Joe Gibbs Racing driver Christopher Bell is a staunch believer in the saying that goes like “actions speak louder than words.” Will he ever win the NMPA Most Popular Driver Award? He doesn’t care. Will he attract followers on social media? He doesn’t care about that either. So what is it that this Oklahoma native cherishes the most?
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It is winning races. As long as Bell is winning races, he doesn’t care if his time under the limelight is cut short. Last year, he earned six poles throughout the year, with three of them coming consecutively in the playoff races at Darlington, Kansas, and Bristol. With a dominant victory at Homestead-Miami over the reigning Cup Series champion Ryan Blaney, he made it to Championship 4. He is the only driver to have made it to the final race of the season every year since the dawn of the Next-Gen era.
However, in NASCAR’s newest five-part docuseries, Bell has been portrayed as a driver who works away from the radar, which often glorifies his teammates Martin Truex Jr. and Denny Hamlin. Needless to say, the Toyota icon doesn’t have an issue with that. He said in the documentary, “I’m very quiet, reserved. I keep to myself. I don’t want to be known for social media or known for doing dumb stuff. I want to be known for winning races. I haven’t won enough to be that guy yet. One day, I will.”
Christopher Bell doesn’t believe in a Plan B
Bell finished the 2023 season 4th in overall points. The #20 driver has proved several times that he has the speed that it takes to make it big in NASCAR. The JGR star has won a variety of races held at a variety of tracks ranging from road courses to ovals and back to dirt tracks. For someone of his repertoire, surely, there must have been no alternative plan.
And it is true. Bell’s life is all about cars and racing. He had never wanted to do anything else. “I never had Plan B. There was no Plan B,” admitted the 2017 Truck Series champ. “I was gonna make it happen, whether it was dirt-track racing or NASCAR racing. I didn’t even think it was going to be NASCAR racing. So, I was committed. Ever since I was in my early teens, I just wanted to be a race car driver.”
Unlike many young speedsters today, Bell doesn’t hail from a racing background. His father, David, used to take him to the I-44 Speedway to watch races when the latter was barely 4 years old. After that, Bell’s entire youth was spent racing in dirt tracks in Tulsa, Claremore, Fort Cobb, and other places in Oklahoma. It didn’t take long for Bell to start competing at a national level, thanks to his talent.
