Toyota Racing – Christopher Bell
NASCAR Cup Series Quotes

DAYTONA BEACH (February 15, 2023) – Joe Gibbs Racing driver Christopher Bell was made available to media prior to the Daytona 500 this Wednesday:

CHRISTOPHER BELL, No. 20 DeWalt – Rheem Toyota Camry TRD, Joe Gibbs Racing

So, no practice, how do you approach tonight?

“It’s not really going to affect I would say the regulars very much. Looking to the right, I think (Travis) Pastrana is in for a treat and just really the guys who don’t have experience on this track or in these cars. That is going to be the guys who it affects the most.”

How are the qualifying races going to be affected?

“That is going to be affected a little bit more by not having practice, because typically you would get in the draft and know what your car has before you get in the race, but that is okay. The Duels is the best practice that you can get over the course of the weekend. It is going to be a very valuable test session. If you are good in the Duels, I don’t foresee you doing very much practice between the Duels and the 500, but if you struggle there is practices in between to try to work on your car to get it better.”

How important is it to help Travis Pastrana if you are in his Duel race tomorrow?

“It’s going to be very important. He’s going to be a very valuable asset to us if we can get him into the 500, so that is going to be a very important goal.”

Is that something you have talked about?

“We will tomorrow. We have a meeting scheduled.”

How much more confident are you and how different do you feel coming into Daytona after your season last year?
“I don’t really feel a ton different, but I am excited about building off of last year. Daytona is just its own animal, and I don’t really think that anything that happened last year will have an effect on what will happen at the Daytona 500, so just trying to finish one of these races. I haven’t been able to do that yet, so hopefully this is the year.”

Is driver momentum carrying in from one season to the next a real thing?

“I think so. Driver confidence is for sure. There are so many changes throughout the offseason with body design and manufacturers changing their cars, so nobody really knows what we have until we get on the track, and Daytona being a speedway is not really indicative of what we are going to see for the rest of the season. The 500 is the granddaddy of them all, and I’m excited. It’s been a while since I’ve been this excited to go racing.”

What would make this year a successful year?

“Really the goal stays the same every year – try and win races and make it to the final four. We checked off that box last year and hopefully we can do it again, but it’s a very tall order and really it starts in the regular season – trying to get more Playoff points, which comes from stage wins, race wins. If we can do that in the regular season, it should make our Playoffs a lot easier. That’s our goal.”

Where do you feel like you are at as a Cup driver?
“That was my goal, whenever you start in the sport – you want to be known as a driver that can win every week, so that is something that I’ve focused on every week – I don’t want to have a weakness. I want my team, myself, you and everybody else to know that I could win every single race, regardless of where we are at. Unfortunately, the places that I do struggle at are here, Talladega and Atlanta – the superspeedway style tracks. That’s definitely a place that we are going to put some emphasis on to try to do better than we’ve done in the past.”

Is there a worry that you won’t be able to continue to work on your racing craft with not as much dirt racing on your schedule?
“I hear you. I do believe that racing as much as you can, makes you better, but I haven’t done a lot of dirt racing in the last 12 months. It is not really anything new for right now. I’m enjoying focusing on my Cup stuff right now, and so hopefully, I can continue to win races and hopefully do some Truck or Xfinity races, who knows.”

With your schedule less full, what are you doing to fill your schedule?

“I would love to get to do more Truck and Xfinity races. Whenever I moved up to Cup in 2020, I told people that I wanted to do more racing if I can. I would love to do it – if there are opportunities out there.”

Where is your confidence as you head into the season?

“My confidence is high. You never really know until you get into the car. Here at Daytona it is different too, so once we get unloaded in California and in that first practice session you will find out where you stack up in the beginning of the year. Expectations are more of the same – I was talking a little bit earlier about getting stage points, getting Playoff points in the regular season and I think that is going to be the next step in my career to help me perform better in the Playoffs especially, to get those points. Chase Elliott had a pretty easy ride to the Final 4 last year, and that starts by winning stages and races in the regular season.”

Has there been any significant change in the dynamic at Joe Gibbs Racing?

