Christopher Bell made his full-time Cup Series debut in 2020. Before he did so, he had built up an impressive resume filled with accolades collected on dirt tracks. Even today, he races outside pavements regularly and keeps in touch with his roots. This side of his experience is why he believes that he needs to race the likes of Kyle Larson differently than he races the likes of Kevin Harvick.
Advertisement
He said in a 2021 interview with Frontstretch that he employs different tactics when he races against NASCAR drivers with dirt racing experience versus those who don’t.
He went, “I think it’s just their tendencies. In the series, you get to learn about other drivers’ tendencies and what they do. And you know that if you have [Kyle] Larson lining up behind you, you don’t want to give him the top. If you have Kevin Harvick lining up behind you, you don’t want to give him the bottom.”
Dirt guys have the habit of moving around, trying to find different lanes. Drivers with pavement experience alone, on the other hand, are easier to block since they stick to a single lane.
“It’s just you gotta know who you’re racing, and that’s part of the game, for sure,” he concluded. In 2025, Bell recorded four victories to reach as far as the playoffs Round of 8.
Apart from what he stated, there are some other advantages that drivers with dirt racing experience carry over to their counterparts.
Dirt racing’s advantages
The typical NASCAR Cup Series driver does not perform very well on road courses. They struggle to make proper exits out of turns as the Next Gen car carries a lot of weight. They need to slow their pace down a lot to make proper exits. But then, when they do so, they lose speed on the straightaways.
Only when they slide around the corner and get on the throttle at the right time do they have an advantage. And that is precisely how drivers race on dirt tracks. Chase Briscoe said about this in 2024, “You still have more power a lot of the time on exit than you really need, so you’re spinning the tires and you’ve got to really finesse the throttle, which is a lot like dirt racing.”
“Just how you have to really slide the car around and hustle the car is very similar to dirt racing.” Those who have mastered this technique are quite good on the Cup Series road courses. From Larson and Bell to Tony Stewart and Jeff Gordon, many have used such dirt racing methods to make a mark in the Cup Series.
