“Just Got to Survive It”: Christopher Bell’s Simple Goal to Keep Championship Hopes Alive

A year ago in Sin City, Christopher Bell came up short at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, unable to reel in Joey Logano in the final laps. That day sealed Logano’s ticket to the Championship 4 and paved the way for his third title, while Bell’s own hopes unraveled at Martinsville in a controversial finish that left him on the outside looking in.

Just a year later, history seemed to rhyme. For the third straight season, Bell had a car capable of winning at the 1.5-mile oval, yet once again, he had to watch another driver (Denny Hamlin this time) punch their ticket to the Championship 4 while he settled for a podium and a hollow feeling of déjà vu.

Bell’s day was filled with ups and downs from start to finish. He hovered around the back half of the top ten during the first two stages, banking nine stage points in the process. His car showed strength early, but it lacked the raw pace to match the Hendrick Motorsports duo of Kyle Larson and William Byron, who together dominated 184 laps.

As the laps wound down, the tables began to turn, just as they had in prior playoff runs. Bell’s team put him in the hunt late, but not before he dodged disaster twice. The first scare came when Byron plowed into Ty Dillon, who suddenly slowed to pit. Byron, unaware of Dillon’s intentions, had no time to react. Running just behind the pair, Bell threaded the needle to avoid catastrophe.

“The sun is really bad off turn four, so you can’t see anything, and yeah, just kind of close my eyes and hope that I could get through there, and fortunately I did,” he said afterward.

The second brush with chaos arrived 22 laps from the finish, barely eight laps after the first. An 11-car melee erupted when Bell, Ty Gibbs, and Shane van Gisbergen made contact, sending Gibbs spinning in the middle of a three-wide battle.

 

Though he escaped both wrecks unscathed, luck ran out before victory did. Bell once again left Las Vegas winless, marking his third straight near miss at the track. Still, the day wasn’t a total loss as he walked away 20 points above the Championship 4 cutline.
Turning his focus to Talladega, Bell acknowledged the high risk that comes with NASCAR’s most unpredictable battleground.

“I mean, clearly, the JGR cars are really good, but this package is done for the year now. We got Talladega Superspeedway and then two short tracks. So, the intermediate package served us well throughout the playoffs,” he said.

“Talladega, hopefully we survive and then see how we are on the short track package… Talladega is going to be really tough, and just got to survive it. So, it’ll be the same for everybody, and it’s going to be interesting,” he added.

Bell’s record at the 2.66-mile superspeedway doesn’t offer much comfort either, an average finish of 20.9 in 11 starts, with just one top-five to his name. At Martinsville, however, he’s averaged 15.5 across 11 starts and earned a win.

To avoid another close Martinsville show like last year, the #24 JGR driver knows he’ll need to play his cards right at Talladega and bring home every point he can grab.