Perennial NASCAR Cup Series Championship Contender and Driver of the No. 20 Interstate Batteries Toyota is Charged Up for Season-Opening Daytona 500
HUNTERSVILLE, N.C. (Feb. 7, 2025) – The easiest pre-season NASCAR Cup Series prognostication is that Christopher Bell will win races and contend for the championship. With victories in each of his last four seasons and subsequent playoff appearances, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver is proving to be outrageously dependable, just like his co-primary partner for the Daytona 500, Interstate Batteries.
Bell made it to the Championship 4 in back-to-back seasons in 2022 and 2023 and, arguably, should have been in the Championship 4 a third straight time last year if not for a controversial call in the penultimate race at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway.
Bell originally finished 18th at Martinsville, but NASCAR deemed his contact with the wall in the final turn of the 500-lap race a violation. Officials penalized Bell and put him on the tail end of the lap he was on, which dropped him four positions and out of the transfer spot to advance to the Championship 4 and fight for a title in the season finale six days later at Phoenix Raceway.
“That’s forever going to be a sore spot for me, but I’m past it and moving on,” said Bell as he gears up for the season-opening Daytona 500 Feb. 16 at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway. “Just looking back at last year, it was a season-best for me in pretty much every statistic, and we left a lot on the table. I know myself and Adam (Stevens, crew chief), we’re excited about what’s to come because we know there’s more we can do in a NASCAR Cup Series season. So yeah, we’ve got a lot left on the table that we’re going to try and clean up this year.”
Bell won three races, scored three poles, earned 15 top-five and 23 top-10 finishes, and led 1,145 laps in 2024. He tied his season-high win count from 2022, and his top-five and top-10 tallies were new career highs, as was his laps-led total. In fact, Bell’s 15 top-10s were tied with Kyle Larson for the most in 2024, while Bell’s 23 top-10s led the series. Bell and Larson were the only drivers to lead more than a thousand laps.
“I have a great team behind me and, in this sport, you’re literally only as good as the car you sit in and only as good as the people who work on it. I have an amazing crew chief, I’ve got great mechanics, great engineers, and we’ve got a great pit crew to go with it. Together, it’s outrageously dependable,” Bell said.
That dependability was on full display last November at Phoenix where Bell, despite being unable to run for the championship, looked every bit the championship contender, leading three times for a race-high 143 laps before finishing fifth.
“I mean, I just really wanted to stick it in their face and win that race,” said Bell about his bittersweet drive at Phoenix. “You learn from every moment, every race, and we knew that going into Phoenix we’d be really strong because it’s been a really good track for us the last several times. In the spring, we had an amazing race, so we expected to be fast and we were. It just kind of got away from us a little bit at the end of the race.
“Just trying to take everything and improve on it. It’s a learning experience for myself and, hopefully, we can come back stronger.”
An even stronger Bell in 2025? Just the slightest uptick would make the 30-year-old racer from Norman, Oklahoma, a Daytona 500 favorite. In three of his last four NASCAR Cup Series races at Daytona, Bell has finished third, a run that includes the past two Daytona 500s where Bell led 42 of the 412 laps available (10.2 percent).
“I’ve figured out the trick to Daytona. It’s missing the wrecks,” said Bell with a grin. “We’ve been really fortunate the last couple of times going there to miss the wrecks, and it’s led to some really good finishes. There’s a lot of fortune that goes into that and we’ve come out on the good side of it the last couple of times and, hopefully, we can continue that.”
Adaptability augments Bell’s dependability. He has won in all four of NASCAR’s top touring series – Cup, Xfinity, Craftsman Truck and ARCA – collecting 38 victories (nine in Cup, 19 in Xfinity, seven in Craftsman Truck and three in ARCA). His winning ways began in USAC, where its top-three national touring divisions – Midget, Sprint and Silver Crown – campaign three very different types of racecars on a variety of tracks that include both asphalt and dirt.
“Dirt racing, for sure, gives you versatility, and you have to be versatile to be successful at it. You have to be good at adapting to ever-changing track conditions and the conditions the cars throw your way,” said Bell, who racked up 29 career USAC wins, along with the 2013 National Midget title. “That’s something I grew up with, just racing different disciplines, different styles of cars, and I think that’s translated to my NASCAR career, just being able to not get set in your ways, and racing with an open mind and knowing that sometimes different lanes are going to open up. You use different driving styles and techniques, and I do think that comes from my background.”
It is Bell’s diverse background that has made him a consistent force in NASCAR.
“Dependable in battery form is just always being there when you need it, and I think that’s the same thing with being a good driver,” Bell said. “You just need to always be there and, even if you’re having a bad day, be able to make the most out of your bad day to get the best finish possible.
“That’s something that had been a weakness for me, but I think that’s every young driver’s weakness when they come into the sport. It’s easy to do whenever your car’s fast and everything’s going your way, but the days where the odds are stacked against you, that’s when the veterans typically show out and get the most out of it.
“That’s a huge improvement we’ve made as a team, and I’ve made over the course of my five-year Cup tenure. It’s something we’re always working on and, if we improve just two more spots from where we’ve been at Daytona recently, we’ll be right where we want to be.”
The road to Daytona’s victory lane begins with Daytona 500 qualifying at 8 p.m. ET on Wednesday, Feb. 12 with live coverage on FS1 and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. Only the top-two positions will be locked into the Great American Race. The rest of the field will earn their respective starting positions in the Duel – twin 150-mile heat races that set the rest of the Daytona 500 field. The Duel gets underway at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 13 with live coverage on FS1 and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. Daytona Speedweek then culminates with the Daytona 500 at 2:30 p.m. on Feb. 16 with live coverage provided by FOX and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
About Joe Gibbs Racing:
Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) is one of the premier organizations in NASCAR with four NASCAR Cup Series teams, four NASCAR Xfinity Series teams, and a driver development program. JGR is based in Huntersville, North Carolina, and owned by 2020 NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee Joe Gibbs, who also earned his place in the Pro Football Hall of Fame and was named as one of the NFL’s top-10 coaches of all-time with a winning career that included three Super Bowl championships as head coach of the Washington franchise. JGR has competed in NASCAR since 1992, capturing 400 wins over that span. No team has more combined wins across the sport’s three national series in the history of NASCAR. In addition, JGR has won five Cup Series championships along with four Xfinity Series driver championships and six Xfinity Series owners’ championships. The organization also has captured four Daytona 500 titles, considered to be NASCAR’s premier event.
About Interstate Batteries:
For more than 70 years, Interstate Batteries® has powered people down roads, trails and waterways and businesses to succeed. Best known for its starting, lighting and ignition (SLI) batteries, this product has been under car hoods since 1952, each one backed by the company’s service, quality and value. Interstate All Battery Center® provides portable power in both retail and commercial markets. Headquartered in Dallas, Texas, Interstate Batteries is an industry leader in recycling efforts, as well as a global leader in safe lead handling practices. Guided by a set of common values, the company’s purpose is to glorify God and enrich lives while delivering the most trustworthy source of power to the world. For more information, visit www.InterstateBatteries.com.
