It’s time to go for Christopher Bell in the NASCAR Cup Series postseason.
Bell is seventh on the playoff grid and eighth points out of a transfer spot as the third round begins Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway (2:30 p.m. ET, NBC). The next three races separate Bell from a return trip to the Championship 4 and a shot at his first Cup Series championship, which means he knows that he and his Joe Gibbs Racing team have to turn up the wick even more.
“Now is the time that we do see what we’ve got whenever we turn it up to 100%,” Bell said. “The Round of 8, whether you’re at Las Vegas, Homestead or Martinsville, you’re going to have to perform at 100% all the time, and we’re going to see where we stack up.”
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Fortunately for Bell, the No. 20 team seems in a much better place than where they were at the start of the postseason. If possible, even in the midst of a postseason battle, things are more settled within the ranks.
Bell was paired with a new pit crew (which had been on the No. 54 team for Ty Gibbs) going into Darlington Raceway, and there were multiple instances in the first few weeks of mistakes and slow pit stops. He didn’t help matters with mistakes on the racetrack, like hitting the wall in Darlington.
“It’s really strange because your round is really dictated by that first race and how that first race plays out is how your strategy is going into the next two races,” Bell said. “We made a lot of mistakes in the Round of 16. Pit road was not clean. I didn’t do a clean job driving at Darlington, and then we had to be more aggressive at Kansas to score more points because we were right on that cutline. And then Bristol, we ended up having a little bit of a buffer, and it was back to, OK, we just need to maintain that.
“After Texas, we had a great finish – a poor performance on track – but we ended up with a really good finish by strategy and a little bit of luck at the end. Then that kind of made our mentality going into Talladega and the Charlotte road course of, OK, we don’t need a home run here, we just need to go out and have a smooth, solid day. I’m sure that the pit crew is probably performing at 80 or 90% rather than the 100% that they could be performing at, and a little bit the same for me driving the car.
“Talladega is unique because you’re pushing the car to its limits and you’re not on the edge of grip like you are at the other places. But certainly, at the Charlotte road course, I’m just trying to limit my mistakes, and I’m not pushing the car, and I’m not driving it 100% because I knew that we didn’t need to go out there and win the race. We just needed to execute, get stage points, and have a solid finish.”
The third round is more straightforward than the two before it. Las Vegas and Homestead are intermediate racetracks where Bell has had speed. Bell finished fifth at Las Vegas in the spring, and he’s the defending winner at Martinsville.
“I love the Round of 8 schedule because it’s three tracks that are completely in the team’s control, and it really should showcase the best teams,” Bell said. “Las Vegas is a high-speed, high-grip intermediate, then you go to Homestead, which is a super low-grip intermediate and the most iconic short track at Martinsville. It really is a good schedule in the Round of 8, and I think the best teams will rise to the top.
“For us, Vegas is a great track and certainly one that we have circled to score a lot of points at. Homestead hasn’t been the best track for me recently, but I’ve had success there in the past, and one that we should be better at than we were last year and then Martinsville, obviously, winning it last year was one that we think we can be in contention in again. So, I think the schedule is really good, and it should showcase the best teams.”