What a difference six days make. A week ago Sunday at Gateway, Christopher Bell erupted over his team’s radio after Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Denny Hamlin (winner) and Chase Briscoe (runner-up, also won the week before in the playoff opener at Darlington).
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Bell finished a respectable seventh, but for a guy who won three races in a row early in the season and appeared to be the man to beat for several weeks afterward, he was tired of finishing as an also-ran once again at Gateway.
Six days—make that six nights—later, Bell, crew chief Adam Stevens, and the rest of the No. 20 JGR Toyota team couldn’t have been more complimentary and excited, having won the final race of the Round of 12 Saturday night at Bristol.
Suddenly, what happened at Gateway became a distant memory. And Bell and his team are as optimistic about their chances for a first career Cup championship as his two teammates, Hamlin and Briscoe, who are also chasing their own respective first-ever Cup championships.
Sunday at New Hampshire, the Cup Series begins the Round of 12 second round/quarterfinals of the playoffs. Toyota-powered JGR owns three of those 12 driver spots, as does Chevrolet-powered Team Hendrick and three spots owned by Team Penske, which has won the last three Cup championships. 23XI Racing’s Bubba Wallace, Tyler Reddick, and Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain round out the 12-driver quarterfinal round.
But right now, it’s hard to pick against the Gibbs machine. Each driver seems to be hitting on all cylinders.
After Saturday’s win, Stevens was asked about JGR’s overall domination in the first round and how things may shape up in the Round of 12 with stops at New Hampshire, Kansas, and the Round of 12 finale on the Charlotte Roval road course.
“Yeah, and the 54 [fellow JGR driver Ty Gibbs, who did not qualify for the playoffs but finished 10th at Bristol] was too close to getting his first win tonight,” Stevens said before turning his attention to his own team.
“It looks good for us, for the [No.] 20, the next round,” he said with both an air of confidence and optimism. “You know, we won Loudon a couple times and ran second at Kansas in the spring; admittedly not with our best stuff.”
And as for the Roval, which will cut the current 12-driver field to eight once the checkered flag falls, Stevens noted, “Obviously, our road course stuff has been strong. We were in second at the Roval last year.”
Put all that together, and once again, Stevens says with both confidence and optimism: “This round really shapes up well for us. It’s a good opportunity for us to hopefully lead some laps and win some stages.”
While Stevens will be dealing primarily with strategy for the Loudon race, from the green flag to the checkered flag, including pit stops, tire wear and fuel mileage—always a major concern at the challenging short track—Bell will be doing the driving, trying to put himself in the best position possible to start another winning streak like the three-race win streak he had earlier in the season (Atlanta, Austin and Phoenix).
Dale Jr. May Like to Say, ‘It’s Bristol, Baby,’ But Christopher Bell Prefers to Say, “It’s Loudon, Baby!”
Bell couldn’t ask for a better place to kick off the Round of 12 than Loudon. In five career Cup starts there, the Norman, Oklahoma native has two wins—including last year’s visit to the New England paradise (before it was promoted to a playoff berth this season) and three top fives.
The following race at Kansas Speedway is, in a sense, Bell’s home track—the closest to his Oklahoma home. While he has zero wins in 11 starts, he has three top-five and eight top-10 finishes—yet another place for him to earn crucial stage and playoff points that will hopefully help him assure advancement to the Round of 8.
But before the Round of 8 begins, there’s one last track left in the Round of 12, the Charlotte Roval road course. Even if he has problems at Loudon or Kansas, Bell also has a strong track record on the twisting Roval: in five starts, he has one win, two top-five, and three top-10 finishes.
Bell Needs a Strong Start to the Round of 12 at Loudon, Where He Has A Great Track Record
But first things first: Loudon, which Bell is eagerly looking forward to.
“I’m obviously excited about Loudon,” he said during the post-race presser on Saturday night. “It’s a great track for us [and a] super important race kicking off the Round of 12. So we need to go there and most importantly get a lot of points, score a lot of points, got to qualify well, got to qualify better than we’ve been qualifying, and have a great race.
“I think we’re every bit as capable as any of the other 12 out there. It’s a good racetrack for us as a group, and we know what it takes to be good there, and it seems like our cars are really good. I’m looking forward to the challenge ahead.”
With less than a week to go as the second round of the postseason kicks off, could this be the year Christopher Bell shakes his underdog tag? We wait and watch.
