Townsend Bell: "I feel lucky to be here"
Townsend Bell only does one IndyCar race per year and it's the crown jewel event.
Townsend Bell, Andretti Autosport Honda
Vision Sport Agency
The veteran racer will be competing in his tenth Indianapolis 500 this Sunday and he's got a hot rod under him for this one. As a fifth entry for Andretti Autosport, he's showed serious strength this month and will start the race from fourth on the grid.
Bell has had cars capable of winning this race before. In 2009, he finished fourth and with less than ten laps to go in 2014, he crashed while running solidly inside the top five. But perhaps 2016 is his best shot yet. The entire fleet of Andretti Hondas are strong, from Ryan Hunter-Reay on the front row to rookie Alexander Rossi in 11th.
"We've been strong every session (and) I feel confident in what we got," he told Motorsport.com. "The team is well-prepared and has given me all the resources I need in terms of a fast car. We expected to qualify strong and we expect to be strong on race day.
"It's just nice to have a situation where the expectation is that you should do well because you have everything to do well. And that's fun."
Turning heads
Since he's not a regular competitor, it's easy for many casual fans and media to overlook Bell. But if they weren't noticing him at the start of the month, they are certainly noticing him now.
"A friend of mine called me the other day and he said "you're 80/1". And I'm like, I think I got a good shot. He called a couple days later and he's says, "you're 7/1 now!" So, I don't really spend much time thinking about it. I feel lucky to be here and I know I got a lot of fans who support me every year here at Indianapolis. It works for me."
A unique perspective
An interesting aspect about the journeyman driver is how many different teams he gets the opportunity to be a part of through his travels. This is his first year running an Andretti car and his fifth different team in as many years. With so many varying ways teams can approach the 500, Bell has been able to gather knowledge from several respectable operations; Something unique to a driver like himself.
"It doesn't hurt. Across several different teams, you generally get to experiment with different setups and maybe you're introduced to things you haven't seen before. The idea is that over time, you aggregate enough personal preference that you hope to put it all together on race day. But man, it's still hard. It's difficult for everybody."
As for it being the 100th running, Bell said "It's still the Indy 500. If I won it five years ago, it would mean just as much as winning today probably.
"I think it will be good. I think you'll see a lot of passing."
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