Finally, things seem to have turned around for Christopher Bell.
Bell has multiple regular-season victories for the first time in his NASCAR Cup Series career. Not only is he tied with Kyle Larson, his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin and William Byron, but he also has the second-most playoff points behind Larson.
In other words, Bell appears to be much better positioned for a postseason run than he has been in previous years. Despite reaching the Championship 4 the past two seasons, Bell and the No. 20 DeWalt team have had to take the hard route in must-win situations.
“Oh my God, man, we’ve been trying to work towards this for the last three years,” Bell said Saturday at Nashville Superspeedway. “It feels very, very satisfying to have playoff points under our belt now, and we have a great chance to get even more. That’s what everyone wants in the regular season – to come out of here with a lot of points.”
“It feels very different from what we’ve had in the past.”
At the start of the season, it looked like Larson was pulling away from the rest. Larson not only collected wins (three), but also stage wins (eight) that increased his playoff point total, and his pace was well ahead of the competition.
Last month, however, Bell had a strong run, leading the third most laps in the series (451) and winning two of the last five races. He also took five more stage wins during that stretch, finishing ninth all the time.
The numbers now look like this: Larson leads the series with 23 playoff points, Bell with 22. Larson leads the series with eight stage wins, Bell with seven.
Bell also improved from 15th in the championship standings before the Coca-Cola 600, which he won, to 6th after his victory last weekend in New Hampshire – another important factor as NASCAR rewards drivers who finish the regular season in the top 10 in the championship standings with additional playoff points.
There are eight races left in the regular season, including Sunday’s race at Nashville (3:30 p.m. ET). Bell has averaged eighth place finishes in his three Cup Series starts at Nashville.
For comparison, Bell will begin the postseason with more playoff points than in his three previous appearances, having begun the 2023 postseason with 14 playoff points, 11 at the start of the 2022 postseason and just five at the start of the 2021 postseason.
