Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour presented by NASCAR on FOX - Christopher Bell Interview | VICTORY LAP

Episode Date: June 24, 2024

Join NASCAR legend Kevin Harvick for an exciting bonus episode of "Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour," as he sits down with Christopher Bell for an engaging and insightful conversation. They dive into Christopher's BIG victory at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, where he showcased his dominance by sweeping the NASCAR race weekend. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver fought hard for his win in Sunday’s weather-challenged race, which included a two-hour rain delay and ended with drivers on wet-weather tires, a rarity in NASCAR history.Christopher Bell also shares his experience transitioning from Xfinity to Next Gen Cars, discusses his confidence on the track, and much more! Don’t miss this action-packed episode, filled with expert analysis and thrilling moments from the world of NASCAR! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour, presented by NASCAR and Fox. And this week, we have a little bit of a bonus for you. We've got Sunday's winner, Christopher Bell. So we're going to catch up with him and see how his weekend unfolded. Well, we're happy to have last weekends yesterday's winner from New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Christopher Bell, on Zoom with us today. And it's great to have the winner. Welcome, Christopher. Thanks for taking the time today to tell us about your weekend.

Absolutely, Kevin. Thanks for having me on. Well, the first thing I want to know is you basically told everybody that they might as well not even show up at New Hampshire Motor Speedway because every time you show up in the Xfinity race, you've won four of the races up there. Now you've swept the weekend again. What is it about New Hampshire Motor Speedway that just fits your driving style cars? What is that all about? It definitely seems to be a place that you want to have a few more races at.

Yeah, well, Kevin, I learned from the best, man. I've watched your data from all the years. And I don't know. You were always really good there and one of the guys to beat. And for whatever reason, every time I go there, my cars are just really good. And you know as well as I do, if your car is good, it makes it so much easier. And if your car is not good, it's not going to happen. So it's just been a really strong track for Joe Gibbs Racing.

And even whenever I was there in the truck series with Cowbush Motors, we were able to go and do a rookie test before I ran my first race there. And whenever you have those opportunities to go to the test, you just get a bunch of laps. And it kind of gave me a rhythm around that place. And the cars that I've driven have always done what I need them to do. So I think it's just all about having, you know, the right setup and great equipment. What was it like this weekend? You know, I ran a couple races outside of the, the,

the new style next-gen car going back and forth between the Xfinity car and and i never got to a point where i was fluent with the sequential shifter because i had shifted an age pattern so long what was that transition like for you this weekend oh it was it was wild it was wild and i i mean you you're have a lot more experience than me but going from like in 2021 when we had the the normal cup car and then going to the next gen car the next gen car the next gen car was completely foreign and it felt so weird sitting in the car and everything felt different. Well, now fast forward two years, the next gen car feels like home and then I get back in the Expedity car and it feels foreign. It just feels so weird. The shifter is like way off to your right.

I felt like I was right against the left side door and obviously the way that they drive is completely different. But it honestly felt like I was driving a dirt car the way that you can slide the affinity cars through the corners. It was so much fun to run. And then you get in the cup car and, you know, you're just like wheel left, locked and you can't really slide the car through the corners. So they're a lot different for sure. So you talk about the cup car and it was a pretty straightforward race for about the first half of it. But that wasn't the exciting part. Let's talk about the exciting part. When they threw the caution and we all didn't really know exactly what they were going to do as far as whether they're going to keep the race going, stop the race, what's going to happen?

So they put the rain tires on and they throw the green flag and you go straight to the top of the racetrack. What was that, was that just an asphalt decision or were you just going where they weren't? Well, so, I mean, none of us knew where to be on the track, right? And at Loudoun, normally that new asphalt that they have is where all the grip is, aside from the PJ1. But whenever we went out there under yellow, that new asphalt was super, super slippery. And, you know, you're out there, you're weaving back and forth. And I was just like sliding all over the place. And then I went down on the apron and it felt like it had way more grip.

And then I tried the fourth lane, which is, I think it's older asphalt maybe. And it felt like it had way more grip. So I was pretty committed to go to that lane. And then the entire field went left and kind of gave me that open road. So I'm like, all right, well, I guess I got cleaning up here too now. So did you do all that under caution? Did you fill all that under caution? Is that when you did all that?

Yeah, just weaving back and forth, you know, under yellow whenever we rolled out. Did you think that the new asphalt, the newer asphalt, do you think that was from all the rubber being on there? Or do you think it was just because that asphalt just less aggregate, just smoother? Yeah, I mean, obviously, whenever it rains, you normally want to stay out of the rubber. but the way that they used the air tightens, I didn't feel like there was any rubber laid or still down on that. Maybe there was a little bit and that was contributing to the slickness. But in that moment, I just thought that it was the asphalt texture and the way the asphalt was, not the rubber on it. So in those instances, we hear people like the Stuart Hoss cars, they were a complete junk.

And, you know, they all of a sudden put rain tires on and went forward. And Danny Hamlin, he was great in the drive, went backwards. Your car seemed to be pretty good either way. You think that's just from a balance on the car? Do you guys have a system of what you think you need to change in the wet now as to what you like? Well, definitely we learned a lot from the Richmond race earlier in the year whenever we ran on the rain tires. And from that experience, we were able to kind of put notes together. I say we, it's them.

It's Adam. It's my team. You still got to drive it. Yeah, yeah. I'm telling them what I feel. But yeah, after what we did at Richmond, we learned kind of how all the balance was going to change from the slick tires to the rain tires. So the guys had an amazing plan to implement on the race car. And, yeah, they nailed it.

