Bell Leads Toyota With a Top-10 Finish in Darlington

Christopher Bell (sixth) scored a top-10 finish to lead Toyota in the NASCAR Cup Series race at South Carolina’s Darlington Raceway on Sunday afternoon. In addition to Bell, Denny Hamlin (21st), Martin Truex Jr. (24th) and Kyle Busch (33rd) took turns leading laps in the 293-lap event but would all fall victim to various on-track incidents that ended their races early.

 

Toyota Post-Race Recap

NASCAR Cup Series (NCS)

Darlington Raceway

Race 12 of 36 – 400.2 miles, 293 laps

 

TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS

1st, Joey Logano*

2nd, Tyler Reddick*

3rd, Justin Haley*

4th, Kevin Harvick*

5th, Chase Elliott*

6th, CHRISTOPHER BELL

21st, DENNY HAMLIN

24th, MARTIN TRUEX JR.

27th, BUBBA WALLACE

28th, KURT BUSCH

33rd, KYLE BUSCH

*non-Toyota driver 

 

TOYOTA QUOTES

CHRISTOPHER BELL, No. 20 SiriusXM Toyota Camry TRD, Joe Gibbs Racing

Finishing Position: 6th

How were you able to recover from the final pit stop to a top-10 finish?

“This SiriusXM Camry was excellent as these No. 20 cars are every time we go to the race track. Last week at Dover, it felt like we had a car capable of winning and had unfortunate circumstances take us out of it. And then you know kind of the same thing today. That yellow was the big unfortunate moment whenever the yellow came out and kind of flipped the strategy. Overall, really proud to be at Joe Gibbs Racing and proud for all of our partners on this 20 car. Maybe one of these days we’ll be up there.”

 

BUBBA WALLACE, No. 23 MoneyLion Toyota Camry TRD, 23XI Racing

Finishing Position: 27th

What happened that took you out of the race?

“Just checked up in front of me and didn’t have enough time. You’re in the wood off of (turn) two there. Just trying to figure out what I did to piss off the racing gods. Another great car and another great finish that was going to be there and a disappointing result. Just frustrating. Thanks to MoneyLion. For sure, was going to have a top-10 car. That’s what we’ll put on the debrief, but the results don’t show that.”

 

KURT BUSCH, No. 45 McDonald’s Toyota Camry TRD, 23XI Racing

Finishing Position: 28th

What happened that took you out of the race?

“I saw smoke and a car sideways. I thought I was through on the top side and got hit from behind. Everybody’s just ripping and gouging. It’s almost the last set of tires. We just had no luck today. No luck on pit road. The short run speed wasn’t there, but we were good on the long run, but just didn’t make it happen with the McDonald’s Toyota.”

 

KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 M&M’s Toyota Camry TRD, Joe Gibbs Racing

Finishing Position: 33rd

What happened that took you out of the race?

“Just the 6 (Brad Keselowski) blew a right-front tire coming off of turn two. I had nowhere to go and just got collected up in something not of our doing. It’s frustrating. We had a good M&M’s Camry and it was nice to be able to run in the top-five and lead some laps there. Just felt like we were trying to debate on the setup there between the short run versus the long run and where we wanted to be good and what all was going to pay dividends at the end of the day.”

 

Why did you leave the race car on pit road rather than driving to the garage?

“I just couldn’t make it turn.”

TRD PR