THE MODERATOR: We are now joined by tonight's winner of the 65th annual Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, driver of the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota Camry XSE, Mr. Christopher Bell.
Q. Finally a win in one of NASCAR's crown jewels. I know it's rain shortened, but how significant for you is that given you've been close in a few of these?
CHRISTOPHER BELL: Yeah, it feels so good. Really the last two Coca-Cola 600s I've felt like we've had the potential to go to Victory Lane, and both times we haven't been able to do it.
To come back in 2024, and we've really been in a slump the last couple weeks, so to come out here and have a banner day at such a high-profile prestigious event is really big for us. Obviously it was a great points day to get stage points at every stage and then the playoff points that come along with that.
It was a much-needed day for sure.
Q. At what point, whether it was just before or after that halfway break, at what point in your mind were you starting to race the rain and feel like, okay, we've got to put ourselves in position because any moment it could be over?
CHRISTOPHER BELL: I really don't know exactly when I got told about the rain. I think it was right at the stage break they said that the rain was coming and we likely wouldn't get to the end of stage 3. You could feel the intensity in the race just pick up, and people were being very aggressive for how early we were into a 600-mile event, and I think it was because everyone knew that we were racing to the rain.
It's a bummer we didn't get to get all 600 miles in, but I'm just very, very proud of this 20 group because they have been working really hard to get us back to where we need to be, and today was a great step in the right direction.
Q. Right before what turned out to be the final restart, you had even asked Adam what's the weather update, and he told you we were going to lose the track but we probably have a window to race. With that in mind, did you feel like the adrenaline surge -- did it feel like a green-white-checkered? Are you racing like it's the end?
CHRISTOPHER BELL: I would say certainly it ramped up, and you could just feel the pressure and the intensity and the importance of that restart, the laps that were going on in that moment.
The range of emotions that I went through from the time that we get out of the car, the lightning strikes, because we got out of the car without any rain. Then the lightning strikes hit, and we're like, okay, we're going to get right back in, and then the rain came and it's pouring down rain and we thought for sure they were going to call the race. Whenever they didn't call the race and the rain stopped we thought there was no way they were going to call the race now and we're going to get back after it.
I never in a million years thought that I was going to be winning that race on a rain-shortened event after they didn't call it whenever the rain stopped. I thought for sure we'd be completing the event.
Q. Brad felt like he just needed a long green flag run to work you over more. What was the key there on those two previous restarts to be able to hold him back?
CHRISTOPHER BELL: I mean, obviously getting clean air is really important, and I'll be honest, the 6 car was really fast, and the fact that he could keep pace like that with me showed that his car was really strong, and the RFK team has been doing really well the last few weeks with Brad winning at Darlington, the 17 being in the hunt the last little bit here.
They keep getting better, and certainly in that moment the 6 car was really fast.
I needed a little bit of help with my car to get it a little bit better if we were going to go back green because I felt like he was probably a little bit stronger than me at that point in the race.
Q. Christopher, after the race when you were announced as the winner, it wasn't because of you but because some fans wanted to see more racing --
CHRISTOPHER BELL: I got booed out of the place.
Q. I wanted to ask about what you thought about that.
CHRISTOPHER BELL: Oh, man, that's just another one to my career. There's a lot of my wins that have come that way, whether it was Ross riding the wall at Martinsville or -- heck, I don't know, it just feels like whenever I win these things they have asterisks on them. But that's all right. It's still a win for me.
Like I said, the last two years we've been really competitive in this event, so it's not like we just lucked into this thing. We led laps. I passed for the lead. We had great pit stops. Pit crew did amazing. It was just 400 miles instead of 600 miles.
Q. You lead 90 laps, so do you feel like this was a deserved win even though it was rain shortened?
CHRISTOPHER BELL: I would say so. The fans probably aren't going to say so, and that's fine. I say it every time that I win races, out of my eight wins, I've said it time and time again, that it's not good enough and we're here for more. That's fine. I won a rain shortened Coca-Cola 600, but that's not going to be my last win. I can promise you that. Gotta keep it going and got to win more to make it happen.
Q. Christopher, in your post-race interview with FOX you referenced how it was just good to have a solid, complete race given the up-and-down nature of your season so far. Now is where the summer months, there's only four drivers who have won multiple races this year. You're one of them. How do you think that positions you for the summer months, June, July, as we approach the playoffs, all the positioning and seeding that goes with that?
CHRISTOPHER BELL: Yeah, so honestly, where this 20 team is at is a really good spot because now we're sitting at halfway through the regular season with two wins, which is amazing, and we've been extremely disappointed with how our season has gone.
