Christopher Bell finishes second at Las Vegas Motor Speedway (Photo: Christopher Vargas | The Podium Finish).
LAS VEGAS — For the third time in the last five races, Christopher Bell scored a top-five finish in the playoffs, but the latest was a tough pill to swallow. Bell came up 0.082 seconds short of dethroning Kyle Larson for the win during Sunday’s South Point 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
The result is a stark difference between punching his ticket to the Championship 4 for consecutive years to being three points below the cutoff line. As laps shaved down, Bell was cutting the gap from Larson as lapped traffic nearly cost Larson his 23rd career NASCAR Cup Series win.
Bell led five times for 61 laps but was no match for Larson, who won both stages and appeared to be headed for a slam dunk win. However, the pole sitter had one last response up his sleeves as Bell had one more lap to beat Larson as the gap was down to less than 0.4 seconds.
Both drivers had to deal with Todd Gilliland and Erik Jones, who were battling for 27th. Coming towards the backstretch for the final time, Jones was ahead of Gilliland but the big picture was behind them. Bell was on the bumper of Larson as Jones conceded to let those the leaders duke it out for a significant playoff victory.
However, Gilliland wasn’t as helpful in the exchange as he committed to the bottom, which hurt Larson’s momentum. Larson got stuck in the middle with Bell again making the high line work to his advantage. As they entered the final corner, Larson blocked Bell but the latter wouldn’t be denied for one final chance of scoring the win.
Just as Bell tried going up, Larson shut the door, which led to Bell trying to pull a slingshot on Larson, but it was too late. While Gilliland was down towards the apron, Bell ducked below Larson but was unable to pass him in time as the No. 20 Rheem/Smurfit Kappa Toyota Camry TRD had to settle for second.
After Las Vegas, this season’s six-time pole sitter now has nine top-five finishes (Photo: Aaron Brink | The Podium Finish).
“I don’t know what else I could have done, so I don’t know,” Bell explained after the finish. “I feel like that was my moment. That was my moment to make the Final Four. Didn’t quite capture it. I don’t know.
“Coming to the checkered there, I knew that he was going to be blocking, so I’m like, I’m going to try to go high. He went high. I don’t even know if I had a run to get by him there coming to the line. Just wasn’t enough.”
Following his signature frontstretch drag racing burnout, Larson knew the battle was only beginning when he saw a mirror full of his longtime dirt rival. Larson noted how he and Gilliland weren’t going to make his life easier, but praised Bell’s cleanliness during the battle for the win.
“I could see him coming in my mirror. Was hoping those lappers were going to give me the bottom,” said Larson. “[Gilliland] peeled off to the bottom. I knew I couldn’t follow him. I just didn’t want to go all the way to the top [and] leave the middle open.
“Thankfully, Christopher always races extremely clean. Could have got crazier than it did coming to the start/finish line. Thank you to him for racing with respect there.”
Sunday’s loss was heartbreaking for Bell as seen in the NBC broadcast when he got out of his car with his wife, Morgan, next to him. Despite the defeat, Bell managed a massive points day.
Initially, Bell trailed both his Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Martin Truex, Jr. and Denny Hamlin by two points respectively heading into Homestead-Miami Speedway. Following the post-race disqualification from sixth-place finisher Ryan Blaney, the deficit is now just three points blow the cut with Truex holding the final spot.
“A great day for sure to get the stage points, get a second-place finish out of it,” said Bell. “I think I saw we’re minus two, so we’re not out of it by any means. It would have been nice to lock it in.”
