Townsend Bell

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Townsend Bell
Townsend Bell at the 2015 Indianapolis 500
Nationality	American
Born	(1975-04-19) April 19, 1975 (age 49) San Francisco, California
Verizon IndyCar Series career
Debut season	2004
Racing licence	FIA Gold
Starts	28
Wins	0
Poles	0
Best finish	21st in 2004
Previous series
2003 2001–2002 2000–2001 1999	Formula 3000 CART World Series Indy Lights Barber Dodge Pro Series
Championship titles
2001 2015	Indy Lights United SportsCar Championship GTD

Townsend Lorenz Bell^[1] (born April 19, 1975) is an American professional motor racing driver competing in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, and also as a motorsports commentator for NBC Sports’ IndyCar Series coverage.

He spent time in karting, Skip Barber, Formula Dodge and the Barber Dodge Pro Series before graduating to Indy Lights in 2000. He won the Indy Lights championship in 2001. This earned him two late-season starts in a Champ Car in a joint effort between Patrick Racing and Dale Coyne Racing. He earned Roberto Moreno's seat at Patrick for 2002. He scored a best finish of fourth at Portland, however a run of disappointing performances and a two probation sanctions from CART Chief Steward Wally Dallenbach Sr. led to his firing from the team after the nine races.^[2]

His efforts shifted to Europe and in 2003 he was teammate to series champion Björn Wirdheim in International F3000 competition. Bell was the first American to score a F3000 podium with a 3rd place at the Hungaroring and he finished 9th overall in a field covered with future Formula One talent – Giorgio Pantano, Patrick Friesacher, Vitantonio Liuzzi and Nicolas Kiesa among them.

His performance in F3000 led to Formula One tests with the Jaguar and BAR Honda F1 teams.

Despite earning a test with British American Racing at year's end, Bell returned to America where he replaced Mark Taylor for Panther Racing in the Indy Racing League IndyCar Series midway through 2004, and posted a best finish of fifth. He started one race as an injury replacement for Tomáš Enge in the same car in 2005. He made his first Indianapolis 500 appearance for Vision Racing in 2006, qualifying 15th and finishing 22nd. He returned to the IndyCar Series in 2008 driving the No. 23 car in events where Milka Duno was not scheduled to race. His best result in 2008 was an eighth-place finish at Richmond International Raceway in June. He also was entered in a third team car in the Indy 500, where he qualified twelfth and finished tenth.

In 2009, KV Racing Technology entered Bell in the Indy 500, engineered by Gerald Tyler. Bell was on a limited-month schedule but had an impressive race day, advancing from 24th on the grid up to the top five. Passing Team Penske's Will Power on the last restart, Bell impressed with a fourth-place finish.

Bell posted his best Indianapolis 500 qualifying effort to date in 2011, racing for Sam Schmidt Motorsports, once again engineered by Tyler. By qualifying fourth fastest, he started the 95th running of the Greatest Spectacle in Racing on the inside of the second row.

Bell finished 9th in the 2012 Indianapolis 500 with Sam Schmidt Motorsports, engineered by Tyler. His 2014 Indianapolis 500, back with KV Racing Technology in the No. 6 Robert Graham Dallara-Chevrolet,^[3] marked his eighth start in the event and seventh consecutive.

He qualified 4th and led 12 laps in the 2016 Indy 500, racing for Andretti Autosport, before an incident on pit road during caution. He finished 21st.

Bell is a color commentator for NBC Sports^[4] with lead anchor Leigh Diffey and fellow analyst James Hinchcliffe.

Bell made his sports car debut in 2012 and won the 12 Hours of Sebring on debut with Alex Job Racing. That season, he drove a Lotus Evora GTE for Alex Job Racing in the American Le Mans Series with Bill Sweedler, before he and Sweedler drove a Ferrari F458 Italia the following year with West/AJR.^[5]

He matched his Sebring feat in his first Rolex 24 at Daytona start in 2014, winning that driving with Level 5 Motorsports. Bell and Sweedler won the Tequila Patron North American Endurance Cup with AIM Autosport, after finishing first or second in three of the four races in the endurance series within the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship.^[6] The pairing finished fourth overall in the full season GT Daytona class points.

In 2015, Bell and co-driver Bill Sweedler took home the IMSA GT Daytona Championship. In addition, they had a dominant win at VIR and podium finishes in the 12 Hours of Sebring and 24 Hours of LeMans.^[7]

In 2016, Bell along with teammates Jeff Segal and Bill Sweedler won the 24 Hours of LeMans in only their second try.

In the famous Indy500 in 2016 Townsend clocked a top speed of 241.637 mph.^[8]

He is competed full-time in the 2017 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GT Daytona class with Alex Job Racing in an Audi R8 GT3 and returned to Le Mans with Ferrari in 2017.

