Christopher Bell enjoys an impromptu taste of Super Late Model racing at New Smyrna Speedway
NEW SMYRNA BEACH, Fla. — Christopher Bell's first start at New Smyrna Speedway in a decade proved to be more eventful than he had anticipated.
Bell's Hart to Heart 200 was dominated by adversity, as two separate early incidents and a pit road penalty forced him to repeatedly drive from the rear of the field. Despite this, Bell never wavered from the challenges in front of him and battled his way back to sixth by the time the checkered flag was displayed.
The decision for Bell to race Tuesday was last-minute, which left him a limited amount of time to acclimate to the track conditions and a car that was originally a backup for his teammate Cole Butcher. He enjoyed climbing back into a Super Late Model but knew his showing could have been much better.
'It was fun and frustrating,' Bell said. 'We tried to keep an open mind. Obviously, I didn't qualify well. Moved up through the field and was in a pretty good spot up until [the penalty], and that was a bummer to go to the back again after halfway. It was up and down.'
RELATED: Follow the World Series of Asphalt at New Smyrna
New Smyrna was an ideal track for Bell to make his surprise late entry. His lone previous attempt at the World Series of Asphalt back in 2015 saw him prevail in a 100-lap Super Late Model feature over names like Harrison Burton, Zane Smith and others.
The years since that victory have seen Bell emerge as one of the best competitors in both NASCAR and the world. Among the accomplishments Bell has on his growing resume are a Coca-Cola 600 victory, a NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series title and three consecutive triumphs in the Chili Bowl from 2017-19.
Bell initially balanced out his stock-car commitments with dirt-track racing, but he has explicitly focused on NASCAR in recent years. The status quo changed at the start of the 2025 season with Bell attempting his first Chili Bowl since 2022 while also running sprint cars at Volusia Speedway Park earlier in February.
A return to Super Late Model competition also crossed Bell's mind. With the World Series of Asphalt at New Smyrna ongoing just 20 minutes away from Daytona International Speedway, Bell contacted Donnie Wilson Motorsports about potentially entering the Hart to Heart 100.
The deal was quickly put together in time for the event, reuniting Bell with his old Super Late Model car owner Bond Suss, who is now the general manager for Donnie Wilson Motorsports.
'I didn't have anything else going on,' Bell said. 'We've got [Daytona 500] practice [on Wednesday], but Bond Suss and I had been talking for a while about putting something together. It ended up working out.'
Joe Gibbs Racing Director of Competition Chris Gabeheart also accompanied Bell to New Smyrna as his crew chief for the Hart to Heart 200. The presence of Suss, Gabeheart and Wilson gave Bell plenty of confidence about his chances to win despite the expedited schedule.
Finding a rhythm proved to be a challenge for Bell with no practice prior to Wednesday. With his teammates being the only source of information available from the previous day's practice, Bell could only post a quick time of 18.229 seconds, which placed him 30th of 32 cars on the starting grid.
The two early wrecks only compounded Bell's struggles, but he only sustained minimal damage and gradually grew more comfortable as the race progressed. An onslaught of cautions led to diverging strategies amongst the leaders, enabling Bell to climb his way into the top 10 by the halfway point.
All of Bell's progress would be erased when he was assessed a penalty on pit road during a controlled caution. Now at the tail end of the lead lap again with fewer laps at his disposal, Bell began methodically picking off his competition, all while attempting to avoid any further collisions with the ASA STARS National Tour regulars.
'I'm just trying not to create enemies,' Bell said. 'I'm out here racing for fun, but for these guys, this race is a big deal to them. This is what they do, and I'm trying to stay out of people's way.'
When the dust settled on a chaotic night of racing at New Smyrna, Bell's red No. 20 Mobil 1 Toyota was still intact and comfortably inside the top 10 once again. The comeback from Bell capped off an efficient night for Donnie Wilson Motorsports, as Bell's 17-year-old teammate Gavan Boschele took home the checkered flag.
Although Bell wanted to park his car in New Smyrna's Victory Lane again, he found plenty of positives to take away from his impromptu visit to the facility. One highlight for Bell was sharing ideas with Suss again, the same person who helped Bell with his initial transition into stock cars many years ago.
Every opportunity to compete in pavement races outside the Cup Series carries immense value for Bell. Dirt races are the focal point of Bell's non-NASCAR schedule, but he is not ruling out another Super Late Model collaboration with Suss and Wilson at some point in 2025.
