THE MODERATOR: We are joined by another Championship 4 contender, Christopher Bell.
We’ll take questions for Christopher.
Q. Adam acknowledged you struggled yesterday. You and Ross were two of the lower qualifiers. You said you liked your chances, you got the best team, thought you could win. Are you still feeling that way now?
CHRISTOPHER BELL: I mean, the weekend definitely hasn’t started off how any of us had planned. I was really happy with the changes that they made to the car overnight from practice to qualifying. I think that was a really big positive.
That’s definitely been one of our strengths, is improving over the course of the race, improving over the course of the weekend.
I am definitely really happy we didn’t race yesterday, that’s for sure. I’m not counting myself out yet.
Q. Does the attitude or the strategy change because of where you’re starting versus if you had qualified into the second round and were starting in the first five rows?
CHRISTOPHER BELL: I don’t think it changes yet. Regardless of where we qualified, stage one, at least the first run of the race, is going to be played pretty similar.
If we struggle to get track position and we can’t make our way to the front, obviously that will dictate our strategy similar to what we saw the 99 of Ben Rhodes do last night.
I still believe we had the opportunity to get up front and contend. It’s a matter of getting the thing to do what I need it to do. We’re definitely headed in the right direction.
Yesterday we struggled pretty bad. Today I felt a lot better. Obviously didn’t lay a very good lap down, but I felt good about how the car drove.
Yeah, we’ll just have to see what happens tomorrow in the race.
Q. (Question about winning the midget championship 10 years ago.)
CHRISTOPHER BELL: It’s pretty crazy, but very fortunate to be this the group that I am with. David Wilson has been a huge part of my career. I mean, he basically has made my career to what it is. I’m grateful for him and the TRD group.
Q. You’ve had your back against the wall and won twice. How does that help your confidence?
CHRISTOPHER BELL: Yeah, I guess it’s taught me to not give up. That goes back to what I answered before.
It’s a long race tomorrow, 300-plus laps. I feel a lot better about it than I did at Martinsville, that’s for sure. I think at Martinsville we qualified 20th. We’re 17th now.
I’m okay with it. We’ll see what happens when they drop the green flag, and hopefully I can move forward.
NASCAR PR
