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NASCAR CAMPING WORLD TRUCK SERIES: ECOBOOST 200

November 18, 2016

Christopher Bell

Homestead, Florida

THE MODERATOR: We're now joined by the driver of the No.4 JBL Toyota, Christopher Bell. Christopher, exciting finish to a great race. You were making some pretty spectacular moves there in those closing laps. Talk to us about that.
CHRISTOPHER BELL: Yeah, really thankful for all my guys on this No.4 team. They worked really hard because we were pretty far off to start the race, but they threw the kitchen sink at it and we got a lot better, just never was good enough to-- at the end we were good enough to compete with the other two, but the 21 was really good. My pit crew did an outstanding job, gave me a bunch of spots on pit road, and just kind of wasn't good enough tonight.

Q. Christopher, obviously Kyle was in your ear a lot tonight. How helpful was that, and how did that help you throughout the course of the race?
CHRISTOPHER BELL: Oh, he's super helpful because he's so smart. He's a Cup champion, so to have him here coaching me and he was actually on the roof talking to me and he could see everything, so he could help me with my line, he could help Jerry with the truck, and he was a big asset for us tonight, so we made a bunch of gains. I felt like if it was a 200-lap race we might have been able to make more adjustments to get better because every stop we kept getting better and better and better, but just wasn't good enough.

Q. Christopher, just get your take on what your journey was up to this point and what you're going to take away from this championship battle.
CHRISTOPHER BELL: Well, it was really special to be a part of the first ever NASCAR Camping World Chase because at the beginning of the year, I felt like we'd be a championship-contending team, but after the way it started, or I should say before the year, and then after the year started, whenever we were just-- I was making mistakes, we were getting caught up in a bunch of crashes, and so in the middle of the season, May, June, kind of we didn't even know if we were going to make the Chase, and then we won at Gateway and kind of locked ourselves in, but we didn't continually have speed until the last half of the season. Even when we got speed, we were never really contending for wins.
We just lacked a little bit, so I'm going to work really hard over this off-season to become a better driver and give it another shot next year.

Q. You had a number of encounters with the wall tonight. How badly did that change the handling characteristics of your Tundra?
CHRISTOPHER BELL: I don't think it really affected my Tundra at all. It was really-- yeah, I didn't notice any balance changes after I hit the wall, just I don't think I ever really hit it too hard, just kind of kissed it, but that's just a product of trying to get everything you can get here at Homestead. It's my favorite racetrack for sure.

Q. Despite all the obstacles you had tonight, coming from the back to the front and then back to the front the number of times you did, how proud are you you finished third in the championship standings?
CHRISTOPHER BELL: How proud am I-- Oh, it's-- I don't know, I guess it kind of hasn't sunk in yet because at one point I'm pretty sure we were running around 20th and we were horrible. But Jerry Baxter did an awesome job on the pit box and got us closer and closer every time we stopped. Really thankful for that, and to come out of here and after how the year started, to finish third in points was something that was really-- I felt like it was a really big accomplishment for us. It was a heck of a race there for kind of second, third and fourth in points, so hopefully the fans enjoyed it because I'll tell you one thing, I enjoyed it. That was definitely one of the most fun races I've ever ran in my life.

Q. What did you learn tonight that maybe can help you if you're in the same position next year?
CHRISTOPHER BELL: So this is the second time I've raced here, and second time that I've started the race really bad. We definitely got a lot better than what we did last year towards the end of the race. Just seat time here is everything. I'm pretty good buddies with Kyle Larson, and I don't think there's anybody better here than Kyle. Just being able to talk to him, and he kind of gave me some pointers on how to run the wall here, and he's just-- it takes seat time.
Got another race under my belt, and excited to-- I'm excited to come back. I wish we raced here more than one time a year.

Q. What was kind of the mood at KBM in the sense of William Byron not making this final round, and not that they need any more firing up for that team, but do you think it did?
CHRISTOPHER BELL: Well, first off, it was a bummer seeing them not make it because they were obviously the class of the field the entire year long. It was heartbreaking to see them not be able to race for a driver championship. But I don't think it affected them, obviously, because they showed up here, and I'm pretty sure they won both practices, qualified on the pole and won the race.
They've just got something going on there pretty much all year long where they were really good. Then blowing up was unfortunate, and it could not have been worse timing for them. But they proved tonight that they were, once again, the class of the field.
THE MODERATOR: Christopher, congratulations on a great season, and we look forward to seeing you in 2017.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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