{"id":24021,"date":"2019-03-08T17:50:28","date_gmt":"2019-03-08T23:50:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=24021"},"modified":"2019-03-10T10:38:47","modified_gmt":"2019-03-10T15:38:47","slug":"where-to-start-at-phoenix-christopher-bell-justin-allgaier-have-strong-opinions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2019\/03\/08\/where-to-start-at-phoenix-christopher-bell-justin-allgaier-have-strong-opinions\/","title":{"rendered":"Where to start at Phoenix? Christopher Bell, Justin Allgaier have strong opinions"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service<\/em><\/p>\n

AVONDALE, Ariz. \u2013 With the NASCAR Xfinity Series coming to ISM Raceway for the second time, it\u2019s a given that starting or restarting in what used to be Turn 2 can be problematic.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Christopher Bell, driver of the #20 Rheem Toyota, gets into his car during practice for the NASCAR XFINITY Series iK9 Service Dog 200 at ISM Raceway on March 8, 2019 in Avondale, Arizona. (Photo by Stacy Revere\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

But starting on the front row isn\u2019t so great either, says series leader Christopher Bell, who feels like a sitting duck in the first or second position.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs soon as you cross that start\/finish line, you have a football-field-and-a-half of room,\u201d Bell said on Friday before opening practice for Saturday\u2019s IK9 Service Dog 200 (4 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). \u201cYou just can\u2019t block all that room, so if they have momentum on you, it\u2019s really easy for them to get side-by-side with you and make a move on you.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut that\u2019s what the fans love\u2014that\u2019s for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, if not the back or the front, what does Bell consider the optimum starting position?<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing third is probably the most ideal location,\u201d Bell said, \u201cbecause you\u2019re on the inside, you can use the dogleg \u2026 I think third is a pretty good spot to be on the race track here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Justin Allgaier saw both ends of the equation last fall, in the first Xfinity race with the track \u201cflipped.” What used to be the backstretch, complete with a wide dogleg where drivers can gain ground below the apron, is now the frontstretch.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was the interesting part for me,\u201d Allgaier said. \u201cLast year, we were fortunate enough to run really good in the stages and be up front, and then we had a restart where we weren\u2019t up front, and it was completely different.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom my standpoint, that\u2019s kind of the hardest part to wrap your head around. I know that in the sport, you\u2019re not always going to be roses. You\u2019re going to have some times where you\u2019re going to have to start maybe toward the back of the field. I think that being on the curve the way you are here makes it even more challenging.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stage racing adds a premium to qualifying and running up front at a speedway where track position is critically important.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause of stage racing, particularly at a place like ISM Raceway, I think qualifying has been at a premium regardless,\u201d Allgaier said. \u201cBut I say that, and Christopher Bell didn\u2019t qualify well last fall and still came on to win the race.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think you can manage it, but on the flip side\u2014particularly for stage points\u2014it\u2019s still beneficial to put yourself in position to qualify well and just have the easier time and not put yourself in those danger positions as often.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service AVONDALE, Ariz. \u2013 With the NASCAR Xfinity Series coming to ISM Raceway for the second time, it\u2019s a given that starting or restarting in what used to be Turn 2 can be problematic. But starting on the front row isn\u2019t so great either, says series leader Christopher Bell, who […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":24023,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11],"tags":[451,561,394,16],"class_list":["post-24021","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-christopher-bell","tag-ism-raceway","tag-justin-allgaier","tag-nascar"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/NXS_ISM_BellPrac1_030819.jpg?fit=1024%2C696&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-6fr","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24021","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/676"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24021"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24021\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24024,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24021\/revisions\/24024"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}