Christopher Bell missed the Championship 4 again this season, yet he still carried favorite status and remained one of the field’s steadiest hands, despite growing up in Sprint racing, where he piled up 26 dirt victories, including the Turkey Night Grand Prix in 2014. He even swept the Chili Bowl Nationals in 2017, 2018, and 2019. Given his skills in dirt racing, the No. 20 driver admitted he did not initially picture himself in the NASCAR Cup or Xfinity ranks.
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He said the climb to the next rung never sat on his to-do list. He aimed to excel where he stood. He kept his head down, delivered results, and let the scorecard speak for him. And the approach paid off as well. Success on dirt opened doors he never tried to kick down, and those opportunities nudged him toward stock cars.
During a recent conversation with SpeedFreaks, Bell said, “I think World of Outlaws was always the end goal for me and the dream that was the most realistic. I never in a million years thought that I would be a NASCAR driver or an IndyCar driver, and my dream was just to always be a professional racer, and fortunately, I was able to accomplish that early on in my career.”
“And I was excited for every opportunity that came my way, and whenever I got hired by Kyle Busch Motorsports, and got the Toyota connection, you know, the door got opened up to NASCAR,” he continued.
Policy at Joe Gibbs Racing had once kept drivers from straying to outside races, even in the off-season. Until last season, no one in the stable could jump back to dirt. That changed last off-season when Joe Gibbs greenlit extra-curricular runs. And after a break of three years, Bell returned to short clay ovals and may line up again this season at the Tulsa Shootout and the Chili Bowl Nationals.
This season in the NASCAR Cup Series, he finished fifth in points with four wins, thirteen top fives, twenty-two top tens, and one pole. And now fans expect him to keep turning laps in the off-season.
He himself sees value where the schedule leaves gaps. Cup practice is brief, scripted, and rarely forces split-second choices. But the dirt racing’s constant traffic, changing grooves, and narrow margins help him with his decision-making under pressure.
Bell believes seat time is the best teacher. The more a driver races, the sharper he becomes. He also acknowledged the reality of today’s Cup Series. Running another series does not consistently hand a driver a built-in advantage over Cup rivals, but it still keeps a racer in rhythm, which matters when the points table gets tight.
Bell may not have scripted a NASCAR career in his youth, but he has leaned into every opening since. The dirt framed his craft, the Cup car refined it, and his results showed why he sits near the top consistently.
