NASCAR CUP SERIES: VIVA MEXICO 250

June 15, 2025

Christopher Bell

Chase Elliott

Press Conference

An Interview with:

THE MODERATOR: We'll start our post-race press conferences with the second and third-place finisher, that is Christopher Bell and Chase Elliott. If we can start with each of your impressions of the week and your race in general.

CHASE ELLIOTT: Yeah, for me personally, I felt like everything, the reception, all the people, just first off, thank you to everyone that's from here or had anything to do with the race weekend. I thought it was a really special thing for us to be able to come down here and do this.

I thought it was really well done. I haven't had any bad experiences throughout either one of my trips to Mexico City. I thought the weekend was overall a success. I hope you guys enjoyed the race.

For us, it was a good solid day; not good enough. I think Shane was definitely the class, but nice to get a top 3 out of the weekend and go on to Pocono.

CHRISTOPHER BELL: Yeah, for me it was definitely a ton of fun to come down here, experience a new culture, new racetrack. The venue is a world class facility, and thank you for the hospitality. It's been a great time, and I look forward to what's next.

Q. Would you want to come back here and do it again? And if you do, what would you need to beat SVG?

CHRISTOPHER BELL: I don't know. I would love to say a different setup, but I think it was more driver. This weekend both races between the Xfinity car and the Cup car. I was good; just not good enough. I was kind of -- I lacked a little bit.

The fact that I was a little bit off in both of them, I think I just need to work on myself a little bit, figure out what Shane was doing through a couple sections of the racetrack, and my guys have been bringing really good road course cars for a long time now.

If we come back, I'd probably bring something pretty close and try and drive a little bit better and see if I can close the gap on him.

CHASE ELLIOTT: I would agree. I think Shane was likely the difference maker, especially once you gave him fresh air. I think he just managed that last run so well.

For us, I really -- personally, I thought our car was better on practice day and yesterday than it was today. But at the same time, we were in a lot of traffic at the same time, as well.

I don't know. I could ask for little things here or there, but at the end of the day, I would say likely just button up some things behind the wheel and try to keep yourself in a better position throughout the day to kind of be on the front end of strategy and kind of see what you've got from there.

Q. Being part of the first podium here in Mexico City, what were you feeling inside the car as the race was going on and the conditions were constantly changing?

CHASE ELLIOTT: I mean, I think the racetrack went through a little bit of a transition, obviously, after it dried out. When it was wet, it was pretty chaotic. The paint was really slick. Had to be really disciplined through some of those sections.

I really struggled when it was raining. Then when it dried out, I thought our car came to us, and we started to get, I thought, competitive from that point forward.

Certainly the racetrack went through its normal progression of rubber laying down and losing grip, but it was nothing out of the ordinary I didn't think.

CHRISTOPHER BELL: Yeah, for me, the rain, I was super excited about it at the beginning of the race. I didn't qualify very good, so starting in the back, the rain really opened up the opportunity to gain some positions, and we were able to use that to get ourselves to the front.

That was very rewarding and beneficial to my race, and then once the track dried out, it was just a matter of comparing yourself to the guys up front.

I don't know, I got the lead at one point and Shane was clearly faster than me and drove back by. Yeah, just close but not good enough.

Q. If you could define this racetrack in one word, what word would you use?

CHRISTOPHER BELL: Well, I don't know about one word, but for me it really reminds myself of Indianapolis, the Indy Road Course. It has a lot of similarities. I feel like the grip level and honestly the track layout is very similar. That's what comes to my mind would be Indianapolis.

CHASE ELLIOTT: Yeah, I haven't even thought about that, but I totally agree, it is very, very similar. Even from like a grip standpoint, too, I thought in a lot of sections, it reminded me a lot of Indy, as well. I would say that's a good comparison.