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Christopher Bell passed on final restart, will have tough path to fourth Chili Bowl win

JHby:Jonathan Howard•about 13 hours•

Jondean25

Christopher Bell
Jasen Vinlove-Imagn Images

It doesn’t matter if you’re a NASCAR Cup Series star, the Chili Bowl Nationals give no mercy and racers are always looking to take that next spot. Christopher Bell was passed on the final Green-White-Checkered finish and lost the transfer spot to Saturday’s A-Main.

This is going to put Christopher Bell in a tough position. Getting a top-two finish in the Thursday night A-Feature was his ticket to the main event this weekend. Now, he will have to race out of the B-Main and try to come back from deep in the field.

If Bell makes the A-Main on Saturday, he will start deep in the field. With only 40 laps to go from 12th or so to 1st, winning his fourth Chili Bowl will be much more difficult now.

Tanner Thorson won the Thursday night feature. But it was Ryan Bernal who took the final transfer spot from C-Bell. Three wide at the Chili Bowl? That’s racing!

The action on FloRacing has been awesome all week long. Stars like Christopher Bell, Kyle Larson, and Ty Gibbs have already hit the track. There are still performances from Kyle Busch, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., and all of the fantastic dirt racers in Tulsa.

Guys like Thorson and Bernal are reminding folks that this is their world. They are the ones slinging dirt all year long while these NASCAR guys are racing 38 weeks a year in a stock car.

Of course, this doesn’t take Bell out of the running for his fourth Chili Bowl win. It just makes things incredibly difficult. When asked in the postrace press conference if he can win the whole thing from 11th or 12th, Bell had some confidence.

His fellow racer Tanner Thorson shook his head immediately when Bell was asked.

“I mean, there’s hope. There’s hope,” Bell said. “I hope that the track is not super juice for the start of the race and I think the 40-lap race really doesn’t change much compared to the 55-lap race because there is such a ride-around session with the track prep that it tasks to get a 55-lap track. Yeah, I don’t have a choice now, I have to tell you it’s possible.”

Christopher Bell is back on dirt. He had a great Tulsa Shootout a couple of weeks ago. His Chili Bowl run has been solid as well, even though he missed that transfer spot. If Bell makes the A-Main on Saturday, he will be a threat to win no matter where he starts.