Christopher Bell begins his quest for a NASCAR Cup Series championship from the best position he’s ever been, but he’s wary nonetheless.
Bell is not only the No. 2 seed but has 32 playoff points in his pocket. Those insurance points are more than double what Bell has brought into the postseason in any of his three previous appearances.
“I feel a little safer in that aspect, but I do feel very unsafe, I guess, about the schedule,” Bell said ahead of Sunday night’s opener at Atlanta Motor Speedway. “If we knew Bristol was going to rubber up and we were going to have a normal race, then I would feel really confident about the round of 16. If I knew that Watkins Glen was going to race the same (type of race).
“But we know Watkins Glen is going to have a tire change. Bristol is likely to be how it was in the spring with tire management — just completely changed the driving style of that racetrack and the strategy of calling the race. So, the round of 16 is going to be wild this year and nobody, I think, knows how it’s going to play out.”
[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1428]
For the first time since NASCAR implemented a playoff system in 2004, it opens with a superspeedway race at Atlanta. Watkins Glen is in the postseason for the first time, which puts two road courses in the final 10 races. The new tire compound is expected to produce upward of four seconds of fall-off, which could change how crew chiefs approach flipping the stages for points versus track position.
And Bristol, a short track, will have the same tire compound that produced excessive tire wear in the spring. It is unknown if the tire will react the same way during the September night race, when weather conditions will differ. It’s also unknown how NASCAR will prep the track for adding resin.
Bell knows things won’t get easier in the second round. A traditional mile-and-a-half, Kansas Speedway, gives way to Talladega Superspeedway and the Charlotte road course. The latter has repeatedly produced an entertaining and somewhat dramatic elimination race to the round.
Of the first six races in the postseason, Bell has a win at the Charlotte road course. He did not finish the Atlanta event in the spring and was 10th at Bristol.
“Absolutely,” said Bell of having the position he wants only for it to potentially not matter with two tough rounds ahead. “And the round of 12 has always been the crazy one or the one that is scary, and now we’ve got two of those. So, whoever makes it to the round of 8 is going to be like, ‘All right. Now, we can race for it. We’ve got three amazing racetracks ahead of us.’
“But there’s just a lot of calamity mixed into the first two rounds.”
The Joe Gibbs Racing driver is one of the favorites for the championship. Bell and Kyle Larson led the series with 10 stage wins and had one fewer race win — three — than the series-leading four Larson had. At the end of the regular season, Bell was fourth in the championship standings after sitting as low as 15th after the spring Darlington race.
Bell must make a third consecutive run to the Phoenix finale to compete for the championship. Bell said his team needs to keep doing what they’re doing to get there.
“This year, we’ve had the highest of highs and the lowest of lows,” he said, “and if we just bring those lows up a little bit more, we’re going to be right where we need to be.”