Bell has Chance to Accomplish Something Never Achieved in Next Gen Era
Christopher Bell heads into this weekend's NASCAR Cup Series Shriners Children's 500 at Phoenix Raceway on a two-race winning streak. Now, he heads into this weekend with a chance to do something that has never been accomplished since the Next Gen car was debuted in 2022 -- win three NASCAR Cup Series races in a row.
There's a long way to go for the driver of the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota Camry XSE, but the 30-year-old driver and his team have to have confidence heading into Phoenix. Reason being, they picked up the win at Atlanta Motor Speedway, and last weekend at Circuit of the Americas, despite not having the dominant car at either event.
"Last year, there were so many race wins that got away whenever I had the fastest car. The last two weeks at Atlanta and here I kind of won without the fastest car, so it’s really nice to get those back that I lost last year," Bell said in his victory press conference last weekend at COTA.
The two wins have boosted Bell's excitement over what the season could hold, but he's not getting too far ahead of himself as he knows that he, crew chief Adam Stevens, and the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing team have come up shy of the ultimate goal -- the NASCAR Cup Series championship.
"I’m excited about what’s to come. We have high expectations and high hopes and goals for this year. Frankly, the last couple of years being at Joe Gibbs Racing in this No. 20 car, I haven’t been living up to the standards that I hold for myself," Bell said. "Our goal going into 2025 is to do that, or my goal is to do that for myself. I know, Adam Stevens, he feels the same way. He feels that we’re capable of a lot of great things. We haven’t done that yet in the NASCAR Cup Series season. Maybe 2025 will be the year."
The first chance at checking off a "great thing" is this weekend as Bell attempts to snag his third consecutive win in the NASCAR Cup Series, and there couldn't be a better site for him to be entering looking to keep his winning streak going.
In his last four starts at the 1-mile oval in Avondale, AZ, Bell has recorded a win, two top-fives, and three top-10s. The lone finish outside of the top-10 was a heartbreaking crash in the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race after he suffered a brake failure on Lap 109.
Over his last two starts at the track, Bell has particularly found his groove. In addition to the victory at Phoenix last Spring, the driver of the No. 20 machine led a race-high 143 laps in last Fall's NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race before settling for a fifth-place finish. Bell has amassed 193 laps led over his last two starts at the facility, which is nearly double the amount of his nearest competitor (Joey Logano has 107 laps led combined over the last two Phoenix races).
And while Team Penske has impressed mightily at Phoenix, as they've secured three-consecutive NASCAR Cup Series championships between Logano and Ryan Blaney, Bell actually has the best average finish of any driver at Phoenix over the last two races there.
Bell's average finish at Phoenix is 3.0 in those two events, which narrowly tops Blaney, the only other driver to score top-five finishes in both Phoenix events a season ago, who has a 3.5 average finish over that span at the track.
In this incredible era of parity in the NASCAR Cup Series, the planets could very well be aligning for Bell to pull off three consecutive wins in the series, which hasn't been done since Kyle Larson pulled off the feat during his magical 10-win NASCAR Cup Series championship season in 2021.
The NASCAR Cup Series Shriners Children's 500 at Phoenix Raceway is set for Sunday, March 9. The race will be televised on FS1 and can be streamed on the FOX Sports App with a valid cable subscription login. Television coverage of the event will kick off at 3:30 PM ET.
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Toby Christie is the Editor-in-Chief of Racing America. He has 15 years of experience as a motorsports journalist and has been with Racing America since 2023.