With four races left in the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs, Christopher Bell is once again in position to challenge for the championship.
Having contended for the title each of the last two seasons, the 29-year-old Norman native is looking for a third straight appearance in the championship race.
But for now, his focus remains on Las Vegas Motor Speedway, the first of three playoff races in the round of eight that will determine which four drivers will have a shot at the championship.
Bell turned in a second-place finish at Charlotte Motor Speedway’s road course last weekend, sealing his spot in the round of eight well before the checkered flag waved.
Now, the playoff schedule turns to Vegas, Miami and Martinsville speedways to cut the playoff field from eight to four.
Bell enters this week second in points, 20 behind leader Kyle Larson heading into the South Point 400 in Las Vegas, set for a 1:30 p.m. start Sunday on NBC.
Bell visited with The Oklahoman ahead of the round of eight to discuss his season:
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Q: You’re in your fifth Cup season and your fourth with Joe Gibbs Racing. How much do you still learn from week to week at this point in your career?
A: Oh man, you never stop learning, and I can promise you this, the sport is ever-changing. The cars, we got the NexGen cars at the start of the 2022 season and they have developed so, so much. The teams are learning about the setups, the drivers are learning how to drive the cars better. And they are nothing like they were when we started in 2022. The game is ever-changing, that is for sure. Now I have several years under my belt in the Cup Series, and I feel like I’m a little bit smarter than I was when I started. Everyone can say the same thing, but the people who are able to grow the most who are gonna be the most successful.
For the most part, your team has remained intact during your time at JGR. How beneficial has that familiarity been?
Certainly ever since I got to JGR, we’ve had the same core group of people, the same crew chief. We’ve had a couple changes inside our team, but for the most part it’s been the same group. One thing that is different is our pit crew. We’ve had a couple pit crew swaps, and the team that we’ve landed on right now has been doing an amazing job. We got them at the end of last year and they carried us toward that championship run. Then this year has been my best year, statistically, for stage wins and laps led, and I think a lot of that is due to the performance we’ve had on pit road. If you can’t execute pit road, it’s very difficult to lead laps in this sport.
How valuable is it to know you have a pit crew you can rely on, considering the margin for error on pit road is so small?
I think the NexGen car, as it has been perfected over the last two years, has put even more emphasis on the pit crews, because before this car, when everyone was doing their own thing, the cars were a little bit more separated. If you had a winning car that day, it was by a bigger margin than what it is today. So if you had issues on pit road or a pit crew wasn’t performing as well as others, you could pass cars on track and make up for it. Now we’re driving spec cars. We’ve got the best drivers and the best teams building them, so what that gives you is very little separation among the best teams. So whoever gets out front is likely going to be the person who leads that stint of the race.
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The playoff schedule was interesting this year, particularly in the round of 12 with a superspeedway and a road course. How have you felt about the playoff schedule?
I’ll be honest, this year has scared me a lot with the way the schedule worked out — with Atlanta kicking off the postseason and then we had Talladega in the round of 12. I was nervous about it, but fortunately, it’s been really good for us. We’ve put ourselves in a really good spot.
This is your fourth straight year reaching at least the round of eight. Does the playoff pressure ever get any easier to handle?
I would say that you’re learning what it takes to get through these rounds. Now, being in 2024 and making the final four the last two years, I would say that I still get nervous and I don’t think that’s ever gonna go away. But certainly, knowing what to expect has become easier.
South Point 400
1:30 p.m. Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway (NBC)
NASCAR playoff standings
- Kyle Larson, +33
- Christopher Bell, +13
- Tyler Reddick, +10
- William Byron, +4
- Ryan Blaney, -4
- Denny Hamlin, -8
- Chase Elliott, -9
- Joey Logano, -11
