Christopher Bell led over half of the 200-lap race, swept the stages and won his eighth race of the season at Texas Motor Speedway
Toyota Racing Post-Race Recap
NASCAR Xfinity Series
Texas Motor Speedway
Race 31 of 33 – 300 miles, 200 laps
TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS
1st, CHRISTOPHER BELL
2nd, Ross Chastain*
3rd, Austin Cindric*
4th, BRANDON JONES
5th, John Hunter Nemecheck*
7th, HARRISON BURTON
15th, CHAD FINCHUM
21st, JOSH BILICKI
26th, JOEY GASE
35th, TIMMY HILL
37th, BOBBY DALE EARNHARDT
*non-Toyota driver
• Christopher Bell earned his series-leading eighth win of the season at Texas Motor Speedway tonight.
• It was Bell’s first Xfinity Series win at Texas Motor Speedway.
• This is Toyota’s series-leading 13th Xfinity Series win of the season.
• Kansas winner Brandon Jones finished in the top-five for the second consecutive race, and the sixth time this season.
TOYOTA QUOTES
CHRISTOPHER BELL, No. 20 Rheem Toyota Supra, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 1st
How confident do you feel now walking out of here with a win?
“I like where we are at, that’s for sure. There a couple of places earlier in the year that the car drove really, really nice and we were just weren’t able to compete with some of the other competitiors, but right now, I feel like we can be a little off on balance and still be competitive. So that’s means whenever we hit it we are going to be really good. I feel like the 2 (Tyler Reddick) was really good there with us and obviously he ran into some bad luck there and crashed, but winning is always outstanding.”
How strong was your car throughout the night?
“Well, I was struggling early. I was fast, but I didn’t really feel that great. We had some issues, and the brakes started going away, and whenever the brakes started going away, I really started struggling. So then, we had a couple long reds, or one long red and another really long yellow that really helped the brakes come back and the handle came back.”
How do you feel going into Phoenix?
“Well, this group here loves going to Phoenix, and now we can go to Phoenix with one thing on our mind and that’s trying to win. I’m very thankful about that.”
Is this excitement or relief after what you went through last year in Phoenix?
“Excitement. I can’t wait. I can’t wait to get to Phoenix. I love that race track and now I get to focus on one thing, and that is winning the race. I don’t know if Jason (Ratcliff, crew chief) was thinking points tonight, but we are definitely not going to have to think points next week.”
You are now locked in and you don’t have to worry about anything.
“It’s nice. The Homestead car has sitting there. It has been getting touched a little bit, but obviously we still have priorties in line, where now, I believe Homestead becomes the number one focus.”
BRANDON JONES, No. 19 iK9/Musket Powder Toyota Supra, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 4th
Talk about your race, another solid day.
“Yeah, it was interesting tonight for sure. We had that red flag and it seemed like the track cooled off a ton and I don’t think anybody anticipated it going as loose as it did when it happened. A lot of people started sliding in the end and it started becoming a race. Pretty crazy all day. I think these guys rebounded really well. I hit something really big off of (turn) two when they had that big wreck. I heard it go and I lost a ton of steer, so we came in and changed tires and had to fight back from that. I think these guys did a great job with that. We’ve got two more left. Phoenix is going to be pretty big for us to learn as much as I can. I’ve got the truck race and I have this race, so a lot of laps for next week. I know that’s going to be on the mind for next year for Phoenix.”
HARRISON BURTON, No. 18 DEX Imaging Toyota Supra, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 7th
A seventh-place finish today. Take me through your day. How did it feel out there?
“We had an up-and-down day. Sloppy on pit road on my end. I stalled it once and we had a couple penalties, which put us back a little bit. Once you lose track position here it is hard to get it back up. The beginning of the race was really fun when we were running up there and contenting for top-three and kind of running the leaders down when they were racing. I had a lot of fun early in the race and I had fun late in the race trying to climb our way back in. I had a really good car early and lost a little bit and got too free in the end. Overall, really proud of my guys. We really did overcome a lot of stuff tonight at a place where you are not supposed to be able to pass.”
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