“It is hard to say because we haven’t really gotten into the weeds in our weekly meetings and stuff like that, but I’m sure there is going to be a huge change. Kyle’s (Busch) feedback and attention to detail and constructive criticism was incredible, and probably unmatched in the series, so losing that is not ideal, but we are getting another young face in there that is going to provide another element to our debriefs. I’m excited to see what Ty (Gibbs) can bring.”

How much would having another Toyota help you on Sunday?

“I think it is always positive to have more cars at speedway races. I think all of us Toyotas are going to be focused on trying to get him into the 500.”

Has your career progression gone as you expected?

“I think the pandemic really hindered my timeline of getting up to speed in the Cup Series. Myself and others, Cole (Custer), (Tyler) Reddick, you can throw John Hunter (Nemechek) in there – all of those rookies in 2020 got dealt a bad hand. I could have been in that position a couple of years ago, if everything would have been a little more normal.”

How does one get through a season like that?
“I don’t know. You just have to fight through it. You have to take the positives out of it. Looking back at 2020, specifically, 2020 and 2021 was just a snowballing effect of good runs lead to good runs and bad runs lead to bad runs, because of the way the lineup was and how pit selection was, and in our organization, pit crew selection and pit crew assignment to your team and stuff like that. In 2020, it was a snowballing effect that just kept going downhill. In 2021, I finished 12th in points and was just kind of another guy out there, but I felt like if we would have had practice for me and Adam (Stevens) to communicate and get to where we are today, sooner. We could have done a lot better in 2021 too, but just taking the positives. I remember me and (Jason) Ratcliff debriefing about Richmond and I think at that Richmond race I ran like 15th or something in 2020. We were discouraged about it because we ran well in Xfinity and he’s looking at lap times over a course of a green flag run, and we were as fast as the leaders, we just started in the back, and we had pit crew issues that race and never got the opportunity to run up front. That was a positive I took out of that, and said hey, if I would have started up front or my pit crew would have gotten me up front, we would have been okay.”

How do you approach the last laps of the Daytona 500?

“It’s unbelievable. Anyone that has not driven in a Cup Series superspeedway race, I don’t feel like they understand the difference between lap one, even lap 150 to lap 200. The light switch goes off and the intensity just skyrockets, and guys just start pushing and shoving, where you are not supposed to be pushing and shoving. The thing I hate about superspeedway racing is you never feel like you are in control in those moments when you are getting pushed around. It changes dramatically in those last couple of laps.”

Do you have a spot that you want to be in those final laps?
“Ultimately, you don’t want another manufacturer behind you because you are going to be left out to dry, but even if it is a teammate, you are not going to just push you to the end. The best thing you can hope for in the end is to have a shot – everyone asks the magic question – would you like to be leading or second going into the last lap? Well both of them are going to have a shot to win, so either one of them is not too bad. You just want to have an opportunity to take the checkered flag and you have to be in the top x rows to be able to do that.”

How do you learn from those experiences?
“I will be honest; I haven’t seen a ton of last laps on the superspeedway races. I would just love to see the checkered flag on Sunday. I’m 0-for-3 on finishing the Daytona 500 in my Cup career. We’ve got to change that this year.”

Have you talked to Denny Hamlin?

“It’s unbelievable. I have studied Denny (Hamlin) and studied Denny. I’m pretty sure last year, both Daytona races, I’m like the 11 car somehow finds its way to the end and I wrecked both Daytona races and I’m pretty sure I was around the 11 car both times. I said I’m going to do what Denny does, because he has won it three times. If I remember right, it was a couple of the speedway races last season – it might have been the two Daytonas, or a Talladega. Denny has a knack for it – he’s won it three times. Guys that get good at speedway racing, somehow, someway are able to duplicate it.”

What have you looked at, so you are more prepared for this year’s Playoffs?
“The Phoenix race, I don’t look at it. We were in position to win the championship and the yellow flag came out and we had a mishap on pit road. I’m kind of throwing that one out of the window. We know we need to do a better job at Phoenix, but in the end, we put ourselves in position. The biggest thing is the regular season. We need to accumulate more Playoff points and the only way to do that is by winning stages and winning races. That’s our big focus – executing the regular season better to make our Playoff run easier.”

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