Christopher Bell recently celebrated a win at Bristol Motor Speedway, yet he acknowledges that the victory does not strongly indicate his prospects for the remainder of the NASCAR season. The race’s unusual tire issues forced teams into strategies based heavily on luck, particularly regarding fresh right-side tires at the finish, which benefited Bell and the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 20 team as they narrowly held off Brad Keselowski.
Bell himself described the triumph as heavily reliant on fortune rather than outright dominance.
“Certainly, winning helps but we didn’t lead laps,”
Bell remarked.
“Once again, I won a race, but I didn’t lead laps which is okay. I will gladly take that. Last week was just such unique circumstances. We kind of won the lottery last week.”
He added,
“Whoever won that race was going to have to have a substantial amount of luck and fortunately it was on our side. But I don’t know. I think we had a great car, but I think a lot of people would’ve said the same thing, and we got really fortunate last week. So, it was kind of a unique circumstance that played out. So, I don’t know that it necessarily was a true test of where the teams stack up.”
Season Performance and Concerns About Qualifying
Earlier in the season, Bell achieved three consecutive wins, but similar to Bristol, he led relatively few laps during those races. This summer, his performance has lacked the consistent dominance seen last year, with total laps led dropping to 239 compared to 1,145 previously. Furthermore, his average starting position has dipped to 13.5 from 11.2 last season, a trend that Bell finds troubling.
He emphasized the importance of improving qualifying results, stating,
“What we have to do better, is we’ve got to start qualifying better. That is mission critical. Oh, my goodness. All of us are – we’re frustrated a little bit of how we’ve qualifying especially compared to our team cars. I say that because the team cars are the barometer. If the team cars are qualifying well, then you should be qualifying well too.”
While Chase Briscoe and Denny Hamlin have collectively secured nine poles this season, Bell has only achieved one, a discrepancy that has contributed to his struggles starting races from more competitive positions.
Why Qualifying Holds Critical Importance for Bell
Bell highlighted the stakes tied to qualifying as the playoff rounds progress, explaining that stage points, crucial for championship advancement, are largely influenced by qualifying positions.
“Whenever you get deeper into the Playoffs, you have to be scoring stage points, and a lot of the stage points are dictated by your qualifying effort,”
Bell said.
“So, yeah, that’s mission critical. We’ve got to start qualifying better, and along the lines of qualifying better, that’s how you lead laps. I think a lot of it stems from the qualifying and that’s probably the biggest performance gain that we need to go out there and be one of the top contenders.”
He noted that while his race performance matches that of many competitors, the disadvantage of starting from less favorable positions hampers his overall results:
“I feel like our race performance has been on par with most of our competitors, it’s just we’re starting from a hole after Saturday.”
Efforts to Address Imbalances in Car Setup and Team Execution
According to Bell, the primary issue affecting his qualifying results is the vehicle setup, which hasn’t matched the balance seen in his teammates’ cars during Saturdays.
“We have the capability and the teammates are showing we have the capability if we just get it right,”
Bell commented.
“And, we just have been off a little bit, and it doesn’t take much to be a couple positions back. Our teammates have just been hitting it and getting the good qualifying results. We’re missing a little bit. Some of it has been on the balance side and some of it has been on the driving side as well. All of us – myself, Adam (Stevens, crew chief), the engineers, we all have to just buckle down and improve that if we want to go deeper here.”
Bell’s teamwork with crew chief Adam Stevens and engineers centers on making precise adjustments to close the qualifying gap and enhance their competitiveness throughout the playoffs.
Playoff Points and Historical Track Performance
Bell’s Bristol victory granted him five extra playoff points, increasing his cushion from 15 points above the elimination cutoff to 20, a meaningful boost as the championship enters the Round of 12. Historically, Bell has performed well on the upcoming tracks, which on paper suggests he has strong chances in this playoff phase.
He noted,
“I think, you look at the race tracks 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. The toughest thing is just going to be going out there and doing it and not eliminating yourself. 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.”
Bell stressed that while the cars can deliver, success will depend on flawless execution:
“We’re going to be capable so just got to dot your i’s and cross your t’s and do your job. I think if it’s up to car performance, we’ll probably be fine 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.”
