The next three races are the most important ones this season for Christopher Bell. If he gets through New Hampshire on Sunday, Kansas next week, and the concluding race in the NASCAR Cup Round of 12 at the Charlotte Roval, Bell can then turn his attention to the Round of 8 semifinals.
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But that doesn’t keep Bell from thinking ahead even now to what could ultimately be the most difficult race of the playoffs: the middle race of the Round of 8 at Talladega Superspeedway.
“Talladega has always been the toughest one,” Bell said during Saturday’s media availability at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. “Last year, we had Atlanta in there, so certainly this year the additions of Gateway and Loudon into the playoffs were something that I was super excited about. And, yeah, Talladega has been the one that’s always the fearful one for me, and I don’t know if it’s good or bad that it’s later on in the year this year.”
It’s understandable why the 2.66-mile tri-oval confounds the Norman, Oklahoma native so much. In 11 starts at ‘Dega, Bell has failed to win there, has just one top five and three top 10 finishes.
On the plus side, he has two poles there, both coming in 2022, with a career-best showing of fifth. But there’s also the negative side: Bell has three DNFs in his 11 starts, all due to crashes.
“Surviving Talladega, that’s been the hardest part every year,” Bell said. “I don’t know if it’s fortunately or unfortunately, now it’s moved a little bit later on in the schedule. So, fortunately, I don’t have to deal with it now. Unfortunately, and hopefully, I have to deal with it later.”
Talladega Can Wait, But Loudon Can’t—It’s Next Up On Sunday
What Bell has to deal with first, though, is Sunday’s Round of 12 opener at Loudon. He’s coming off an inspiring win in the opening round finale at Bristol and wants to get off to a good start to give him somewhat of a cushion heading into Kansas and then the always unpredictable Roval.
“You look at the racetracks on paper and they say that we should be really good at all of these tracks, and we should be able to have good performance,” Bell said.
He couldn’t be starting at a much better place. In five career starts on Loudon’s flat one-mile track, Bell has two wins and three top-five finishes, along with a pole. In Kansas, while he’s never won there yet, he has three top-five and eight top-10 finishes in 11 total starts. And lastly, at the Roval, he has one win, two top fives, and three top 10 finishes in five starts.
“The toughest thing is just going to be going out there and doing it and not eliminating yourself,” Bell said. “I think that all of us, myself, Denny [Hamlin] and Chase [Briscoe]—even Bubba [Wallace] and Tyler [Reddick]—all of the Toyotas, they’re going to have speed. We’re going to be capable, so you’ve just got to dot your i’s and cross your t’s and do your job.”
Thus far in this year’s playoffs, Joe Gibbs Racing and its three playoff drivers have definitely been doing their job. JGR swept all three of the opening round races, with Briscoe winning the playoff opener at Darlington, Hamlin capturing Gateway, and Bell winning at Bristol.
“I think if it’s up to car performance, we’ll probably be fine,” Bell said of himself and his JGR teammates. “But the execution side and finishing the races out, making sure that you make the right decisions on restarts, the right strategy calls, not making mistakes on long green flag runs—stuff like that—is going to be the difference maker in the Round of 12.”
