Christopher Bell was “just trying to get to the end” in NASCAR Kansas race

Joe Gibbs Racing driver Christopher Bell said he was “just trying to get to the end” of the NASCAR Cup Series race in Kansas after struggling on tyres.

As eventual winner Kyle Larson turned down his pace at the front in the #5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, Bell began to close in rapidly on him in the #20 Toyota Camry.

This also brought Ryan Blaney in the #12 Penske Ford into play, with the trio eventually separated by less than a second following 267 laps of racing at Kansas Speedway.

But despite coming so close to victory, Bell doesn’t think he had a shot at passing Larson for the lead in the AdventHealth 400, citing his own late-race pace struggles with the Camry.

The Oklahoma native said he owed his sixth podium of the season to his impressive performance in qualifying, which saw him qualify third behind polesitter Larson and RFK Racing’s Chris Buescher.

“I was surprised that [Larson] kind of gave up on the top those last couple laps and pulled down. But I was struggling just as bad as he was, so I was just trying to get to the end. I know Ryan was coming on really strong there.
 
“Overall, to get home second with a lot of stage points was something that we needed after the last couple weeks, and this Reser’s Camry was just not quite what we needed.
 
“I feel like our day was kind of a product of qualifying well, having good pit stops, having good restarts and nothing really took us out of it. Whenever the long green flag runs came, it seemed like we were going backwards and there were a couple guys that could drive by us.
 
“To walk out of here second, I’m really happy with, and hopefully we can be a little bit stronger when we come back.”

Bell has scored four of his 12 pole positions in Kansas but is yet to score a register win at the 1.5-mile tri-oval.

However, the podium finish on Sunday has elevated him from sixth to third in the championship standings, behind Hendrick Motorsports duo Larson and William Byron.