“It Was on Me”: Christopher Bell Directs Blame Away From Car Pace After P2 Finish in Mexico

There’s just no pleasing some guys. Christopher Bell ran a strong race, was beaten fairly by Shane van Gisbergen, and came away with an excellent runner-up finish in Sunday’s race at Mexico City. But that wasn’t enough for the Joe Gibbs Racing driver.

Bell was disappointed that he didn’t earn his fourth win of the season, but rather had to “settle” for his third runner-up finish of the year.

“He was really good,” Bell said of van Gisbergen to FOX Sports. “I felt like Ty (JGR teammate Ty Gibbs, who faded late to finish 11^th) was really good (but) the yellow flag (a late caution) bit him and we walked away with second.

“So, both days, in the Xfinity car (in Saturday’s race) I was a third-place car. Today, I felt like I was a third-place car. I think more than anything it was just me. I need to do a little bit more homework and figure out where I can be better to keep up with these guys.”

Probably 99 percent of Cup drivers would love to have three wins, three second-place finishes and one third-place showing in the first 16 races. But not for Bell, who moved up one spot in the standings to third place after Sunday’s race.

“The Joe Gibbs Racing group brought an amazing Mobil 1 Camry. I can’t really say that it was my car that was lacking. I think it was on me this weekend,” Bell continued to lament — even though he had absolutely nothing to be upset about.

Despite disappointment, Bell credits SVG

Still, Bell, who has been locked into one of the 16 playoff berths since much earlier this season, gave credit to van Gisbergen. Up until Sunday, SVG had endured a dismal season, entering the weekend a lowly 33rd in the Cup standings. Now, he leaves with an assured spot in the upcoming 10-race Cup playoffs.

“I’m happy for Shane,” Bell said. “Obviously, there’s a lot of pressure on him to come out here and perform well in these road course races and he sets the bar for us.”

Bell and company will now head back to the States for next weekend’s race at Pocono Raceway in Long Pond, Pennsylvania.

Post Edited By: Abhishek Ramesh

Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez Christopher Bell Shane Van Gisbergen Ty Gibbs Viva Mexico 250

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Jerry Bonkowski

Jerry Bonkowski is a veteran sportswriter who has worked full-time for many of the top media outlets in the world, including USA Today (15 years), ESPN.com (4+ years), Yahoo Sports (4 1/2 years), NBCSports.com (8 years) and others. He has covered virtually every major professional and collegiate sport there is, including the Chicago Bulls' six NBA championships (including heavy focus on Michael Jordan), the Chicago Bears Super Bowl XX-winning season, the Chicago White Sox and Chicago Cubs World Series championships, two of the Chicago Blackhawks' NHL titles, Tiger Woods' PGA Tour debut, as well as many years of beat coverage of the NFL, MLB, NHL and NBA for USA Today. But Jerry's most notable achievement has been covering motorsports, most notably NASCAR, IndyCar, NHRA drag racing and Formula One. He has had a passion for racing since he started going to watch drag races at the old U.S. 30 Dragstrip (otherwise known as "Where the Great Ones Run!") in Hobart, Indiana. Jerry has covered countless NASCAR, IndyCar and NHRA races and championship battles over the years. He's also the author of a book, "Trading Paint: 101 Great NASCAR Debates", published in 2010 (and he's hoping to soon get started on another book). Away from sports, Jerry was a fully sworn part-time police officer for 20 years, enjoys reading and music (especially "hair bands" from the 1980s and 1990s), as well as playing music on his electric keyboard, driving (fast, of course!), spending time with Cyndee his wife of nearly 40 years, the couple's three adult children and three grandchildren (with more to come!), and his three dogs -- including two German Shepherds and an Olde English Bulldog who thinks he's a German Shepherd.. Jerry still gets the same excitement of seeing his byline today as he did when he started in journalism as a 15-year-old high school student. He is looking forward to writing hundreds, if not thousands, of stories in the future for TheSportsRush.com, as well as interacting with readers.

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