The 2024 Memorial Day weekend in NASCAR was all about one driver – Kyle Larson. The HMS driver’s attempt at a NASCAR-Indy 500 double, compromised by inclement weather, took the headlines away from Christopher Bell, winner of the rain-affected Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte. Speaking to Kevin Harvick on the Happy Hour podcast, the JGR driver revealed his ambitions to run the Indy 500 in the future.
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“I would certainly love to do it, and growing up being an open-wheel racer, that’s obviously a race and something that I have always wanted to do,” said Bell, the only driver that has made the Championship 4 round in each of the last two years.
Despite establishing himself as one of the top drivers in NASCAR, the #20 driver still feels that he needs to do more at the Cup level to justify a double duty in the future.
“Doing them both on the same day I’m definitely not to that point in my career yet and if I could get my Cup deal going a little bit better where I’m more consistent week-in and week-out and can feel confident enough like putting focus into something as big as that, then maybe in the future, in the far-out future, I would entertain doing both of them on one day.”
Bell does make a valid point. Even though he has seven wins in the Next Gen era, it is the consistent inconsistency plaguing the team that raises questions about the driver. Before his win at Charlotte, Bell logged only one top-5 in ten races.
Ahead of Bristol, the JGR driver did indeed reveal that it will take only wins and consistent runs that improve his standing and put him on the level of teammates Denny Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr. as far as favorites go. Before that happens, it is unlikely he even thinks about attempting what Kyle Larson did.
This week, NASCAR heads to Gateway, a place where Bell has had average outings so far. His 9th place finish in 2022 was followed by an 11th place result last year, where he spun late and recovered later. He does have a win at the track in the Truck Series though, coming in 2016 with KBM.
