Bell again laments he's 'not good enough' after second place Chicagoland finish

Christopher Bell was again on the wrong end of a Joe Gibbs Racing sweep and again put the responsibility on his shoulders Sunday night at Chicagoland Speedway.

“It happens time and time again, where I’m way behind and coming up through the pack,” Bell said after finishing second to Chase Briscoe. “I don’t know; I guess I had the track position in Nashville, and I still lost the race, so it goes both ways. We’ve lost them every way possible.

“I’m not good enough right now.”

The comments were very similar to what Bell said after Nashville. On that night, Bell finished second after losing the lead to Denny Hamlin on the final lap. Briscoe was also in the picture for a brief three-wide battle going into Turn 1.

But this time around, Bell was the one chasing and couldn’t get close enough to mount a challenge. Bell charged from third in the final stint following the green-flag pit cycle and closed the gap to under a second with five laps to go. Over the final three laps, Bell put the pressure on, but Briscoe held steady.

Bell had fresher tires than Briscoe but felt that didn’t matter, as both cars seemed even by the time the final laps came around. The deciding factor seemed to be a matter of track position.

“He was out front and had the lead and threw a couple of good blocks on me,” Bell said, “and that’s all she wrote.”

“[Briscoe] and Drew [Herring, spotter] do really well at blocking, and the game was on the line, the race was on the line, and he knew that. I knew that. I didn’t get it done.”

It’s been a mixed bag of racing fortune for Bell since the Coca-Cola 600. Bell was in contention for that race win when it was shortened by rain. He finished second. The disappointment in Nashville then occurred a week later.

The following week in Michigan, he was fighting for second place when he hit the wall after contact from Chase Elliott and broke his wrist. Bell then came back a week later, finished the race at Pocono, and the team nearly pulled off a fuel mileage gamble for the win. The two races before Chicagoland were road course events, where Bell had to turn the car over (San Diego), and finished fifth (Sonoma).

“It’s disappointing to continue to lose races,” Bell said. “We’ve lost them every way possible, and I'm just not good enough. Just not good enough.

“The cars are amazing. We’ve had the fastest car a lot, Toyota is great, and I’m not winning the races. So, just not good enough.”