Most recently, Bell has competed in the AIM Vasser-Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 for the 2019 & 2020 GTD class seasons.^[9]

Bell is a color commentator for NBC Sports with lead anchor Leigh Diffey and fellow analyst James Hinchcliffe.

Bell has filled in for Formula One coverage on NBC, most notably in 2016 when he replaced Will Buxton, who was on bereavement leave for the races at Sepang and Mexico City.

Bell is also a color commentator for NBC Sports's IndyCar, Global RallyCross Championship as well as the host of What'Cha Got on Fox Sports 1.

Bell has also both competed and commented in the Stadium Super Trucks.^[10]

At the 2013 X-Games in Munich, Bell competed in Global Rallycross and finished 6th in the final.

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap.)

Year	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	Rank	Points
1998	SEB 28	LRP 13	DET 28	WGI 22	CLE 16	GRA	MDO	ROA	LS1 5	ATL 3	HMS 23	LS2 8	16th	36
1999	SEB 30	NAZ 3	LRP 1	POR 4	CLE 8	ROA 5	DET 16	MDO 21	GRA 8	LS 3	HMS 19	WGI 2	3rd	104

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	Rank	Points	Ref
2000	Dorricott Racing	LBH 17	MIL 6	DET 7	POR 2	MIS 4	CHI 2	MDO 1	VAN 4	LS 18	STL 1	HOU 2	FON 2	2nd	146	[11]
2001	Dorricott Racing	MTY 2	LBH 1	TXS 8	MIL 1	POR 6	KAN 5	TOR 1	MDO 1	STL 9	ATL 2	LS 1	FON 1	1st	192	[12]

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	Rank	Points	Ref
2001	Patrick Racing	MTY	LBH	TXS	NZR	MOT	MIL	DET	POR	CLE	TOR	MIS	CHI	MDO	ROA	VAN	LAU 13	ROC 12	HOU	LS	SRF	FON	30th	1	[13]
2002	Patrick Racing	MTY 19	LBH 15	MOT 14	MIL 13	LS 7	POR 4	CHI 12	TOR 15	CLE 18	VAN	MDO	ROA	MTL	DEN	ROC	MIA	SRF	FON	MXC			20th	19	[14]

Year	Team	Chassis	No.	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	Rank	Points	Ref
2004	Panther Racing	Dallara	2	Chevrolet	HMS	PHX	MOT	INDY	TXS	RIR	KAN 17	NSH 5	MIL 6	MIS 8	KTY 21	PPIR 12	NZR 18	CHI 22	FON 9	TX2 9				21st	193	[15]
2005					HMS	PHX	STP	MOT	INDY	TXS	RIR	KAN	NSH	MIL	MIS 15	KTY	PPIR	SNM	CHI	WGL	FON			30th	15	[16]
2006	Vision Racing		90	Honda	HMS	STP	MOT	INDY 22	WGL	TXS	RIR	KAN	NSH	MIL	MIS	KTY	SNM	CHI						34th	12	[17]
2008	Dreyer & Reinbold Racing		23		HMS	STP 21	MOT1 10	LBH1 DNP	KAN		MIL 11	TXS	IOW	RIR 8	WGL	NSH	MDO	EDM 25	KTY	SNM 19	DET	CHI	SRF2 23	26th	117	[18]
			99							INDY 10
2009	KV Racing Technology	Dallara IR5	8		STP	LBH	KAN	INDY 4	MIL	TXS	IOW	RIR	WGL	TOR	EDM	KTY	MDO	SNM	CHI	MOT	HMS			32nd	32	[19]
2010	Sam Schmidt Motorsports		99		SAO	STP	ALA	LBH	KAN	INDY 16	TXS	IOW	WGL	TOR	EDM	MDO	SNM	CHI	KTY	MOT	HMS			38th	18	[20]
2011					STP	ALA	LBH	SAO	INDY 26	TXS2	TXS2	MIL	IOW	TOR	EDM	MDO	NHM	SNM	BAL	MOT				35th	40	[21]
	Dreyer & Reinbold Racing		22																		KTY 11	LVS3 C
2012	Schmidt–Hamilton Motorsports	Dallara DW12	99		STP	ALA	LBH	SAO	INDY 9	DET	TXS	MIL	IOW	TOR	EDM	MDO	SNM	BAL	FON					30th	26	[22]
2013	Panther Racing		60	Chevrolet	STP	ALA	LBH	SAO	INDY 27	DET	DET	TXS	MIL	IOW	POC	TOR	TOR	MDO	SNM	BAL	HOU	HOU	FON	35th	10	[23]
2014	KV Racing Technology		6		STP	LBH	ALA	IMS	INDY 25	DET	DET	TXS	HOU	HOU	POC	IOW	TOR	TOR	MDO	MIL	SNM	FON		32nd	22	[24]
2015	Dreyer & Reinbold Racing		24		STP	NLA	LBH	ALA	IMS	INDY 14	DET	DET	TXS	TOR	FON	MIL	IOW	MDO	POC	SNM				35th	32	[25]
2016	Andretti Autosport		29	Honda	STP	PHX	LBH	ALA	IMS	INDY 21	DET	DET	RDA	IOW	TOR	MDO	POC	TXS	WGL	SNM				27th	55	[26]

¹ Run on same day.

