Christopher Bell is feeling quite optimistic about the upcoming NASCAR Cup playoffs. That’s a good feeling, especially considering that Bell failed to make the Championship 4 round last season and finished what he felt was a disappointing fifth place in the final season standings.
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In a recent interview with WIS NEWS 10 in Columbia, South Carolina, the Norman, Oklahoma native compared his NASCAR Cup playoff campaign last year vs. how he hopes this year’s playoffs play out.
Bell admitted that his biggest concern, or you may want to call it somewhat of a relief, is how he feels this year’s playoff schedule is more to his liking and plays to his strengths behind the wheel of the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota Camry.
“So I will be honest, last year was really scary,” Bell said. “It was daunting the way that the schedule laid out. We had Atlanta Motor Speedway which has transitioned to a superspeedway nowadays, and we had that in the opening round. We had Talladega in there in the Round of 12.
“Where this year the schedule plays out a little bit better for me. So, that makes me more optimistic. We still have Talladega in the Round of 8 and that puts a lot of pressure on those Round of 8 drivers to either win at Las Vegas or Martinsville, the races surrounding the Talladega event.
“So, the Round of 16 is a great schedule for me with Darlington, Gateway and Bristol in it. Round of 12 is another really, really good schedule and group of races for us. So, I feel like we’re poised for a great playoff run.”
Admittedly, Bell struggled in the second half of this year’s regular season. After setting the Cup Series on fire by winning three races in a row early in the season (Atlanta, Austin and Phoenix), Bell has had a rough go of it since finishing runner-up in the 16th race of the season, Mexico City.
In the 10 races since his second place showing south of the border, Bell has endured seven finishes outside the top-10, three of which were even worse than 20th, and has just one top-five finish (runner-up at Watkins Glen).
While he would have liked to have been able to build upon the momentum from his showing at The Glen, Bell wrapped up the final two regular season races by finishing 21st at Richmond and 13th last weekend at Daytona, certainly not a strong way to enter the playoffs.
Plus, Bell not only has to worry about the other 15 drivers who have qualified for the playoffs, most notably his two JGR teammates: Denny Hamlin and Chase Briscoe. Hamlin is enjoying one of the best seasons of his 21-year Cup career, while Briscoe has had the best season of his Cup career so far in his first season of racing for the Gibbs camp.
The Round of 8 poses the most concern for Bell
If Bell is fortunate enough to once again make it through the Round of 16 and the Round of 12 quarterfinals to reach the Round of 8 playoff semifinals, he needs to do great in the first two races (Las Vegas and Talladega) because the final race of that round in last year’s playoffs, Martinsville, proved to be what cost him a shot at the Cup title.
Bell finished 22nd at the half-mile bullring, his worst outing of last season’s playoffs, and it couldn’t have come at a worse time because it kept him from advancing.
With the 10-race playoff schedule in 2025 somewhat different than last year, Bell knows what he has to do to reach the final round and hopefully have a shot at his first Cup championship.
“It’s just about going over there, dotting your I’s, crossing your T’s and making sure that you execute the races,” Bell said.
“Driving for Joe Gibbs Racing, I feel like my Camry is going to be plenty fast enough. I’ve just got to do my job driving.”
