“That’s the Way It Should Be”: Christopher Bell Sees A Lot of Positives from NASCAR’s Format Decision

Being consistently good throughout the season and not being rewarded for it is a feeling NASCAR drivers got used to in the elimination format. Christopher Bell, for example, commanded the points table heading into the final race of the Round of 8 back in 2024, but a single disastrous outing in Martinsville cost him his Championship 4 berth. He went through similar heartbreak in 2025, as he led the points heading into the penultimate race on the same track, only to fall short of reaching the final four. Thankfully, he won’t have to go through that again.

Bell made certain to leave his fingerprints all over the sport. He played an important role in last year’s playoff committee, after fans and stakeholders alike pointed out how the elimination format was systematically stripping credible contenders of their title aspirations. As a result of the same, NASCAR has now decided to revert to the Chase format.

Addressing the matter during a recent media appearance, Bell stated that while he was vouching for a straight 36-race points championship, he is pleased with the Chase and considers the system pretty much a full-season championship. He said, “I’m super happy with the format, I think that this format will take any sort of doubts or ill feelings towards our champion and I think that it’s a great move in the right direction.”

“And hopefully, I think we potentially could see the same few guys running for the championship year in and year out. And that’s the way it should be. So we want the best drivers to be able to be the champion.”

“I think we’re in a spot now where luck will have far less involvement with who the champion is. And on-track results and performance will be a much greater impact than what it was in the past,” the Joe Gibbs Racing driver continued.

In his previous interviews, Bell explained his reasoning clearly, arguing that a larger sample size is necessary to truly define a champion and that the elimination format falls short of the standards set in the pre-playoff era.

His observations engraved his position as a leading voice for change within the driver garage, with Hall of Famer Mark Martin publicly endorsing him as a driver brave enough to speak the truth about the playoff system.

Bell’s thoughts on whether there will be any change in his approach in the Chase format

Given that Chase places equal emphasis on consistency and wins, some change is likely in how drivers approach the closing stages of races. This stands in contrast to the elimination format, where competitors often threw caution to the wind, both during the regular season to secure playoff berths and during the playoffs to advance to the next round outright.

When Bell was pressed on whether the Chase system will reshape things for him and his team, given their status as perennial title contenders under the playoff system, he noted that DNFs will now have heavier consequences than they did previously and that the system weighs all tracks far more evenly, allowing strengths and weaknesses to balance out rather than forcing drivers to master specific venues to claim the championship.

To explain it better, he referenced his struggles at Martinsville as a deciding factor in his playoff shortfalls, he stated, “Martinsville is the track that’s really been our Achilles heel over the last couple of years… I think it just eliminates the need to have greatness at a certain track, and it equalizes it out. We race 36 times a year. We don’t go to Martinsville or Phoenix 36 times a year, so I think it’s a lot fairer.”

Across his six seasons in the NASCAR Cup Series, Bell has finished four of them in the top five, reaching the Championship 4 twice. Even in the last two seasons, he came agonizingly close to breaking through, yet fell short both times. The Chase format may well deliver the championship fortune that Bell and his No. 30 JGR outfit have been pursuing for a long time now.