It was Ford Mustang’s Dark Horse that swept the Daytona 500 qualifiers. While Joey Logano and Michael McDowell had set the tone for the newly unveiled Ford cars, their competitor, Toyota was not ready to concede either. To mark an equal footing ahead of the grand show opener, the Japanese manufacturing brand marked its dominion in the Bluegreen Vacations Duel as Tyler Reddick and Christopher Bell took the chequered. However, despite the conducive results in the Duel, Christopher Bell’s team owner Joe Gibbs didn’t seem to approve of the team’s performance in the qualifying run and the team’s racing equipment. 

Joe Gibbs divulges his dissatisfaction with the team’s performance in the Daytona 500 qualifiers

It was just last-lap passes that turned the tables for the Toyota Racing contingent. The qualifiers on Wednesday proved to be a tough nut to crack for the nine Toyota cars, as it lacked pace. However, the Duel results came as a relief as six of the nine Toyota cars were able to block a slot within the top 15 of the starting grid. But that does not suffice for a team owner who demands perfection in the contention of the Crown Jewel race.

Although Christopher Bell was able to park his car in the victory lane after leading for a single lap, Coach Gibbs was more than concerned about the team’s performance in the Daytona 500 qualifiers. In his interview with Sirius XM, Joe Gibbs stated, “We were really concerned after qualifying, just kind of an unreal deal for us, we are still trying to figure out what happened but our cars raced it, all of them pretty fast and it is great to have Christopher in the winner’s circle Just awesome.” 

While Joe Gibbs seems to be pretty satisfied with Bell’s performance, the driver himself also got the much-needed boost of confidence before the main event. The JGR driver has admittedly found little success on the superspeedways of NASCAR. However, after blocking Harrison Burton and Austin Cindric and surpassing his teammate Denny Hamlin, the #20 Toyota driver was able to snatch the chequered. And he couldn’t be any happier!

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Christopher Bell reveals his elation after his favorable run in the Duel

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While Christopher Bell’s team owner exuded a sense of dilemma with the team’s equipment and its performance in the qualifiers and the Duel, Bell, on the contrary, was all praises for the new Toyota Camry. 

Outperforming Team Penske’s Austin Cindric and crossing the start-finish line with more than a tenth of a second, Bell was over the moon after earn the victory. In his post-race interview, the driver stated, “These plate races, I don’t know what to make of them. Me and Adam Stevens, my crew chief, we have a running joke that I always say these races are 100 percent luck.”

“And I know that’s not true, but it seems like we’ve been struggling to get to the end of it. I know I’ve been a common denominator in a lot of these wrecks, so feels good to do everything right today.”

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With the pre-race schedule done and dusted, it will be interesting to see what the Great American race has in store for the drivers. Will the drivers be able to deliver a clean void of the Big One or will it be a nail-biting performance by them?