Just as Denny Hamlin isn’t known for excelling on road courses, and Shane van Gisbergen, a multi-time Supercars champion from Australia, is still finding his footing on oval tracks, Christopher Bell openly acknowledged his challenges even before stepping into NASCAR’s top tier.
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Back in 2019, while competing in the Xfinity Series, Bell participated in a rapid-fire Q&A with Meghan Kolb on 3 Wide Life TV. When asked about his greatest weakness on the track, the #20 driver candidly responded:
“I would say the biggest weakness in the race car is lack of patience especially on the NASCAR side of things. I obviously grew up sprint car racing where really there is no patience it’s just go as hard as you can and whenever I go NASCAR racing the races are so long I’ll get myself in trouble typically on a restart whenever I try and be overly aggressive and crash.”
Bell began his racing journey in micro sprints at I-44 Riverside Speedway in the early 2000s, a discipline he’s well-versed in. Sprint cars are lightweight and demand lightning-fast reflexes to succeed in dirt racing—skills that don’t directly translate to the heavier and more complex NASCAR machines.
Outside the world of racing, Bell admitted to having one indulgent weakness—ice cream. While he prefers classic vanilla-based options, his favorite flavors include chocolate, peanut butter vanilla, and peanut butter.
Kyle Petty highlights Bell’s weakness
Bell has made an impressive mark in NASCAR’s top tier, securing 9 wins from 78 starts over five years. However, a gap in his record lies in his inability to translate pole positions into victories.
Despite earning 13 poles, Bell has yet to convert a single one into a win. In the 2024 season alone, he claimed three poles—both Kansas races and Las Vegas—but could only muster finishes of P6, P7, and P2, respectively.
Following Bell’s second Kansas pole win, where he led 122 laps but failed to seal the deal, Kyle Petty weighed in on the JGR driver’s performance. Petty compared him to Kyle Larson and Kasey Kahne, who faced similar struggles with closing, early in their careers.
“If you’re that fast you gotta get wins out of it. You’ve got to make something happen. We saw him again yesterday. He’s in the mode of a Kyle Larson. He’s in the mode of Kasey Kahne. We’ve heard it all along. And that’s exactly right because it took those guys time to learn how to close and Christopher Bell cannot close. He can be fast but he can’t close. That’s his weak spot.”
While Bell’s team likely expected stronger results, his overall performance in recent years has shown a minor decline. After finishing P3 in the standings in 2022, he slipped to P4 in 2023 and P5 in 2024. As the 2025 season approaches, it remains to be seen if Bell can turn his pole positions into wins.
