{"id":43261,"date":"2023-09-15T18:35:09","date_gmt":"2023-09-15T23:35:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=43261"},"modified":"2023-09-17T15:01:51","modified_gmt":"2023-09-17T20:01:51","slug":"christopher-bell-wins-third-straight-playoff-pole-in-bristol-qualifying","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2023\/09\/15\/christopher-bell-wins-third-straight-playoff-pole-in-bristol-qualifying\/","title":{"rendered":"Christopher Bell wins third straight Playoff pole in Bristol qualifying\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer <\/em><\/p>\n

NASCAR Wire Service<\/em> <\/p>\n

BRISTOL, Tenn. \u2013 For Christopher Bell, Friday\u2019s NASCAR Cup Series qualifying session brought an unprecedented accomplishment.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Christopher Bell, driver of the #20 Reser’s Fine Foods Toyota, poses for photos after winning the pole award during qualifying for the NASCAR Cup Series Bass Pro Shops Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway on September 15, 2023 in Bristol, Tennessee. (Photo by Meg Oliphant\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

For Martin Truex Jr., Bell\u2019s teammate at Joe Gibbs Racing, it brought a sense of relief\u2014if that\u2019s possible for a driver trying to climb above the cut line in the series Playoffs. <\/p>\n

In the final round of time trials at the 0.533-mile short track, Bell turned a lap in 15.109 seconds (126.997 mph), edging another teammate, Denny Hamlin, by 0.008 seconds (126.930 mph) for the top starting spot in Saturday\u2019s Bass Pro Shops Night race, whose starting time was moved up to 6:35 p.m. because of the potential for rain later in the evening. <\/p>\n

That performance in the money round gave Bell an unprecedented sweep of the pole positions in the first three Playoff races of 2023. The Busch Light Pole Award was Bell\u2019s fifth of the season, his first at Bristol and the ninth of his career. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t get much closer than that\u2014that\u2019s crazy tight,\u201d Bell said of his margin over Hamlin. (But) 500 laps (on Saturday) is an awfully long time. If I\u2019ve learned anything, it\u2019s that qualifying means nothing for the race.\u201d <\/p>\n

Bell knows whereof he speaks. After winning poles at Darlington and Kansas in the first two Playoff races, Bell finished 23rd<\/sup> and eighth, respectively. As a result, he has a 13-point margin over Truex, the first driver below the current cutoff for the Round of 12. <\/p>\n

Truex (126.154 mph) qualified fifth behind fellow Playoff drivers Bell, Hamlin, William Byron (126.345 mph) and Michael McDowell (126.220 mph). That\u2019s a boon for the regular-season champion, who trails 12th<\/sup>-place Kevin Harvick by seven points and 11th<\/sup>-place Joey Logano by 12. <\/p>\n

On Saturday night, Harvick will start 21st<\/sup> and Logano 28th<\/sup> as they battle to advance to the Round of 12. <\/p>\n

Bell was happy to see Truex set up a potential good run with his fifth-place qualifying effort. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think Bristol probably owes him one,\u201d Bell said. \u201cHopefully, we can get all three of these JGR Camrys into the next round. I certainly know that we have the speed to do it\u2026 Martin put himself in a good spot, so hopefully he can make it happen.\u201d <\/p>\n

Brad Keselowski qualified sixth, followed by Chase Elliott, whose No. 9 Chevrolet is part of the owners\u2019 championship contest, even though Elliott failed to make the drivers\u2019 Playoff. Ty Gibbs qualified eighth, followed by Playoff driver Bubba Wallace and Corey LaJoie.<\/p>\n

Interview:<\/h3>\n

NCS Pole Winner – Christopher Bell (No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Chevrolet) – <\/p>\nhttp:\/\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/BMS2NCSChristopherBell091523.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer  NASCAR Wire Service  BRISTOL, Tenn. \u2013 For Christopher Bell, Friday\u2019s NASCAR Cup Series qualifying session brought an unprecedented accomplishment. For Martin Truex Jr., Bell\u2019s teammate at Joe Gibbs Racing, it brought a sense of relief\u2014if that\u2019s possible for a driver trying to climb above the cut line in the series Playoffs.  In […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":43245,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_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},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[11],"tags":[177,451,16],"class_list":["post-43261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-bristol-motor-speedway","tag-christopher-bell","tag-nascar"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/GettyImages-1683395697-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1706&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-bfL","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43261","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=43261"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43261\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43265,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43261\/revisions\/43265"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}