Oct
To say that this season’s NASCAR Cup Series playoffs have been wild for Christopher Bell would be a big understatement.
Bell, 27, had one victory and two stage wins during the regular season and was seeded 10th (out of 16 racers) going into the 2022 playoffs.
But during the first round, he excelled, finishing in the top five in each of the three races, making him the first racer to do so (Darlington, S.C., Kansas and Bristol, Tenn.).
The result of the second round was almost precisely the opposite, with him wrecking out of the Texas race and disappointingly placing 17th at Talladega, Alabama.
At the Charlotte Roval previous weekend, the best performer from the first round was in risk of being eliminated and needed to win to move on. He did indeed act in that way.
Bell sped through the pack, overtook the leader Kevin Harvick at the beginning of overtime, and won the race for the win and automatic progression to the Round of 8. Bell made the right decision to pit for four new tyres on the next-to-last caution.
The second-year Cup Series driver has had a rollercoaster of a year, but with four races left, he still has an opportunity to win his first series championship.
Keeping alive throughout the title fight
“From the first 10 races into the season, I knew that our performance and capability was there. We had a lot of things working against us,” Bell stated. “Whenever we left I want to say Atlanta, I don’t remember what race Atlanta was in the season, but three or four races in we were positioned last in the points standings.
“I think a lot of people had written me off as a driver, written the No. 20 car off, ‘Christopher is going to get fired’ – I got that all the time; that I’m getting replaced. The No. 20 car is the revolving door, he’s going to be out of here.
“We’re still alive. That feels really good. I wouldn’t have guessed that a week ago or even five hours ago.”
Bell is hopeful that the performances he showed in the first round of the playoffs can be repeated in the third round, which includes races at Las Vegas, Homestead, Florida, and Martinsville, Virginia.
On intermediate circuits like Las Vegas and Homestead, Bell and the Toyota teams in general have performed well this season with the Next Gen car.
“I feel extremely good about what we have going on here in the next three races. Ever since the schedule laid out and we were looking at the playoffs, the Round of 16 all were really good race tracks for us,” he said.
“The Round of 12 with Talladega and (the Roval) in there, I was super-concerned and nervous. I still felt like we were going to be able to make it through it because we’re really good at Texas. Whenever we left (Texas) with a whopping three points, I was just really down, down in the dumps, sad.
“Then we went to Talladega, and we needed a home run. We needed lot of points, and we didn’t score a lot of points. This whole last two weeks, I had been extremely deflated, just kind of down in the dumps.”
In his short moment as a full-time Cup Series driver, Bell claimed that he is currently more enthusiastic than he has ever been in the playoffs.
“I don’t think we’re done,” he said. “A two-win season is not our end goal. I think that we’re certainly capable of more. I want to be a household name in the Cup Series.
“Hopefully, this is just the start.”
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Kevin Harvick, Christopher Bell, IndyCar, Kyle Larson, Nascar, NASCAR Cup Series, Talladega Superspeedway, XFinity
