Christopher Bell Drops the Secret in Toyota’s NASCAR Supremacy as OEM Edge Widens

The only problem that the invincible Toyotas seem to have this year is short-run performance. Bell himself accepts their shortcomings in the matter:

“If it comes to short runs or green flags or restarts, I don’t know if we are going to have the upper hand. But whenever it comes to grip making, it seems like the Toyotas got a lot of grip.”

Joey Logano had a perfect explanation for the aforementioned advantage just a week ago at Talladega. According to him, when two Cup cars end up coming together, they react like basketballs being pushed against each other. In this case, the rear end of the car is already under a lot of load. While the car is pushing at its absolute limit on straightaways, the rear is already unstable from aerodynamic disturbances.

So, the more grip a car has, the better it can perform compared to the competitors. That is why Bell trusts the Toyotas in the long run. At that moment when everyone else’s tires are losing grip and forcing drivers to pit in order to keep their car in one piece, the Toyota drivers can extract a little more performance and lap time out of their cars.

With their Cup program allowing them to share their data and refine their cars further, the Toyotas are easily miles ahead of their competitors. While Christopher Bell was confident about his car, things did not turn out his way in today’s race at Texas Motor Speedway.

Christopher Bell gets wrecked yet again

This season, the 31-year-old seems to hold the record for having the worst luck among all Cup Series drivers. Out of the 10 races he has participated in, in more than half of them, he was leading or somewhere near the front row. But through no fault of his own, Bell was wrecked out after being collected by another driver, ending his race and his chances at victory.

It started at Daytona and continued at Atlanta, and in a similar manner, it happened again at Texas Motor Speedway. The No. 20 driver was leading the race today during the final laps of Stage 1, but in a moment, his dreams went into dust. Todd Gilliland spun out behind and came down, collecting him in the wreck. Bell did try to move away by racing towards the bottom line, but that was seemingly not enough.

A distraught Bell had nothing to say during his post-race interview with Jamie Little except to appreciate his team.

“I mean, it’s a bummer, but I’m just so thankful. I’m thankful that I get to drive really fast racecars. Thankful that I got to lead laps today. Thankful that I get to carry the green colors and drive for Joe Gibbs Racing. Yeah, I was a couple feet, a couple feet away from having a great day. But yeah, it’s going to turn around at some point,” Bell said.

Gilliland was apologetic to Bell about the crash, but that didn’t change the outcome of today’s race. His pace looked strong right from the start, and Bell might have won his first race of the season. However, it seems he’ll have to wait a bit longer before he can finally reach Victory Lane.

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