Toyota Racing – NCS Texas Incident Quotes – Christopher Bell

CHRISTOPHER BELL, No. 20 Rheem-Smurfit Kappa Toyota Camry TRD, Joe Gibbs Racing

Finishing Position: 34th

Can you tell us what happened on the race track?

“Yeah, just the second right rear blown of the day – that was disappointing. I’m in a pretty bad spot now.”

How do you approach the next couple of races?

“I don’t know. Talladega – I guess we are going to go roll the dice. ROVAL, I think we will be alright. Road courses haven’t been our strength, but we have been good at a couple of them. I don’t know if we are going to be able to get out of this points hole, but we will give it our best.”

Do you feel like you can make magic happen at the ROVAL if you need too?

“I don’t feel great about it. I probably feel better about having something go our way at Talladega.”

Could you tell that you were going to have tire issues?

“No, I had no idea. To have two right rears go in the first half of the race is very strange. I don’t know. It’s a very disappointing day. We are probably going to be in a deep hole now.”

How do you feel about going to Talladega and the ROVAL?
“It makes our decision easy on how to play Talladega. We were hoping to come out of here good and be able to ride around and just survive Talladega. We are going to have to race and get some stage points and be up front all day.”

Do you feel like it is a must win situation now?

“No, but Talladega is going to be really tough.”

What kind of feedback was the car giving you to let you know it was a tire?

“I would get a slight vibration seconds right before the tire went. When it happened on the straightaway, I was able to get it slowed down before turn one, but the second one happened right in the middle of the turn. Very disappointing weekend. I was optimistic when they dropped the green flag. I had a pretty poor Saturday, but felt like we had a lot of speed in our Rheem Camry to make a day out of it, but unfortunately, tires didn’t work our way.”

TRD PR