Toyota GAZOO Racing – Christopher Bell
NASCAR Cup Series Quotes
CHARLOTTE (August 27, 2025) – Joe Gibbs Racing driver Christopher Bell was made available to the media on Wednesday as part of NASCAR Cup Series Playoff Media Day.
CHRISTOPHER BELL, No. 20 DEWALT Toyota Camry XSE, Joe Gibbs Racing
Do you remember the first time running in Cup coming up on someone that you watched?
“I do, very clearly.”
Who was it and what was that experience like?
“It was the Daytona Duel – 2020. So, what is crazy, being in the Xfinity Series, I had raced against Cup drivers, even going back to my first year in Xfinity – Dale Jr. (Earnhardt Jr.) ran the Richmond race, and that was a really cool moment for me to be able to race against him. I will never forget that Duel in 2020, just seeing the iconic cars – specifically it was Denny (Hamlin) in the FedEx car and Joey (Logano) in the Pennzoil car, and I had ran against Denny and Kyle (Busch) and Joey through the Xfinity Series, but just racing against those iconic cars that I had watched on TV for so long – it hit me hard, and I was like wow, it is really cool.”
Was that during the race?
“It was during yellow – we were pacing around. Not during the race.”
What is the thought for you that someone may have that same experience with your car in the future?
“That hits hard, and it is really cool. I go back to how iconic the car was – seeing that FedEx 11 and the Pennzoil 22, and hopefully, at some point, they will be able to see the DEWALT 20 or the Rheem 20, and will be like, I watched this car on TV. I think it is a staple of the sponsor as well as the driver, and I’m honored to be representing these iconic brands, and hopefully, it is for years to come.”
How difficult is it to turn on a switch for Playoff mode?
“Yeah, I don’t want to say it is easy, but it is expected and every driver and every Playoff contending team really does a good job of that, and my team – what I’ve learned from them the last couple of years – is they just do an excellent job of being the best when it matters the most, and through a number of years now – we have come off kind of a slump leading into the Playoffs, then all of a sudden we go there and have our best car performance, our best speed and I feel confident in it.”
What went right for you in the three-race win streak to start the year?
“Really just things fell our way. I go back to 2024 – we had amazing car performance, and we were so fast, and it didn’t fall our way. Those three races – Atlanta is a speedway race. It is tough to look at car performance, but I only led one lap. Then you go to COTA – only led eight laps, didn’t dominate the race by any means. It went our way, and we were able to capitalize on it, and we reaped the benefits of some things we lost in 24. It comes and goes in this sport. It has been tough sledding through the summer months, but I’m excited for what is ahead of us.”
Is the team capable of something like that again?
“Absolutely. Any week it could happen. It could happen this week at Darlington. It could happen any week.”
What more needs to happen at Darlington?
“We’ve been close. Darlington has been one that we’ve been really close at and haven’t won. The Playoffs are just littered with tracks like that – like Darlington, Kansas, Vegas, Gateway, now. All of those places, we’ve been super strong at – just haven’t quite won at. It could happen this week; it could happen next week.”
If you start to get run over in the Playoffs, are you going to have to take a stand?
“Oh, absolutely. If people start roughing you up or roughing me up, then I will for sure rough them up too. I’m not afraid of that by any means.”
Sometimes you come across as too nice.
“I don’t know. I feel like – so whenever you say that it makes me feel like people are running me hard or taking advantage of me, and I don’t feel that way. I feel like I’ve been raced fairly, so far, and I feel like I’ve raced people fair.”
22 races since a win. What do you have to do to get back to victory lane?
“I don’t think we need to do anything different. Just keep plugging away. I’ve actually asked Adam (Stevens, crew chief) that because I was a little bit concerned about that a couple of weeks ago, and he said we are not doing anything different than we were when we won three races in a row to start the season. So, we’ve got a great team, a great process and we are going to keep after it, and we are going to great race tracks for us. I think we have all of the tools to go out there and execute and win races, and hopefully we can do that.”
You finished second at Martinsville in the Spring and won at Phoenix. How much confidence does that give you?
“I think this is probably our best year so far for a championship, just the way the schedule lays out. We know that. Adam (Stevens, crew chief) knows that. We are ready to take it to them.”
What are the challenges in the first round?
“I don’t know. At Gateway, at least by our standards I was the best car at Gateway. I was going to have to pass Ryan (Blaney) for the win, but I had more pace at that time before my engine had a mechanical failure, so Gateway is definitely one that I feel excited about and probably the most optimistic about, but really all three of them are great tracks that we could win at any moment, and we should score points. If you score points, you are going to be in a good spot to advance.”
What is it like going into a race knowing you need to win to advance?
“I don’t know. It is very difficult to do. We’ve seen where it doesn’t happen very often, but I think it just comes down to the teams and the great teams are able to do it. We saw (Ryan) Blaney do it at Martinsville last year, and they are clearly a good, title contending team. Joey (Logano) essentially did it at Las Vegas. His likelihood of making it was not high if he didn’t win that race. It can be done by good teams.”
What do you feel like is your biggest strength and biggest weakness heading into the Playoffs?
“Well, I would say our biggest strength is road course racing, but there is a guy named Shane van Gisbergen that keeps taking that away. Road courses have been really good, so I’m optimistic about the ROVAL, and then obviously, short tracks, flat tracks – the Phoenix, Loudon, Gateway – those style race tracks have obviously been really good to us for a number of years now. Between the ROVAL and those – Gateway, Loudon, Phoenix – I think that is our bread and butter. Intermediates – we’ve been close and have been able to run well, but it just seems like we have been a little off on winning pace, but I say any week and it could change in any week, and we could go out and win any of those races. Weakness for sure is Talladega – even if Talladega is a strength, you are not guaranteed a good finish there. I think we are on par with the rest of them with most of our good tracks.”
Where do you feel like you are now compared to what you were last year?
“We definitely haven’t led laps or had that stage performance that we want throughout the 2025 season, but I will say now, I’m far more seasoned. Every year that goes by, you have more experience and understand the name of the game a little bit more and how to play it. We haven’t led laps, and we haven’t got the stage points that we did in years past, but we know – it is still the same crew chief, same driver, same pit crew – everything is still the same, we just have to go out there and do it. We are going to have a little bit more pressure now, and I’m excited about the opportunity.”
Is it beneficial to be fast on those short, flat tracks?
“I think it is. We know that you have to be good there if you are going to win the championship, and I want the opportunity. I think if we get the opportunity – we will have a good shot at it. I go back to 2022, 2023 – whenever I made the final four, we didn’t execute the race well. We had a pit road mishap in ’22 and a brake failure in ’23, so I think we will have performance if we can just execute the race and get there and see what we have.”
What do you take from last year?
“What I take from last year is that you need to win. Last year, the Las Vegas race – that is the one that really stings and feels like got away. We had the car performance; we had the execution – Joey (Logano) and the 22 team outsmarted us. They made it on fuel. We had to make a pit stop and they won the race, and unfortunately it kicked us out. We scored great points through Las Vegas. We scored great points through Homestead-Miami, and we still didn’t make it, so you have to win. Whenever you get to that Round of 8, you really need to bank and plan on winning a race to make the final four.”
Do you think there is an odds-on favorite to win the championship this year?
“No. It feels like there is less and less than we’ve had the last couple of years.”
Do you look at it as these are the five or six guys that you have to beat or do you not do that when you are preparing?
“No, not yet. Once we get to the Round of 12, more so the Round of 8 – you are really looking at it, but right now it is just about surviving and you have to see who survives these first two rounds and then you restack the cards and see who can be the contenders when you get to the Round of 8.”
Are you doing something to stay calm?
“I think I’m just another year older. This is year five in the Playoffs for me, so it is becoming more routine, more normal. Just getting more comfortable.”
How have you seen the early rounds affect those who don’t have Playoff experience?
“I think you are just more prone to making mistakes. The more amped up you get, the more the pressure gets to you. The more likelihood you are at making mistakes. The calmer you can be, the more times you do it you get more comfortable with it, you understand how to do it, and how to play the game – sometimes you need a home run, sometimes you need to win the race, sometimes you just need a couple of points. Now that I’ve experienced it and I’ve done it a couple of times, I guess I just realize that more now.”
Is there a set number of years where that realization kicks in?
“I’ve just noticed it more year over year. I go back in 2021; I got eliminated in the Round of 12 off a stupid mistake. We were at Las Vegas, and it might have been pit stop number one of the day, we had a stack up coming on pit road, and I knocked the front end in and ruined my day, off of – why? I didn’t have to do that. It meant nothing. I learned from that, and that is just an example of what happens whenever you are young and inexperienced.”
Is there a panic to get it done this year because of the rotating championship race?
“Well believe me, we know this as good as it lines up for us. We know that this is a great opportunity for us.”
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