² Non-points race.

³ The Las Vegas Indy 300 was abandoned after Dan Wheldon died from injuries sustained in a 15-car crash on lap 11.

Years	Teams	Races	Poles	Wins	Podiums (non-win)	Top 10s (non-podium)	Indianapolis 500 wins	Championships
12	6	31	0	0	0	9	0	0

Year	Chassis	Engine	Start	Finish	Team
2006	Dallara	Honda	15	22	Vision Racing
2008	Dallara	Honda	12	10	Dreyer & Reinbold Racing
2009	Dallara	Honda	24	4	KV Racing Technology
2010	Dallara	Honda	10	16	Sam Schmidt Motorsports
2011	Dallara	Honda	4	26	Sam Schmidt Motorsports
2012	Dallara	Honda	20	9	Schmidt–Hamilton Motorsports
2013	Dallara	Chevrolet	22	27	Panther Racing
2014	Dallara	Chevrolet	25	25	KV Racing Technology
2015	Dallara	Chevrolet	24	14	Dreyer & Reinbold Kingdom Racing
2016	Dallara	Honda	4	21	Andretti Autosport

(key)

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	DC	Points
2003	Arden International	IMO 9	CAT 12	A1R 7	MON 6	NUR Ret	MAG 12	SIL 7	HOC 5	HUN 3	MNZ Ret	9th	17
Sources:[27][28]

Year	Team	Co-Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.
2015	Scuderia Corsa	Jeff Segal Bill Sweedler	Ferrari 458 Italia GT2	GTE Am	330	24th	3rd
2016	Scuderia Corsa	Jeff Segal Bill Sweedler	Ferrari 458 Italia GT2	GTE Am	331	26th	1st
2017	Scuderia Corsa	Bill Sweedler Cooper MacNeil	Ferrari 488 GTE	GTE Am	331	29th	3rd
Source:[29]

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; results in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Team	Class	Make	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	Pos.	Points
2014	Level 5 Motorsports	GTD	Ferrari 458 Italia GT3	Ferrari 4.5L V8	DAY 1												4th	293
	AIM Autosport					SEB 2	LGA 14	BEL 8	WGL 2	MOS 13	IMS 4	ELK 5	VIR 8	AUS 8	ATL 7
2015	Scuderia Corsa	GTD	Ferrari 458 Italia GT3	Ferrari 4.5L V8	DAY 6	SEB 3	LGA 4	BEL 9	WGL 4	LIM 9	ELK 4	VIR 1	AUS 6	PET 4			1st	281
2018	Scuderia Corsa	GTD	Ferrari 488 GT3	Ferrari F154CB 3.9L Turbo V8	DAY 5	SEB 17	MOH	BEL	WGL 10	MOS	LIM	ELK	VIR	LGA 9	PET 5		17th	109
2019	AIM Vasser Sullivan	GTD	Lexus RC F GT3	Lexus 5.0L V8	DAY 2	SEB 9	MDO 5	DET 3	WGL 9	MOS 3	LIM 13	ELK 9	VIR 7	LGA 11	PET 11		8th	236
2020	AIM Vasser Sullivan	GTD	Lexus RC F GT3	Lexus 5.0L V8	DAY 12	DAY 2	SEB 5	ELK 1	VIR 10	ATL 5	MDO 10	CLT 4	PET 8	LGA 8	SEB 9		6th	251
2021	Vasser Sullivan Racing	GTD	Lexus RC F GT3	Lexus 5.0L V8	DAY 13	SEB	MDO	DET 5	WGL	WGL	LIM	ELK	LGA	LBH	VIR	PET	66th	202
2022	VasserSullivan	GTD	Lexus RC F GT3	Toyota 2UR 5.0 L V8	DAY 15	SEB	LBH	LGA	MDO	DET	WGL	MOS	LIM	ELK	VIR	PET	63rd	190
Source:[27]

• Townsend Bell Interview
• IndyCar Driver Page

• http://townsendbell.com/

Sporting positions
Preceded by Scott Dixon	Indy Lights Champion 2001	Succeeded by A. J. Foyt IV (Infiniti Pro Series)