Christopher Bell was within a lap or two of driving by Ryan Blaney and inside of 10 laps remaining until winning his second NASCAR Cup Series race in a row and third overall last weekend at World Wide Technology Raceway.
Alas, that didn’t happen as he lost engine power making the decisive move and needed to be pushed down the straightaways by teammate Martin Truex Jr. just to finish seventh. Blaney didn’t win either, running out of fuel on the final lap, and losing the lead to Penske teammate Austin Cindric.
But the race was dominated by Bell, only briefly losing the lead to get on an alternate tire strategy that would allow the driver of the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 20 to be on the offense over the final 50 laps rather than on defense?
So what happened?
“We broke a valvespring,” Bell told FOX Sports on Thursday at Sonoma Raceway. “And we have not had valvespring problems for a long period of time. I think it was 2022, that we had a rough go of it with valve springs but we haven’t seen that in a period of time now.
“They think, and I do too, that it was just a random part failure. We’re not expecting anymore.”
Valvesprings are the most stressed part on an engine, receiving loads approaching 150,000 to 190,000 psi every cycle. With NASCAR mandating less horsepower and fewer rpms, valvesprings are less stressed than in recent NASCAR history, thus the conviction that it was just a faulty spring that bit the No. 20 team.
Bell, who is extremely competitive and takes losses personally, also said he’s moved on easier from this instance only because it was out of his control.
“It’s going to sting for awhile because the car was amazing and the win was right there in front of us so you don’t wont to let them get away but we did salvage a lot of points out of it and am confident we’re going to move past it.”
Matt Weaver is a Motorsports Insider for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter.