2021 Pa Speedweek 4 Lincoln Christopher Bell Robbie Kendall Battle Dan Demarco Photo
Christopher Bell (39) races Robbie Kendall Monday night at Lincoln Speedway. (Dan Demarco photo)
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Bell: ‘I’m Excited To Go Sprint Car Racing Again’

June 30, 2021

BECHTELSVILLE, Pa. – For the first time since his valiant Chili Bowl Nationals effort in January, when he wrecked out of the prestigious race battling for the win, Christopher Bell returned to dirt racing this week.

Partaking in two nights of Pennsylvania Sprint Car Speedweek and driving the familiar Swindell SpeedLab No. 39, the NASCAR Cup Series driver for Joe Gibbs Racing finished fifth on Monday at Lincoln Speedway and followed it up with a seventh-place effort Tuesday at Grandview Speedway.

It was Bell’s first action in a sprint car since last October, when he finished 13th with the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Sprint Car Series at Lakeside Speedway in Kansas.

Two reasons explain Bell’s absence in the discipline: his NASCAR commitments and the recent shuttering of his sprint car operation, which allowed him to race a dozen times last year.

“I’m excited to go sprint car racing again,” Bell said. “Hopefully it’s the first of many this year.”

Bell doesn’t know when his next dirt race will be, but his first two were productive.

On Monday at Lincoln, a technical three-eighths-mile track in Abbottstown, Pa., Bell qualified fourth in flight two and rolled to a heat race win. In the 30-lap feature he finished where he started: fifth.

On Tuesday at Grandview, a third-mile bullring, Bell qualified second, behind PA Speedweek points leader Brent Marks, and won his heat.

Bell started fourth in the feature with a car good enough to win, according to a tweet later posted by crew chief Kevin Swindell, but damage from an in-race incident hampered those chances.

Now Bell’s focus shifts back to his rookie Cup Series campaign. He sits 16th in points, currently locked into the playoffs thanks to a win on the Daytona International Speedway Road Course in February.

But since Richmond Raceway on April 18, when he collected his fifth top 10 in ninth races, Bell has had an average finish of 22.4 over the past 10 races.

“We started out the year really good,” Bell said. “We’ve been in a little bit of a slump, a big slump, really, I don’t know, the past two months. … We need to get back on track.”

Bell and company appeared to get back on track Sunday at Pocono Raceway just before his eventual sprint car return, battling in the top five and leading some laps. But contact with Chase Elliott in the late stages of the race sent him down the leaderboard and left him with a 32nd-place finish.

“It looked like we were heading in the right direction Sunday at Pocono,” Bell said. “Hopefully that’s a sign of what’s more to come.”