Christopher Bell has been wheeling cars to the edge since childhood, first on dirt, later on asphalt, which is now paying off in the NASCAR Cup Series. After missing the Championship 4 last year, he opened the current campaign with P31 at Daytona, but then rattled off three straight wins at Atlanta, COTA, and Phoenix.
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That Phoenix win, however, remains his most recent. Even though Bell is yet to win in the 22 races since, he has hardly been absent from the fight. Across 26 regular-season starts, he has nine top-fives, 14 top-10s, and four runner-up finishes, proving the No. 20 Toyota has carried speed even without the trophies.
That consistency has prompted Joe Gibbs Racing’s Director of Competition, Chris Gabehart, to caution rivals not to dismiss Bell. Speaking on Motor Racing Network with Steve Post and Todd Gordon, Gabehart remarked, “I mean, they (Bell and his crew chief Adam Stevens) are explosive.
“We’ve seen it time and time again from that group, getting hot at the right time and really just able to capitalize on any given moment, any given week. So, they’ve definitely hit a stretch here where that’s not happened, but the performance has been there.”
He then pointed to Watkins Glen, where Bell was running second, and noted JGR’s overall road course strength: a win at COTA and runner-up finishes everywhere else, with Bell contributing two of those.
At Dover, Bell looked poised for victory before spinning while attempting a pass on a teammate, an error that cost him dearly but underscored his willingness to race with respect.
Gabehart added, “But I say all that to say, I think the performance is there. And Todd, as you know, the performance is what you really have to measure because the results can be really, really fickle. And that team’s just got to stay the course, and I think they’ll be just fine.”
In six seasons at NASCAR’s top level, Bell has missed the playoffs only once, his rookie campaign in 2020 with Leavine Family Racing. Over the last three years, the 30-year-old has ended the season inside the top five, including Championship 4 appearances in 2022 and 2023.
Bell was handed a controversial penalty at Martinsville last year for a wall-riding move reminiscent of Ross Chastain’s banned “Hail Melon.” That dropped him from 18th to 22nd and denied him a third straight final four spot.
Now, with another postseason ahead, Bell once again sets his sights on breaking through with the kind of playoff runs that have already made him a fixture in the championship conversation.
