Christopher Bell started Sunday’s race in seventh place, and after the first pit stop cycle, he found himself in position to challenge for the race lead.
Battling his Joe Gibbs Racing teammates, he took the lad and led several laps. As he encountered heavier lapped traffic in the final 15 laps of the stage, Denny Hamlin got back alongside him and they battled back-and-forth.
While those two JGR teammates disputed the lead, Todd Gilliland — who was running near the tail of the lead lap — got up out of the groove and spun in Turn 4. He kept his foot in the gas, attempting to keep it off the wall. However, that also sent his No. 34 FRM Ford back down the track, directly in the path of the race leader.
Bell tried to avoid, but got clipped, sending his No. 20 Toyota careening into the outside wall on the front stretch.
After 68 laps, Bell’s promising day came to an abrupt end. He was checked and released from the infield care center.
“Just another one of those 50/50 calls,” Bell told a media scrum including Motorsport.com “I saw him [Gilliland] spin and Denny lifted, and I thought that I could shoot the gap on the bottom. I thought I did shoot the gap on the bottom, and I got clipped.”
Bell truly believed he had a race-winning car, but due to the fact that he wrecked before the end of Stage 1 and will finish last, the JGR driver leaves Texas with just one point for his efforts.
“I was worried about points about eight weeks ago,” said Bell about the championship situation. “But its gonna be what it’s gonna be and they’ll reset with ten to go. We gotta finish as high as we can up until that point.”
Bell led 22 laps before the race-ending crash.
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