'This is a blast,' Bell said. 'It's fun to broaden your horizons and get to race with different people. We'll have to see what the schedule allows [for Super Late Models], but I enjoy these one day shows for sure. Hopefully I get to keep it up.'
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2 hours ago
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Luzardo returns to form with 10 strikeouts and Phillies bats come alive to end prolonged slumps
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Associated Press
2 hours ago
- Associated Press
Luzardo returns to form with 10 strikeouts and Phillies bats come alive to end prolonged slumps
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Ricky Stenhouse Jr. admired Kyle Schwarber's shot deep into the right-field seats —'that's a bomb!' — and got a thrill when Nick Castellanos came inches away from his own solo homer. Castellanos settled for a triple, showing that in baseball — unlike in Stenhouse's day job in NASCAR — good things happen when a long drive ends with a smack off the wall. Alec Bohm also went deep and teamed with Schwarber and Castellanos to contribute three of the Phillies' five extra-base hits in a win the team can only hope revived an offense that's been punchless this month. Another encouraging sign? Jesús Luzardo put two disastrous starts behind him and struck out 10 in six innings to lead the Phillies past the Chicago Cubs 7-2 on Wednesday. The Phillies had lost nine of 10 games overall headed into the Cubs' series and suffered the double whammy of losing first baseman Bryce Harper to wrist soreness and starter Aaron Nola adding a stress reaction in one of his right ribs. They returned home and split the first two games of the three-game set against the Cubs in underwhelming fashion: Of their 26 hits in two games, 23 were singles. Schwarber hit his 21st homer a Monster Mile — Stenhouse attended to promote the July 20 NASCAR race at Dover Motor Speedway — and Bohm added four RBIs to help the Phillies win the series. Schwarber is averaging one home run for every 10.94 at-bats during June in his career, which ranks third in MLB history with at least 600 at-bats behind Babe Ruth (10.64 AB/HR) and Mark McGwire (10.80 AB/HR). Luzardo handled the rest. The left-hander was an early season success story in his first season since he was acquired from Miami in what looked like the heist of the winter. He struck out 11 in his Phillies' debut and followed in his second start with seven scoreless innings. Luzardo struck out a combined 20 batters in consecutive starts in late May as the Phillies surged to the lead in the NL. Luzardo's next two starts were somehow about as bad as it gets — he was rocked for 12 runs in 3 1/3 innings that skyrocketed his ERA from 2.15 to 3.58 and he gave up eight runs in 2 1/3 innings in his last outing in Toronto. Luzardo insisted he was healthy and still hit the high 90s with his fastball, forcing him to study game film with a bit of a detective's eye to find out why his season soured. He came to the conclusion that he must have been tipping his pitches. How about a tip of the cap from Phillies fans instead? 'There's a lot of things we tinkered with,' Luzardo said. 'The biggest thing was attention to detail, attention to where we want to go, pitch selection that comes from me.' Luzardo fanned two batters in the first inning to get the gem of a start going. He didn't walk a batter in six innings and allowed his only run with the Phillies up 4-0. Luzardo gave up consecutive singles to open the second inning before he struck out the side. 'He studies himself and he wants to address what he's doing wrong,' Schwarber said. 'That's the impressive thing about him. We were all excited to watch him get out there on the mound today and see what was going to happen. Never a third time.' Max Lazar worked two innings of relief and Michael Mercado tossed a scoreless ninth for the Phillies. Luzardo recorded his fourth double-digit strikeout game in his 15th start of the season, the first Phillies pitcher with four or more double-digit strikeout games in their first 15 starts with the team since Steve Carlton had five in 1972. Yes, the Hall of Famer with the 10-foot statue outside Citizens Bank Park. Not all stats, of course, are usually measured against Hall of Famers. Luzardo was the first Phillies left-hander with at least 10 strikeouts and no walks in a game since Drew Smyly struck out 10 in 2019 at Washington. Up next, an off day and a home weekend series against a Blue Jays team that outscored the Phillies 11-2 in consecutive losses last weekend. Schwarber was willing to bet the past two weeks were just a blip in a long season for a playoff-tested team rather than the start of a summer swoon. 'We know what we have,' Schwarber said. 'We've been in a little rut and we're finding our way out of it. We know that if we do what we need to do, we're know that we're not going to be losing many games overall.' ___ AP MLB:
