With Brisco and Bell being friends, the experience was all that more special for them as Brisco described post-race.
“It’s definitely cool, though, for two kids that grew up racing sprint cars together and racing online, and we still race online almost every night together. It’s definitely cool to be able to do double burnouts out there with him.”
Here is how it all went down at Homestead-Miami on a breezy Friday night.
Chase Brisco started from the pole and would lead the field around to the start-finish line for the first 33 laps of the race. Then it was time for the Championship contenders to get into the mix as Christopher bell made the pass on lap 34, one that he would hold onto until the end of stage 1.
During stage 2, Christopher Bell, Austin Cindric, and Johnny Sauter ran mostly in the top 5. Brisco would again start out in front as the stage got underway, but it was Ben Rhodes winning yet another clean stage, with Christopher Bell coming in a close 2nd. Johnny Sauter finished State 2 in 5th, with Austin Cindric finishing 6th and Matt Crafton in 8th, to round out the championship contenders.
As the 3rd and final stage of the 2017 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series season got underway, it was again Brisco out in front, but Rhodes would make a quick pass to take over the lead with Bell, Cindric, Sauter, and Crafton all following suite looking to grab the Championship.
Austin Cindric and Johnny Sauter had the closes battle back in 4th and 5th as the race winded down. However, the dominant Playoff performer of the night was Christopher Bell. That would payoff for him as he crossed the start-finish line in 2nd place in the race, just behind Chase Brisco, who was not in the Championship hunt. The 2nd place finish for Bell won him the 2017 Camping World Truck Series Championship.
“Well, it was really, really — I don’t know, I don’t want to say smooth sailing, but things went our way. As soon as we fired off there, I knew my truck was really, really good. I could kind of just take it easy. Whenever you get to these pavement races and you can go fast without trying as hard, you’re always in better shape because you can take care of your tires so much easier. I was able to really run the bottom of 1 and 2 at the beginning of the race and make really good time down there, and it was really beneficial for me because I was keeping my truck out of danger down there.
“But those guys kept getting better and better each restart, and we kept tightening it up, tightening it up, which I think hurt our fire-off speed, but over the long run made it safer for me to drive, and it paid off.”
The defending Champion, Johnny Sauter would finish the race in 3rd place, just under 13 seconds behind Bell, clinching him a 2nd place finish for the season. Austin Cindric finished 5th in the race, earning him a 3rd place finish in the season standings. The last Playoff contender was Matt Crafton, who finished in 6th, earning him a 4th place finish on the season.
Next season Bell will move into the Xfinity Series racing for JGR in the #20 car as he continues his climb of the NASCAR Series ladder.
