Story By: SAM MAHONEY / TOYOTA RACING – LOUDON, NH – Christopher Bell and Sheldon Creed battled with race leader Cole Custer at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on the final overtime restart, and it was Bell that came out on top.
The Oklahoma-native earned his fourth Xfinity Series victory at New Hampshire, in as many starts, as he remains perfect at the track. Bell starts fourth in tomorrow’s NASCAR Cup Series race.
The 20 team, led by crew chief Tyler Allen, has now won four times this season with four different drivers (John Hunter Nemechek, Aric Almirola, Ryan Truex and Bell).
In second, Creed came close to his first Xfinity Series victory as he earned his record-tying 10th runner-up finish.
Corey Heim (10th) battled back from a mid-race extended pit stop to earn his first career back-to-back top-10 finish in the NASCAR Xfinity Series. The Toyota Development Driver finished a career-best third at Iowa Speedway one week ago. For his team, Sam Hunt Racing, it was the first set of consecutive top-10 finishes of the 2024 season.
Toyota Racing Post-Race Recap
NASCAR Xfinity Series
New Hampshire Motor Speedway
Race 16 of 33 – 211.6 miles, 200 laps
TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS
1st, CHRISTOPHER BELL
2nd, SHELDON CREED
3rd, Cole Custer*
4th, Justin Allgaier*
5th, Carson Kvapil*
10th, COREY HEIM
15th, CHANDLER SMITH
23rd, JUSTIN BONSIGNORE
*non-Toyota driver
TOYOTA QUOTES
CHRISTOPHER BELL, No. 20 Mobil 1 Toyota GR Supra, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 1st
Four-in-a-row. How did it happen?
“That was 100 percent just circumstances there. I really did not do a very good job on the start and got a terrible launch and that allowed Sheldon (Creed) to get into second, and Sheldon ended up getting Cole (Custer) loose off of (turn) four and I had Sheldon’s left rear, and I was able to get to the bottom of three-wide with our Mobil 1 Toyota. (Turns) One and two I felt really good at the bottom, so I felt like I was in a good spot, but that was a hard one for sure. Cole did a good job getting control of the race and getting the lead and he just drove away the third stage. It is never over till it’s over, though.”
How is it hard to battle on that restart but keep it clean?
“You see the end of these races all the time, and they get to where they are not very clean, but fortunately, everyone that I was running around did a great job of racing very respectfully, I love it. That is what it is all about. I try to treat everyone with as much as respect as possible because you never know what is going to happen. I think we saw a great clean race there again.”
SHELDON CREED, No. 18 Friends of Jaclyn Foundation Toyota GR Supra, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 2nd
Can you talk about that finish?
“Overall, good day. I’m proud of everyone with our group at Joe Gibbs Racing and everyone at Toyota. We made our car better all day. It was a little rough on rain tires, but as soon as we got dries on it, we got our Supra better and better. Just stayed in the hunt all day. I wasn’t great on the short run, but I felt like we could compete at times. Just stayed in it, worked hard at it and came home second again.”
COREY HEIM, No. 26 Yahoo Toyota GR Supra, Sam Hunt Racing
Finishing Position: 10th
How was your race?
“Overall, it was a solid day for us. I think we had a top-10 car and was able to finish top-10 with it – short of a few spots that we probably deserved, but I think we stayed pretty stagnant throughout the race, struggled on the long runs but would fire off really well with our Yahoo GR Supra. I’m super proud of Sam Hunt Racing and Toyota Racing for all their efforts. These last two races have been really solid, and excited to continue building on it. Just have a couple of things to work on throughout the race to get us a couple spots better so we can go for wins, but overall, just proud of our performance.”