Christopher Bell’s NASCAR winning streak comes to an end at Las Vegas

Christopher Bell missed out on an opportunity to become the first driver since Jimmie Johnson in 2007 to win four NASCAR Cup Series races in a row.

The Joe Gibbs Racing driver arrived in Las Vegas after achieving a three-peat across the Atlanta, Austin and Phoenix events.

However, he received a major blow to his hopes of making it four on the trot when the #20 Toyota Camry encountered technical problems in qualifying and JGR had to change the throttle body on his car, resulting in a back-of-the-grid start.

To his credit, Bell climbed as high as second by lap 108 of 267, but an issue in the next round of pitstops put paid to any chances of securing the win.

The JGR team failed to tighten the front-left wheel, prompting his crew chief to instruct him to peel into Chase Briscoe’s pit box further up the pitlane.

The prompt thinking did the trick and Bell was able to return to the track with the front-left wheel firmly secured, but NASCAR penalised him for stopping outside of his box.

Admittedly, the sanction was much less severe than the situation he would have faced if the wheel had come off completely, but it did mean that he was no longer in the fight for victory.

The 33-year-old eventually took the chequered flag in 12th place, eight seconds behind race winner Josh Berry of Wood Brothers Racing.

“It was a grind today for sure,” Bell said. “I don’t really know how I feel yet, but we certainly didn’t do what we did the last couple of weeks and that was just to have a nice clean race.

“I think the Interstate Camry was definitely capable of competing for the win when we were at our best, but just going to the back and to the front and to the back and to the front, we just didn’t get a handle on the balance, because it changes so much from being back there.”

Bell continues to hold second place in the drivers’ standings, 29 points behind Hendrick Motorsports’ Will Byron.