Bell Beats Cindric at Road America for His First Career Road Course Win

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ELKHART LAKE, WI – RIS – For a man who always says he doesn’t like road courses, Christopher Bell sure proved otherwise at Road America in a NASCAR Xfinity race on Saturday.  It was his first career road course win and one he was proud of, given his attitude toward these courses and related it to something else he had learned.

“Whenever I was racing sprint cars full time, I was a really good short-track racer, and when we came to the half miles I really struggled,” Bell said. “And then just after time and time of doing it again and focusing on that area to get better, the next thing you know, I became a pretty good half-mile racer.

“Same thing with the road courses. We weren’t very good, but I didn’t have a lot of experience at it.”

How did he do it?  He studied tape. He drives Trans Am sports cars when they race at a venue on the same weekends, just for the extra track time.

He raced road specialist A.J. Allmendinger what seemed like all day until the final caution.  On the restart, he passed Allmendinger and won going away.  Allmendinger had an excuse, though.  He was knocked all over the place with aggressive driving by other drivers trying to gain some positions as they fought for an advantage in the playoffs.  He finished in 24th place.

Allmendinger was very impressed.

“He’s come a long way on the road courses, and we know what he can do on the ovals, so when he gets in the Cup Series, I feel sorry for those guys,”

Bell is rumored to be the pilot of a Leavine Family Racing Toyota in 2019 in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series in 2019.

Bell had finished second in earlier Xfinity Series road races at Watkins Glen International  and Mid-Ohio , but not this time.,  Cindric was strong, but finished second behind Bell.

Tyler Reddick finished third, Noah Gragson fourth and Kaz Grala fifth.

Bell’s victory made it 10 years without a repeat winner in the Xfinity Series at Road America. The 24-year-old from Norman, Oklahoma, became the first driver to win in a Toyota. With his sixth victory of the year, broke out of a tie with Cole Custer for the series lead.

Bell wrestled the lead away from Cindric after a restart on the 35th of 45 laps, and Cindric got bounced back to fourth.

Gray Gaulding’s ride through the gravel trap in Turn 1 with five laps left wiped out Bell’s lead of about three-quarters of a second and set up the shootout.

“In my head anyway it was a little bit easier on a green-white-checkered than it is whenever you’re leading with 10 or 12 to go just because it’s like, man, that’s a lot of corners to make a mistake,” Bell said. “When the yellow came out, the timing of yellow was disappointing for me because I’d just gapped Allmendinger a little bit, so I didn’t want to see a yellow. But the yellow just means less laps to have a chance to make a mistake, so I was OK with it after it worked out.”

Bell leads the series in wins this year and is a solid contender for the championship.

Unofficial Results: 10th CTECH Manufacturing 180 - Road America - Elkhart Lake, WI - August 24, 2019

