Christopher Bell made some ironic comments about Homestead on Saturday, days before the Cup Series race at the track.
Bell caught William Byron to take the lead with 15 laps left in the 4EVER 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Sunday. The driver of the No. 20 Toyota Camry for Joe Gibbs Racing held off Ryan Blaney and won the race to clinch a spot in the Championship 4.
The ironic part about Bell’s win is that just on Saturday, the 28-year-old driver had said he wished the two Cup Series races ahead of the final race in Phoenix were at different tracks.
“I wish it was another track, I’ll be honest with you,” Bell said during the week, via Racer’s Kelly Crandall. “I do wish we were going to a handful of other racetracks.”
Despite wishing the race were at a different track, Bell recognized that “Homestead is certainly a place where you can control your own destiny, and if you go there and you’re fast, you’re going to have a great day. If you go there and you’re slow, you’re going to have a really bad day.”
Bell only led 26 laps during the race, but he hung around enough and then pulled ahead when it mattered most. Prior to Sunday, his best previous finish in a Cup Series race at Homestead was eighth.
Now Bell has secured a spot in the Championship 4 along with Kyle Larson. Byron and Blaney enter next weekend’s race at Martinsville as the other two drivers on track to secure berths into the Championship 4.
Bell finished third in the Cup Series last season and is hoping to improve on that this year.