I mean, it drove really well on the rain. And it seemed like, you know, we were as good as we needed to. be for sure we saw a lot of guys having having just trouble trying to figure out where they needed to be on the racetrack we saw several guys hit the paint wrong getting into turn one turn three kind of go up the racetrack a few of them wrecked did you have any moments throughout the day where you're like oh god that was close don't do that again i did i did for sure so whenever we're out there under yellow this was before we went green you know you're trying to get a feel of the grip level well let me tell the front stretch paint section on the start finish line was super super slippery and and on the start

like at the original start i i was super mindful of like you know rolling out of the throttle once we got across that paint because i didn't know if you're going to start fish sailing or what uh but that was very slippery and then obviously getting into the corners uh i did really well running the apron whenever the track was full wet uh but there was one time getting into one where i didn't get low enough and my right sides got on the on the painted line and it just it took off on me and I just immediately had to just let the car straightened up and then I didn't I just aborted on that new asphalt and I went from the abram all the way to to lane forward and and before I even tried to catch the car because I felt like it was going to get myself in trouble so definitely looked like a handful what so what's

your process we heard a lot about um kind of dirt racing on I guess with you and Larson on on the this weekend. But what is that process like for a driver as you go through, going to the apron, filling the line, going through the middle lane of different asphalt, going to the top? What's your process of elimination? And I think as

it dries in this rain-style racing, you have to be willing to move around again. So what's your mindset as you go through this process? Are you always looking? Are you looking for dry spots on the track? Or what are you visually looking for or feeling?

Yeah, I mean, it's, it's, we're learning and it's all very, very new to us, but it started out whenever we rolled off pit road, right? And my number one thought process is just trying to figure out where the grip is at. And I started weaving back and forth and trying to, I figured out that it was either going to be the apron or lane four outside of the new pavement. And then that's what I committed to whenever they, they drop the green flag. well now as soon as the car start running and there's no rain falling it dries up very quickly and then all of a sudden you're you're trying to figure out where the dry line is because that's going to have the most grip but on the flip side it's also going to hurt the tires the most so i think the most important thing is is just to have a good balance on your car because

you have to run the dry line because that's where all the speed is and if your car's not balanced, you're going to be killing your tires. So that goes back to the team aspect of they did a great job on the adjustments where my car was balanced well and the tires held on, you know, as good as any of them were going to. So yeah, I ran the apron and it started drying out and just gaining more and more grip. So as a driver, I'm in my opinion, we've been through this enough times now. It seems to me like NASCAR needs to kind of let loose a little bit to just let the strategy start to play out. I know we need to protect the guys on pit road if we have a caution. And we got to figure out how to get pit road dryer. Where do you sit on all this? Do you want to see it play out and just, you know, when the

caution came out for the rain, should we just said, okay, it's raining, boys, you got to come to pit road or you don't have to come to pit road. Here's the caution, make a decision and move on. Where do you sit on all that? Yeah, I'm okay with basically running the race as normal if we're staying on the same tires. So if we're going to, if we're going to stay on rain tires, I, I would be okay having live pit stops. And, and, but it's that transition either from slicks to rain tires or from rain tires to slicks that I think could get yourself in trouble or somebody in trouble. So in the situation that we had this weekend, I think if NASCAR would have opened up the pits and said, hey, if you want to put tires on, put tires on. If you don't want to put tires on,

stay out and mandated the rain tires, I think that would have been fine. But anytime that you're, going from one tire to the other, I think is the danger zone for pit road. And certainly, you know, anytime you have slicks on with damp surfaces, you're just, it's just going to take off on you. So, yeah, if you're going to stay on wet, I think we could have live pits off all day. Yeah, it was, it was very intriguing to watch. And I'm glad we're in this position. I was anti-rain tires for until we got to North Wilkesboro and I drove the thing and I was like oh man this isn't this really isn't that that bad and so I think it's I think as everybody gets more comfortable to just get more intriguing so a few weeks ago I mean right before the 600 at Charlotte it was like where is Christopher Bell you guys have had had terrible luck and we talked after that race and you talked about the speed in your car and that has obviously paid off through the last several weeks and you guys are back on track are you do you get do you feel good about where where you are to compete for the championship. And this next gen car is kind of you get hot, you get cold.

You get hot. You get cold. Where are you at as far as your team? Yeah, I mean, I feel great about where we're at right now. And obviously, the short track package has been really, really good for us. It seems like every time we go to the flat short tracks, we're doing good. And then my team has found something with the setup or the balance that really suits my style. So that aspect is good.

I can't sit here and tell you that I feel great about Nashville because that has not been our best track since the next-gen cars come out. And then the intermediates, some of them have been good. Charlotte was good. Kansas wasn't very good. So, you know, I mean, I think I feel as confident as anybody. But like you said, it goes in waves. And right now we're on a good wave. But, you know, we know that we're going to have to stay working hard at it.

Well, you guys look great. And I guess the only concern I have about you is I believe that you're the worst secret keeper in the world because your face turns bright, freaking red, my friend. And when you say something wrong, your wife has got it made because she knows when you're BSing her. Your face is going to turn bright red. That was definitely one of the more classic moments. It was like, oh, I'm in trouble. and Kevin I had no idea what to do I literally was I didn't know if I should just leave like literally just drop the mic and leave or I had no idea no idea what to do or say that was that was a big well either way you made it good bud you you went out won the race and did what you were supposed to do good luck to you we appreciate you taking the time today and have a great day thank you Kevin we'll talk to you later