Toyota Racing – Christopher Bell
NASCAR Xfinity Series (NXS)
Chicagoland Speedway – June 29, 2018
Joe Gibbs Racing driver Christopher Bell was made available to the media at Chicagoland Speedway:
CHRISTOPHER BELL, No. 20 Rheem Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
How will you prepare to get in the broadcast booth for the Truck Series race at Eldora Speedway?
“Well for me in my situation, probably just go back and watch as many races as I can and you watch all the broadcasts, right? But whenever Hermie (Sadler) or Kaitlyn (Vincie) or whoever it is does the pit reporting you kind of pay attention, but you gloss over it and you don’t really study what they’re doing, so that’s going to be a big thing for me is just going and studying what the pit reporters are talking about, what information they’re giving out – stuff like that – and, like Kyle (Larson) said, tonight is going to be a good eye opener for us to see how much really goes into it and hopefully we can just have some insight as to, you know, what’s going on on the dirt track and why things are working and why things aren’t working.”
Do you feel it puts you in a unique position being current drivers commenting on others?
“I don’t know. Kind of mimicking what Kyle (Larson) said, it’s going to be really important to not pick favorites, you know, and I think we both do that every day really. I cheer for Kyle and Kyle cheers for me too just because of our background, but whenever we become the face of the media it’s going to be really important for us to be factual and not let our influences get in the – you know, or our personal friendships – get in the way, but I’m excited. I’m going to be really nervous and I think that’s part of the game, but I’m excited for it.”
What do you need to do to report on pit stops?
“One thing that’s unique about my situation is you have pit reporters on standard asphalt races – well, going to Eldora (Speedway), they’re not live pit stops, tires don’t mean anything, so it’s not necessarily going to be pit reporting as much as just running around the infield looking at the race track and seeing what drivers are running lines, so Eldora in that aspect I think will be a little bit more unique than what we’re doing here in Chicago.”
Do you have any plans for the Fourth of July?
“Yeah, I mean after Saturday I’m going to Pennsylvania and he’ll (Kyle Larson) be joining me a day later and we’re going to be running Sprint Cars, so I was kind of hoping to race on the Fourth of July up in Pennsylvania, but the way the schedule is I got to be in Daytona, so the Xfinity teams are going to be working on the Fourth of July. I think they garage opens sometime that day, so that’s where I’ll be, but we’re going to be racing before that.”
Why is it so important for you guys to go race in other series?
“I think bottom line is just because we love it. You know, you could get hit by a car walking down the sidewalk, you know? It’s just unfortunate, but, you know, that – okay, good info, but, yeah, it did actually with Wendy (Venturini). Is that what you’re talking about? So anyway, it can happen to anybody in any style car. We’re race car drivers. Racing’s not a safe sport unfortunately. NASCAR has done a great job making it a lot safer and so have Sprint Cars – they’ve come a long way too and, you know, if you think about the pure numbers of what’s going on, you have 36 Cup races a year and in the Sprint Car world you have 90 Outlaw races a year. You have 60 All-Star races a year and hundreds and hundreds of local races a year, so there’s just a lot more Sprint Car racing going on, but I think bottom line is just we love it.”
Are you doing anything to honor Jason Johnson?
“Yeah, I’m going to try and do something as well.”
Do you think you bring an audience over from the dirt world?
“I mean, it’s – my following obviously isn’t what Kyle’s (Larson) is, but, yeah, it makes me really happy whenever guys come over and say, ‘Hey, man, I watch you every Saturday,’ or they’re dirt race fans and we watch the Xfinity Series because you’re in it and I’ve had that through the Truck Series and it’s cool. It makes your heart happy whenever you hear things like that.”
Greg is the author of "The Nuts and Bolts of NASCAR: The Definitive Viewers' Guide to Big-Time Stock Car Auto Racing" and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, a Masters degree in psychology and is currently a PhD candidate majoring in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek.
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