How Christopher Bell Is Different From Kyle Busch at Joe Gibbs Racing

Joe Gibbs Racing driver Christopher Bell’s victory during last Sunday’s rain-shortened 2024 Coca-Cola 600 was one of the first times the #20 Toyota Camry XSE driver was booed for winning in victory lane. Bell admitted to receiving such flak from fans for the first time in his NASCAR career.

However, former JGR driver Kyle Busch was no stranger to being booed on and off the track. Working with Busch’s former crew chief currently, Bell recently spoke about how he and his old teammate are different as drivers. He touched on how the now Richard Childress Racing driver assumed a more leadership-focused role within his team whereas Bell does not.

“In our team’s situation, Adam Stevens just worked with Kyle Busch for a long period of time and Kyle is a very different driver than myself. Kyle probably took more of a leadership role in the team than I do and I found that I work best whenever I am underneath the crew chief.” Bell told Kevin Harvick on an episode of Harvick’s Happy Hour podcast.

He added to his way of performing at his best and said, “The crew chief runs and leads the team, he tells me ‘Hey, you’re going to do this this week, you’re going to do that this week’ and that’s whenever I can perform my best.”

Bell seemed to acknowledge how he prefers to keep his mind clear and focus on his performance on track and leave the role of keeping the team motivated to the crew chief. This dynamic in a relationship is also quite different than what Adam Stevens was used to while he was working with Busch at JGR, who is known to assume the role of a leader.

Christopher Bell touches on prospects of running the Indy 500

In light of Kyle Larson’s recent Memorial Day Double attempt, Christopher Bell also recently spoke of what he thinks of running the Indy 500 one day. The #20 Toyota driver showed interest in running the famed 500-mile-long event in the future.

However, Bell also spoke on how he would want to settle into his Cup Series career with more consistency before attempting the double. He elaborated on Kevin Harvick‘s podcast and said, “I would love to do it. Growing up being an open-wheel racer, that’s obviously a race I’ve always wanted to do. But doing them both on the same day, I’m definitely not to that point in my career yet.”

Touching on how achieving more in the Cup Series is the primary goal for him as of now, Bell added, “If I could get my Cup deal going a little bit better where I’m more consistent week in and week out, then maybe in the far-out future.”

With the upcoming Enjoy Illinois 300 at the WWT Raceway this Sunday, it remains to be seen if Bell can work towards carrying his form coming off a win last weekend in a rain-shortened Coca-Cola 600.