The 2026 Cup season did not begin the way Christopher Bell or his No. 20 team at Joe Gibbs Racing would have drawn it up on the chalkboard. Bell opened the year with a DNF at the Daytona 500 and followed it with a 21st-place run at Atlanta Motor Speedway. But the air began to turn once the series reached road-course and short-track venues.
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Bell drove his car to a third-place finish at COTA and then crossed the line second at Phoenix Raceway last Sunday. Those runs helped him climb from 31st in the standings to 19th and then up to sixth, putting the No. 20 team back in the thick of the fight. The #20 driver kept that momentum going once the series reached Las Vegas Motor Speedway, claiming the pole in Sin City.
While a win sits at the top of the list, Bell has one eye on the points table after the return of the Chase format. Speaking before the race, he said the shift has changed how drivers approach a race weekend. “It’s just a completely different mindset and way of attacking the weekend, where before it was literally win or bust.”
“You’re here for race wins and stage wins, and you’re looking at those playoff points, and if you don’t win a race, it’s like, ‘Okay, well, it’s behind us, it’s on to the next one,'” he continued. Under the elimination format, teams kept tabs on the standings, though the focus often rested on playoff points and the late-season push for the regular-season crown. Now the points table sits front and center, with every race carrying weight.
As Bell sees it, the standings now speak for themselves. “We don’t have 2 goofy point standings. The points are the points, and it really matters,” he said. Only a week ago, Bell believed the regular-season crown might have slipped through his fingers after the early stumble. Two races later, he sits within reach of the front group.
Bell’s take on consistency this season
Last season, there was a lot of buzz about Kyle Larson not being consistent throughout the year, and yet he won the championship. And the same was the case with Joey Logano’s win in 2024, where, despite not being consistent in the regular season, Logano bagged the championship in the end.
Bell noted that the standings early in the season can look chaotic. Superspeedway races at Daytona and Atlanta often turn into lottery racing, where one move can flip half the field. But as the schedule moves deeper into the year and teams build race after race, the picture gets clearer.“10, 15 races into the season, you’re going to start seeing it a little bit harder to make up the differences and positions, and the point standings, and consistency will weigh out,” he added.
Consistency will play a big role in that process. Drivers who keep finishing near the front will pile up points even without winning each week. But the current format also leaves the door open for a quick climb. With wins carrying bonus points, a driver can go from chasing the field to knocking on the door of the front of the standings in a short span. It remains to be seen how well the renewed format sits with the sport’s fans at the end of the year.
