Martinsville Begin Team: Christopher Bell Score Nascar Cup Poland

Martinsville, VA. – Christopher Bell, who had his title Hope last fall in Martinsville Speedway, demanded the pole for Sunday’s cup race on the historic track.

Bell earns his first pole of the season and the 14th of his cup career with a shot of 96.034 mph. He beat a Hendrick Motorsports contingent for the top position in Saturday’s qualifying session.

Hendrick took the following three places with Chase Elliott (95.951 MPH), Alex Bowman (95.937) and Kyle Larson (95.854). This is the first time the organization has started three managers in the top five in Martinsville.

Denny Hamlin (95.840) qualified fifth. Casey Mears, who started his first cup since the 2019 Daytona 500, started 37th. Burt Myers, who competed in the collision, will make his cup debut in a point race on Sunday. He will start in the 38 car field last.

Bell was protested from the title in last year’s play -off match after Nascar ruled that he had committed a safety offense by riding the wall at the end of the final round and

“I will certainly never forget the race of last year,” Bell said.

Bell’s pole comes a week after struggling on Homestead. Bell spun, beat the inside of the front wall and finished the 29th place in what he described to NBC Sports as a race that was “just miserable. I made a mistake, spun the car and damage, and that was it. ‘

Bell Saturday, said: “I was angry with myself last week on Homestead because it was an exit for us. We have reached the point in our team maturity that if we just do everything right and race and export at the level we are capable of, we are definitely able to make a bad day in a top-15, top 10 final.”