Fin, St, Driver, Car , Laps, St1, St2, Tms Led, Laps Led, Playoff Pts, Pts, Status
1) 12, Christopher Bell, No. 20 Ruud Toyota, 45, , , 2, 10, 5, 40, Running
2) 3, Austin Cindric, No. 22 Menards/Richmond Ford, 45, 2, , 2, 4, , 44, Running
3) 6, Tyler Reddick, No. 2 Roland Chevrolet, 45, 4, , , , , 41, Running
4) 5, Noah Gragson #, No. 9 Switch Chevrolet, 45, 7, 5, , , , 43, Running
5) 11, Kaz Grala, No. 21 HotScream Chevrolet, 45, , , , , , 32, Running
6) 7, Justin Haley #, No. 11 LeafFilter Gutter Protection Chevrolet, 45, 5, 2, 1, 1, , 46, Running
7) 10, Chase Briscoe #, No. 98 Ford Performance Ford, 45, 6, 1, 1, 2, 1, 45, Running
8) 9, Jeremy Clements, No. 51 RepairableVehicles.com Chevrolet, 45, 8, 4, , , , 39, Running
9) 8, Justin Allgaier, No. 7 BRANDT Professional Agriculture Chevrolet, 45, , , , , , 28, Running
10) 4, Cole Custer, No. 00 Henry Repeating Arms Ford, 45, 3, , , , , 35, Running
11) 17, Ryan Sieg, No. 39 RSS Racing Chevrolet, 45, 9, 6, , , , 33, Running
12) 18, Michael Annett, No. 1 AllState Parts and Service Group Chevrolet, 45, 10, , , , , 26, Running
13) 13, Regan Smith, No. 8 Fire Alarm Services Inc. Chevrolet, 45, , 3, , , , 32, Running
14) 29, Ray Black II, No. 07 ISOKERN Fire. & Chimneys/Scuba Life Chev., 45, , , , , , 23, Running
15) 27, Nic Hammann, No. 74 Throttle Stop Chevrolet, 45, , , , , , 22, Running
16) 20, Brandon Jones, No. 19 First Foundation Toyota, 45, , 8, , , , 24, Running
17) 32, David Starr, No. 52 Boarders Inn & Suites Chevrolet, 45, , , , , , 20, Running
18) 33, Ryan Vargas, No. 4 teamjdmotorsports.com Chevrolet, 45, , , , , , 19, Running
19) 31, Joey Gase, No. 35 MBM Motorsports Toyota, 45, , , , , , 18, Running
20) 16, Josh Bilicki, No. 93 Ariens Chevrolet, 45, , 10, , , , 18, Running
21) 22, Ryan Ellis, No. 78 The Wes Cook Band Toyota, 45, , , , , , 16, Running
22) 24, Loris Hezemans, No. 99 Koolbox Chevrolet, 45, , , , , , 15, Running
23) 34, BJ McLeod, No. 15 teamjdmotorsports.com Chevrolet, 45, , , , , , 14, Running
24) 1, AJ Allmendinger, No. 10 J.W. Speaker/CTECH Manufacturing Chevrolet, 45, 1, , 1, 10, 1, 23, Running
25) 23, Tommy Joe Martins, No. 66 Gusset.com Toyota, 45, , , , , , 12, Running
26) 14, John Hunter Nemechek #, No. 23 Fire Alarm Services Inc. Chevrolet, 45, , 9, , , , 13, Running
27) 2, Matt DiBenedetto(i), No. 18 iK9 Toyota, 44, , , 2, 18, , 0, Accident
28) 37, Vinnie Miller, No. 5 Pit Viper Sunglasses Chevrolet, 44, , , , , , 9, Running
29) 19, Gray Gaulding, No. 08 GPSPure.com Chevrolet, 44, , 7, , , , 12, Running
30) 38, Dick Karth, No. 61 Midwestern Council Toyota, 43, , , , , , 7, Running
31) 28, Josh Williams, No. 36 Harkin Construction Chevrolet, 41, , , , , , 6, Running
32) 36, Dexter Bean, No. 90 Dilly's Chevrolet, 39, , , , , , 5, Running
33) 21, Garrett Smithley, No. 0 teamjdmotorsports.com Chevrolet, 37, , , , , , 4, Engine
34) 25, Stephen Leicht, No. 01 teamjdmotorsports.com Chevrolet, 36, , , , , , 3, Engine
35) 35, Chad Finchum, No. 13 MBM Motorsports Toyota, 15, , , , , , 2, Transmission
36) 15, Preston Pardus, No. 43 Chinchor Electric Inc./Danus Utilities Chevrolet, 14, , , , , , 1, Suspension
37) 26, Brandon Brown #, No. 86 Vero True Social Chevrolet, 10, , , , , , 1, Suspension
38) 30, JJ Yeley(i), No. 38 RSS Racing Chevrolet, 2, , , , , , 0, Electrical
(i) Ineligible for driver points in this series, (#) Rookie

Time of Race: 2 Hrs, 11 Mins, 38 Secs.
Total Race Length: 45 Laps, 182.16 Miles
Average Speed: 83.031 MPH
Margin of Victory: 1.891 Seconds

Stage 1 Top 10: 10, 22, 00, 2, 11, 98, 9, 51, 39, 1
Stage 2 Top 10: 98, 11, 8, 51, 9, 39, 08, 19, 23, 93

Race Comments: Christopher Bell won the 10th Annual CTECH Manufacturing 180, his 14th victory in 64 Xfinity Series races and first on a road course.

Caution Flags: 4 for 8 laps;
Laps: 11-12 (No. 7 incident in Turn 1 (Stage 1 Conclusion) [61]);
22-23 (Stage 2 Conclusion [7]);
33-34 (Debris Turn 4 [35]);
42-43 (No. 08 incident in Turn 1 [00]).

Lead Changes: 8 among 6 drivers;
A. Allmendinger 1-10;
A. Cindric 11-12;
M. DiBenedetto(i) 13-17;
J. Haley # 18;
C. Briscoe # 19-20;
M. DiBenedetto(i) 21-33;
C. Bell 34;
A. Cindric 35-36;
C. Bell 37-45.