“Man, We Can’t Do This”: When Christopher Bell Was At a Crossroads In His Racing Career Before NASCAR Breakthrough

Christopher Bell is one of the favorites to win the 2025 Cup Series championship. Driving the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, he has recorded three wins so far and sits fourth on the points table. He spoke to veteran reporter Jeff Gluck recently and revealed an interesting detail about the journey he took to reach this position.

It was the day after Bell had just won the 2013 USAC National Midget Series championship. He was a driver for Keith Kunz Motorsports at the time and was backed by Toyota. Thanks to the attention his title win brought, Roush Racing approached him with a contract to race in the NASCAR Cup Series.

At barely 20 years old, the offer was intensely tempting. Toyota admitted that they couldn’t match the terms that Roush Racing was offering him. Bell recounted to Gluck, “When we brought that offer to the Toyota driver group, they’re like, ‘Man, we can’t do this.'” However, they countered with a promise that they would fight tooth and nail to get him to the big show as soon as they could.

Bell explained, “So I ended up turning down that Roush contract, and I signed up for 15 Late Model races, and they promised me I could do the Eldora Truck race in 2015. That was a very hard decision to turn away a long-term deal from Roush to get to the Cup Series and stick with Toyota, but obviously I’m tickled to death with how it turned out.”

The key man behind the decision was Pete Willoughby, a mentor of Bell at Keith Kunz Motorsports. He urged Bell to stick with Toyota, who had backed him from the start. Fortunately, it ended up being the right advice and things worked out better than he ever could have imagined.

Bell’s path to the Cup Series

Toyota eventually delivered on their promise, bringing him to the Cup Series in 2020. His rookie season was with Leavine Family Racing (LFR) and he secured two top-five and seven top-10 finishes. Before that, Christopher Bell spent two full-time seasons with Joe Gibbs Racing in the Xfinity Series, recording 15 victories during that time. Notably, in 2019, he earned eight wins, 20 top-five finishes, and 21 top-10 finishes.

Joe Gibbs said during the driver’s return to his team, “We are excited to bring Christopher into our Cup Series program starting in 2021. He obviously had tremendous success in the Xfinity Series with us and we look forward to his return to JGR.” It’s been a long journey since then, and Bell is now arguably the cornerstone of Gibbs’ current Cup lineup.