Joe Gibbs Racing driver Christopher Bell is one of the leading contenders for the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series championship. With three victory lane visits in the bag so far, the #20 Toyota Camry XSE driver is cruising towards the end of the regular season. However, Bell wasn’t always such a stellar performer that the world sees now every weekend, which makes his progression to his current levels of performance worth looking over.
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He debuted in the Cup Series in 2020 with Leavine Family Racing. With two top-5s and seven top-10s, he ended up 20th on the points table. He led a total of 18 laps through 36 races. These numbers enabled him to graduate to the #20 JGR entry beginning 2021. The effects of superior machinery were immediately reflected when he won at the Daytona Road Course race that year.
Laps led by Christopher Bell in each of his NASCAR Cup Series seasons
2020: 18 laps led
2021: 100 laps led
2022: 573 laps led
2023: 599 laps led
2024: 720+ laps led pic.twitter.com/5Xpwp9NgSs— Trey Ryan (@TreyRyan99) August 13, 2024
He finished the season 12th in points and had led a total of 100 laps. 2022 presented a fresh challenge with the introduction of the Next-Gen Cup Series car. However, Bell seemed to handle the same like an ace. He leaped multiple bounds and made it into the Championship 4 by winning three races throughout the season. He had led a total of 573 laps by the end of the finale in Phoenix. 2023 was a parallel showing.
He won twice and secured multiple top-5 results to enter the Championship 4 once again. He led a total of 599 laps but failed to hit the bullseye in the finale. One could easily lose the spirit of competition with such repeated knocks. However, the Oklahoma native has shown resilience in that regard. He has built up striking momentum once again after the first 23 races of the ongoing season and has already won thrice and led over 720 laps after NASCAR visited Richmond Raceway last weekend.
Speeding penalty denies Bell his fourth win of the season
Bell had led 115 laps until the first full pitstop cycle of the final stage in the latest Cup Series race at Richmond. His #20 Toyota was touted to be the quickest of the field and he had scored 19 stage points throughout the race. However, a penalty for speeding on pit road completely obliterated his chances of victory. He was unable to recover from the same. Despite the knock, Bell still finished in sixth place as the event came to an end.
It ought to be noted that he was able to garner this result despite being without his regular crew chief Adam Stevens on site, who had injured his knees during a diving board accident during the Olympics break. Bell leads the series in the number of stage wins (10) and sits sixth on the points table as of now. NBC Sports NASCAR Power Rankings places him in the third spot only behind Tyler Reddick and Kyle Larson.
It remains to be seen how deep can Bell take his championship charge this season. After having qualified for the championship 4 on multiple occasions, there is only one more accolade left for the JGR driver to achieve.
