“A Mixed Bag of Emotions”: Christopher Bell Left With a Bittersweet After Taste of NASCAR Season

The 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season was a pretty good one for Joe Gibbs Racing driver Christopher Bell. It was even better considering how his veteran teammates, Denny Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr., didn’t even make it to the championship four in the past two seasons that Bell did.

In light of this performance from Bell, he was asked about the assessment of his season after making a good run for the #2o car and an overall successful 2023 season campaign during the NASCAR Awards Banquet at Nashville.

Subsequently, the JGR driver responded, “It’s such a mixed bag of emotions because we obviously had a really strong run to make the final four for the second year in a row. And everything was going great, feeling really excited about it.”

“And then championship weekend was really pretty good. I mean, practice and qualifying. Qualifying didn’t go good. The practice was really good.”

Bell mentioned that he believed he had a strong car, but early in the race, he realized that he would encounter several issues. “So that was disappointing. But overall, nothing that I’m very proud of the effort for sure,” he added.

Christopher Bell shares his thoughts on two consecutive championship 4 races

Further into the interview, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver was asked about the kind of motivation that he gets for getting himself into the championship four for two years in a row. Right after, Bell stated, “Yeah, it just makes me very excited because the last few years have been great.”

“To make the final four has been amazing and something that I’m very proud of, but I still don’t feel like myself and the #20 team has performed up to what we’re capable of. And so that leaves me hopeful and I know that the best is yet to come.”

In the end, Bell expressed hopes that he would be able to continue his top form moving into the future seasons. If that remains the case, we might see him make the final round of the championship once again. Perhaps with a better shot at claiming his first-ever title before his experienced teammates claim their second title.