Christopher Bell looked back at a special moment he had with Ricky Stenhouse Jr. While speaking to Jeff Gluck of The Athletic, Bell talked about the time he talked to Stenhouse after competing in the Short Track Nationals in Little Rock, Arkansas in 2012.
“So I do remember the Short Track Nationals that year. I was running for a really, really small team out of Ohio,” Bell said. “And he was part-owner in Jason Johnson’s team, and Jason Johnson was pitted a couple trailers down. And yes, I do very vividly remember that weekend and remember being in awe that Ricky Stenhouse Jr. came up to me.”
Bell talked about the meeting with Stenhouse because Gluck asked Stenhouse what he wanted to ask Bell. “There was a year he ran the Short Track Nationals in Little Rock, Arkansas (2012). I don’t remember who he was driving for, but he was super young and just getting on the scene,” Stenhouse said. “But he ran really well; I think he finished second or third, battled for the win. And I came over and talked to him. I was like, ‘Hey man, super impressive. Blah, blah, blah.’ And like typical Christopher, it was maybe a one-word answer, like, ‘Thanks.’ See if he remembers that.”
Stenhouse and Bell were in the early stages of their racing careers at the time and are now top Cup Series drivers. Stenhouse won the Daytona 500 in 2023 while Bell has won nine of his 162 Cup Series races.
Christopher Bell talks winning New Hampshire Cup Series Race
Bell most recentlywon the race at New Hampshire on Sunday and has now earned three Cup Series races this year. After Sunday’s race, Bell talked about his chances of winning once the race stopped due to a rain delay.
“Well, it certainly became a lot — my chances got a lot higher once they went to the wet weather tires,” Bell said. “We lost all of our track position in stage three with the strategies, the way that they played out, all the yellow flags.
“Early on in the race I was good, and then Martin got by me, and I wasn’t out of it by any means, but then it was going to get a lot harder once we got mired back in traffic there at the start of stage three. Then whenever the wet weather came in, it really made it anybody’s ball game.”
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