) start for Bell this season. Bell ran double duty at New Hampshire Motor Speedway and swept the weekend.
BELL NXS AT DARLINGTON: Bell has three NXS starts at Darlington Raceway. Bell narrowly missed qualifying on the pole in 2018 and 2019 and most recently competed in 2022 where he started in the back and crossed the finish line seventh.

DAYTONA RECAP: Bell started 27^th and skillfully drafted his way forward to end a caution-free stage one 15^th. Bell suffered some minor damage in incidents during the rest of the race but overall was able to keep the No. 20 Toyota Camry XSE intact, surviving two green-white-checkered attempts to earn a third-place finish at Daytona.
RHEEM GUESTS AT DARLINGTON:Rheem is hosting over 60 guests this weekend in Darlington. All guests on site are distributors and contractors from the Southeast Water Heating Division (WHD).

JGR AT DARLINGTON: JGR has claimed 10 NCS victories at Darlington. In 128 combined starts at the 1.366-mile oval, the organization has tallied 38 top-five finishes, 71 top-10s and 2,994 laps led. The championship-winning organization has four pole awards with an average start of 13.3 and average finish of 12.4.
TUNE IN: Coverage of this weekend’s race at Darlington Raceway begins Sunday, September 1, at 6:00 p.m. ET on USA, MRN Radio, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

From the Cockpit:

Christopher Bell: “Darlington is all about execution, putting the race together and not making mistakes. Darlington is probably the most unique track on the schedule from the way that you drive the track, how narrow it is, the risk vs reward is completely different than most of the other tracks, you are basically forced to put your car right up against the fence to have any sort of pace at all. You have to be on point all 500 miles and up against the fence, so you have to be comfortable putting your car in that position and driving hard when it’s time to drive hard and you can’t make mistakes.”

JGR PR