WINCHESTER, IN :: As expected, Christopher Bell had a fast Kyle Busch Motorsports Toyota for Sunday’s Winchester 400. By Lap 50, Bell was out front and with teammate William Byron in second, it was clear the duo had the field covered.

But Bell’s troubles began after a caution at Lap 134 when he drifted up the track and slapped the Turn 2 outside retaining wall.

“I just ran over something and it was a slow leak,” Bell said. “It never went all the way down, that’s why I didn’t crash. On the first restart, I was really tight but I thought I just had rubber built up so I continued to work on my tires extra hard. When we went back green I realized that it wasn’t getting any better so I just brought it down pit road.”

Bell returned to the track in the 12th position and was two laps down. Despite battling throughout the afternoon, Bell was never able to return to the lead lap before once again falling victim to tire issues. Bell suffered a second flat right front tire on his No. 51Toyota that resulted in a wreck to end his day with 75 laps to go.

“I was really fast,” Bell said. “Kyle Busch Motorsports gave me a great Camry but it wasn’t meant to be.”

It was the second straight October at Winchester where Bell had a fast car and finished outside of the top-10. In 2015, Bell led the most laps and was battling with Erik Jones for the race lead before smacking the wall coming out of turn four with 50 laps remaining. Bell would finish 14th .

“It definitely stinks,” Bell said of two straight years with arguably the fastest car. “It just sucks to have the fastest car and not win, but that’s the story of this race. If you survive you’re going to have a good shot at it.”

Bell plans just one more Late Model race in 2016 as he will run the Snowball Derby at Five Flag Speedway in Pensacola, Fla. in December. Bell did enjoy the chance to deviate from the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series playoffs on an off-weekend for the series.

“It’s been a lot of fun this week. It’s always fun whenever I get to run with KBM and their late model program, especially coming to places like Winchester. It’s a ton of fun.”