Toyota GAZOO Racing – Christopher Bell
NASCAR Cup Series Quotes
CONCORD, NC (May 24, 2025) – Joe Gibbs Racing driver Christopher Bell was made available to the media on Saturday prior to practice for the NASCAR Cup Series race at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
CHRISTOPHER BELL, No. 20 Rheem Toyota Camry XSE, Joe Gibbs Racing
Can you tell us about the spotter change?
“I was surprised as well. It was all Stevie’s (Reeves) decision. He made the decision on his own to quit, and that is all I’m going to say.”
Can you talk about on how 600 miles effects the drivers and the cars?
“It has definitely changed a lot over the last 10, whatever, years. It seems like the test of the machine has kind of gone away, where the cars are durable enough, they are making it 600 miles pretty easily now. The test on the drivers is going to be something that you talk about. I remember my first Coca-Cola 600 back in 2020 – it has changed a lot since then. That first 600, you take the green flag and everyone is kind of pacing themselves, being really respectful and minding their p’s and q’s, giving a lot of room, and you fast forward to the past couple of years and it has turned into a go right from the get-go. It has become really intense from the drop of the green flag. The evolution of the race ever since I’ve been in it has changed a lot. It is 600 miles, and it is difficult, and now especially since everyone is pushing harder and every position meaning more and the stages paying points – it’s become less riding around. It is just a really long grueling race.”
What do you think the difference will be with the spotter change?
“That is a really good question. I haven’t driven for Matt (Philpott) – I call him Philpott, so that caught me off guard. He doesn’t have a ton of spotting experience, so I’m going to be spending some time on the roof with him today during the Xfinity race, just to see what he’s seeing see how he calls it. We had a really good exercise this week doing an iRace, with him spotting me, and I felt like that was really good to learn his language and what he means when he says certain things. We went through a couple of different items. I wanted something a little bit different. The team wanted something a little bit different, so I thought the iRacing experience was really good, and hopefully, we get a little bit closer during the Xfinity race, but I’m sure it will be a period of time, through many races, before we are fully in sync.”
How challenging is it to be changing spotters in the middle of the season?
“Yeah, I’ve never done it before, so I don’t know how to really answer that, but I’ve been around (Matt) Philpott a lot as a mechanic. He was on the 11 (Denny Hamlin) car full time, and he was on my car a couple of times throughout the course of the years, so I have a relationship with him, I was able to listen to him on the feedback that we have online, but I don’t know how to answer that other than we will play it week-by-week and see how it goes.”
How did you end up choosing the spotter that you chose?
“Clearly, there is not a ton of options out there with everybody having jobs and continuing on through the season, so there weren’t a ton of guys out there. Nothing against (Matt) Philpott, but he wouldn’t have been high on the list with his experience level if we weren’t in this situation, but with that being said, he is trying to get into the spotter scene, and it made sense to go that direction. I think he did the Martin Truex car in the Daytona 500, so he had his foot in the door with our company, and yeah, it just made sense to give him a shot. I think it is important to say – he’s doing us a favor. We are not doing him a favor. He is doing us a favor by filling in.”
Can you say what you mean by trying to do different things?
“Whenever I said different things, I just meant (Matt) Philpott’s spotting style, not by Stevie’s (Reeves) spotting style. So, yeah, whenever we did the iRacing exercise, it was just his language style, his communication style is clearly different than what Stevie was doing, and how he was spotting for me, so there was a couple of things – just in that iRacing exercise to get ironed out before this weekend.”
Are you motivated to come back and get a win with the full 600 miles?
“Certainly, I have gotten annoyed by people calling it an asterisk win, so I would love to win this race as the Coca-Cola 600 and run the full 600 miles. I think we should be really competitive. The last couple of years this has been one of our best intermediate tracks, as far as the 20 group goes, so I really look forward to the challenge. I want to be a 600-mile winner and not get booed going into victory lane (laughter).”
What has been it like to have Denny Hamlin as a resource?
“So, Denny (Hamlin) is just very unique in his driving style, and I’ve been around a lot of race car drivers throughout my career, but whenever you look at the data on how they drive the car, it is hard to pick out who is who, except for Denny. Denny, the way his throttle application, his decels [decelerates] through the corner – it is very unique and very identifiable, so I think, even before me, he has helped out certain guys in the company to become better at race tracks. There is no secret – his strength has been the short tracks – Martinsville, Richmond – those type of places. I think a lot of it is his driving style, and he has helped out a lot of guys, myself included. He has been a huge asset to Joe Gibbs Racing, and he’s a wealth of knowledge and is super smart and entuned to what is going on. Certainly, a guy that we benefit from being on our team.”
Do you have a favorite memory of Denny you can share?
“Well, this is a little bit selfish, but I go back to the 2022 Martinsville test in the middle of summer. Denny (Hamlin) was really fast in that Martinsville test, and I was really slow at that Martinsville test, and the 11 team had a really good package, and the 20 team was struggling and Denny was gracious to step into the 20 car and really turned our whole season around by that August day in Martinsville. From him stepping in the 20 car and giving his feedback to our team, it allowed us to come back to Martinsville in the fall of ’22 and win that race. That is one that I will cherish forever, and thankful that he took the change to get in my car and do that.”
How has Nashville changed over the last few years?
“Well, I think the biggest thing is just the car change. Nashville, with the old car, it really raced more like a short track with the way that you passed guys, and the way that you needed your car to drive. It really reminded me of a short track. Whenver we came back with the Next Gen car, it really started racing more like an intermediate track. I would say that is the biggest change from 2021 to now. I think since the Next Gen car has been around, it has been pretty consistent, the racing style has been similar – but it was a huge change from the Gen 6 to the Gen 7 car.”
How special and how tough is this weekend?
“It’s up there. The bucking bronco that you have ride between turns three and four, it gets your attention, and then being 600 miles is – it is just a very long race. I applaud NASCAR for, in general, going shorter for races. Like whenever I started in the series, and back even before that, there were a lot of 500-mile intermediate races, and those have kind of gone away, and most of our intermediate races are 400-mile. I think puts more of an emphasis on making this weekend even more special. With it being certainly the longest race of the year, but really being different than the other races. It is a very physical race track, and it is a very physical race, and normally it is really hot. We don’t have that aspect of it this weekend, it appears, but it is a tough one. This one and Darlington are really the tough races we have during the season.”
How is it only racing on this track once a year?
“I love that. I have been pushing my opinion going to every track once. I think it just helps make it more special. I think if every track had one date, we would see improvement in attendance, and I think it would make every race a little more special.”
How did you experience this race weekend before you were a Cup driver?
“Man, that is going way back. I’ve been racing on Memorial Day for a long time throughout the dirt tracks. Before that, whenever I was a kid, I do remember watching the Indianapolis 500 on TV. I honestly can’t remember outside of motorsports what it was. Memorial Day has just been such a huge motorsports day throughout my life, whether it was dirt track racing, competing in the Coca-Cola 600 or watching the events on TV as a kid.”
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