We could talk about tires, but when it comes to NASCAR, you can talk about tires every week because they’re one of the most important variables in any given race. And that’s especially true now that NASCAR has added an option tire to the mix, a softer compound that gives you a lot of get up and go for a short amount of time. It’s kind of a gimmick really, kind of like using two different footballs in an NFL game. But enough of that.
NASCAR is in Las Vegas this weekend, and the biggest question is whether or not Christopher Bell, who is really on a roll, can win his fourth straight race. Bell has won on a superspeedway, a road course and a short track and if he can conquer Las Vegas’ intermediate sized oval, he will have accomplished something that’s never been done before – winning four in a row on four different kinds of tracks.
Bell and his Joe Gibbs Racing team are really humming, and he gives a lot of credit to the guys and the guys give a lot of credit to him, which is one of the reasons they’re having a lot of success.
“What you are seeing is everybody pulling the rope in the same direction,” Bell said after his win at Phoenix last Sunday. “Everybody’s doing their job to the best of their abilities,” he continued. “This is what I knew would come out of this team.
“It came from Adam (crew chief Adam Stevens)” Bell went on. “I didn’t know what this team was capable of but Adam knew what this team was capable of. We’re finally able to see the fruit of it. I’m just a small part of it. The last couple years we’ve been close, everyone on our team could feel it.
“We could feel it, but it was just like fighting against the current. Something would not work and take us out of contention. But we were close,” Bell said. “This team is working together right now and that’s what it’s all about. it’s not about me, it’s about everybody on our team. I haven’t changed as a driver. I’m the same driver I was back in 2021.”
Well, maybe not. “I think what you see, if you look back, is he’s (Bell) extremely good everywhere we go,” Stevens commented. “But the short tracks, he’s got a little bit of something extra. I think he’s good at micromanaging his line and finding that little bit of grip and willing to move around and change things.
“He has the ability to adapt, I’m saying adapt lap to lap and adapt as the race goes,” Stevens said. “If we see something with another team’s driving style, we an relay it to him and he can instantly duplicate it.
“These short tracks have a way of changing quite a bit. You saw the groove move around as the tires age. He’s just got so much talent that eventually I think all the tracks are going to look like that to him, that he can just do it anywhere we go,” Stevens concluded.
NASCAR NOTES:
Three most likely winners at Las Vegas: 1-Tyler Reddick, 2-Kyle Larson, 3-Dave Blaney. Last year’s winners at Las Vegas: First race, Larson. Second race, Reddick. Top five finishers at Phoenix last week: 1-Bell, 2-Denny Hamlin, 3-Larson, 4-Josh Berry, 5-Chris Buescher. Old Guy Sport’s Phoenix picks: 1-Larson, 2-Blaney, 3-Hamlin. Bell wins race, OGS 1-1 for the season. Top 10 in OGS Competition Index: 1-Bell 114 points, 2-William Byron 51, 3-Hamlin 40, 4-Reddick 35, 5-Larson 30, 6-Kyle Busch 28, 7-Chase Elliott 20, 8-Joey Logano 12, 9-Shane van Gisbergen 11, 10-Chris Buescher 10. OGS top 10 on short tracks: 1-Bell 60, 2-Hamlin 40, 3-Larson 30, 4-Logano 12, 5-Byron 11, 6-Buescher 10, 7-Ryan Preece 5, 8-Austin Cindric 1.