I think that just goes to show that the ceiling is there and the capability of this team is there. We haven't been performing like we want to, but if we put all of it together, we can certainly be a contender week in and week out and be a guy that wins a handful of races year in and year out. That's the end goal. I don't want to be just a one- or two-win-a-year person. I want to be a five- to ten-win-a-year person.
Q. What is your outlook for the month of June? We know what your record is at New Hampshire. Next week we've got Gateway, only had two Cup races there so far, and in three weeks we go to Iowa where we've never raced Cup cars. For your outlook for the next four races?
CHRISTOPHER BELL: Gateway has been a struggle for us for sure. The only two Cup races we've been to, it's been a weak link on the schedule for the 20 team, so that one I don't know how I feel about it. But certainly going to Sonoma, road courses have been really good for us, so I expect us to be a contender there, and then Iowa, I don't know how anyone could be considered more of a favorite than me, and then Loudon is obviously a really good racetrack for me.
We're in a great part of the schedule, and the cool thing is that I feel like every time we go to the racetrack I should have capability and have a chance to win.
We've just got to keep pushing in the right direction. The last several weeks have not been good, but I know that I have the right people around me to succeed and do really good things.
Q. When you made the pass by Byron, they told him basically he's running the wall. It only seemed like some cars could run the wall coming out of Turn 4, but it seemed to be that's where the momentum and speed was. How imperative was it to be able to have a car that could do that?
CHRISTOPHER BELL: Yeah, I mean, the top, really since the Next-Gen car came out in 2022 and 2023 here at Charlotte, the top has gotten to be really good here. It's something that I found where -- not just me but a lot of us found early on in the Next-Gen stages at Charlotte, and it took a little bit for it to come around tonight, and then it seemed like whenever the nighttime came, the top got really fast.
Byron is certainly capable of running up there, and fortunately I found it before he did and was able to get a run on him.
Q. In the Netflix special you said you guys weren't even going to include me, then you end up going to Phoenix. Do you like being on the radar? You kind of live up to that baby-faced assassin moniker where people don't expect you to be there and then you just go in for the kill?
CHRISTOPHER BELL: Yeah, especially here recently, we just haven't been running good enough, and nobody deserves accolades whenever you're not running well, and we have not been running well.
But today hopefully shows that we have capability. I hate talking the talk and not being able to walk the walk behind it, but I know and my team knows and my company knows, Toyota knows that we have the capability to be a factor week in and week out. It just hasn't come together yet.
Yeah, I've got to walk the walk now.
Q. With the extra stage here you ended up scoring 67 points along with seven playoff points. You went from 15th in points to 11th. You went from 166 behind to only 105 behind the lead. In addition to winning, how important was winning this race and getting all those points to catch up in the regular season standings and be in contention for those playoff points at the end of the regular season?
CHRISTOPHER BELL: Yeah, that's huge. Whenever you come to Charlotte with that added stage, it's an opportunity race for sure. We capitalized on it. I don't know if that's going to put us back in the hunt for the regular season championship, being 100 out and 11th in points. That's going to be a tall order if we're going to try and win this regular season championship.
But to get the stage points that we did is a huge move in the right direction, and hopefully I can win a couple more races and get more stage points, but I still don't feel good about the regular season championship.
Q. Can you talk about the art of racing in the rain to prepare yourself for what might happen? Everybody gets really aggressive. You've got to keep your head screwed on. What are you thinking? How do you do that?
CHRISTOPHER BELL: Yeah, it's just the aggression level picks up whenever everybody knows that rain is in the area. It could be called short. Those restarts become even more intense, and everybody runs harder.
Especially at the Coca-Cola 600 because if it's going 600 miles, there's a lot of give and take that happens at the first half of the race, and you kind of pick up intensity as you're going throughout the night. But we just got over halfway, and then the intensity level was through the roof.
Yeah, those restarts and those last couple laps, we knew that we were racing to the rain break. We didn't know if we were going to go back racing or not, but after the rain stopped, I thought for sure we were going to go back racing. I think everybody did. So that one caught me by total surprise when they called the race.
Q. When it flips on you, what's that like?
CHRISTOPHER BELL: Yeah, it was wild for sure. Whenever the rain started, I thought for sure that they would cancel it because it was pushing 10:00 at night, we were going to have to dry the track and then we still had two more hours of racing left. So I thought for sure that we had won the race then. Then whenever they didn't call it by the time the rain had stopped, I didn't think there was anyway they were going to call the race. I was back in the motor home trying to take a nap because I knew it was going to be a long night, and it probably still is going to be a long night but under different circumstances.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports