TOYOTA RACING – Christopher Bell
NASCAR Cup Series Quotes
BRISTOL, Tenn. (September 18, 2026) – Joe Gibbs Racing driver Christopher Bell was made available to the media on Friday prior to the NASCAR Cup Series race from Bristol Motor Speedway.
CHRISTOPHER BELL, No. 20 DEWALT Toyota Camry XSE, Joe Gibbs Racing
Can you talk about why you love Bristol and this race so much?
“I love Bristol, the track, just because of how it races, and the multiple grooves that it offers, the lap traffic, the long green flag runs, the physical demands that this place has. Then you add The Night Race on top of it with the energy, the atmosphere, all of the pre-race ceremonies that they do here, it just is truly one of a kind. It feels like SMI (Speedway Motorsports, Inc.) just doesn’t really good job with their events and this one’s special.”
What’s your thoughts on the new wet weather policies?
“I don’t know that I spent a lot of time thinking about it, honestly. I don’t know. I know that there has been a lot of talk about how different the setups are. I don’t know. That’s a good question. You kind of stumped me. I didn’t expect to be talking about that, but I guess I like it from the aspect that it puts more in the team’s hands. So, I don’t know that I have much for you. I guess it’s a positive, though.”
What are your expectations when you go to Kansas, Las Vegas and Charlotte?
“Yeah, our expectations are high, for sure. I think that’s been our, the Toyota’s bread and butter. Speaking at the media day, whenever I was talking about the champion being a Toyota, or that’s how I felt, I mean, those races really came to mind for those three intermediate races, the Homestead race. I think that there’s going to be a lot to be gained, or lost on a very similar type of track coming up the next three weeks at Kansas, Vegas, Charlotte. The points are tight and I think it’s going to be a battle for sure, but those three races, I think the same contenders are going to be up front. So, whoever runs good at Kansas, I think is going to have a good opportunity to elevate themselves between Kansas, Vegas, Charlotte, compared to the competition.”
What are your thoughts on the 54 car and paint scheme?
“It’s pretty wild. I was there whenever they unveiled it earlier this week. It’s going to be really weird, for sure, seeing that thing out there and just happy that the memories and that I think it’s going to be a really, really cool tribute and it’s going to be fun to see it out there.”
Is the Bristol Night Race a Crown Jewel?
“I mean, in my head it is. I would say that, I don’t know, I think that’s for you guys, the media, and for the fans to decide, really, it’s not really on the drivers, but for me, you know, the Bristol Night Race has always been my favorite race of the year. So it is a Crown Jewel to me but I would say that it’s not for us to decide what our Crown Jewels are and what are not crown jewels.”
How has trying to race here change over the years?
“So some things have been similar, but probably the single biggest change was going to the Next Gen car, and that just really affected how you approach this track, how you pass on this track, how you approach making lap time here, and how you pass here. So, between the trucks, the O’Reilly car and the old cup car, there was a lot of, well, just talking about passing, you could really pack air on people and get them loose. That was a very successful tactic to pass between all three of those series, the trucks being the hardest, and then O’Reilly cars, probably, and the Cup cars were pretty easy to do when we had the low downforce too. That technique is completely gone with this car in all of the tracks. So now passing has really become just finding a different groove, and hopefully you can have enough pace in that groove. So I think it puts more emphasis on the track prep to make sure that you don’t get a single dominant groove, whether that’s the bottom or the top. Then the Next Gen car, I don’t know, it just feels like it’s become more of a momentum style track where with the previous generation car, it was a little bit more stop and go. You had less tire so you could get more wheel spin on exit. You really focused a little bit more on drive, where now it’s just keeping it free, keeping it free, keeping it rolling, and keeping momentum up. So the Next Gen car has really changed it to momentum style racing, and then not having the ability to pack air has made passing slightly more difficult than it used to be.”
How much did the Spring race at Bristol gnaw on you? Is there more motivation because of it?
“A lot. A lot. Yeah, just reading through my notes, the last sentence of my notes for the spring race was, man, I can’t wait to go back. The spring race a couple of months ago was probably one of my best cars I’ve ever had at Bristol. That thing was just awesome, and I made a mistake. So I have had this one circled for a while to come back and redeem myself. I love this racetrack. Whether I have a good car, bad car, good race, bad race, it’s just a lot of fun to make laps here. It’s a lot of fun to race here, so I’ve very, very much been looking forward to this one.”
What was so good?
“I don’t know, it just handled really well. That was the first race here with the high horsepower, low downforce package and talking about, what I mentioned to Matt (Weaver) earlier. It got a little bit more to the old school Bristol of having more power, having to focus on your exits a little bit more, less about momentum, and it seemed like passing was easier in the spring than it was in years past with the lower horsepower stuff. Yeah, just this place is a lot of fun and giving us more power and less grip is makes it, it definitely makes it more enjoyable.”
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