(Photo: Josh Jones | The Podium Finish)
Last season, an early win paved a relatively easy path for Christopher Bell into the playoffs. This season was much more intense.
Bell, 27, couldn’t have started 2022 much worse. He finished outside the top 20 in four of the first five races, which Bell simply called “misfortune.” He had an early hole to dig out of.
But as the season rolled on, things started to go his way. After a fourth-place finish at Dover in May, Bell cracked the top-10 in driver’s points. He had consistency, but he missed one thing — a win.
With more and more first-time winners, it became apparent Bell would have to win one of the remaining races in the regular season to notch a spot in the playoffs.
Enter New Hampshire.
Bell knew it could possibly be his best opportunity to win a race this season. He has quite literally never lost an Xfinity Series race there, winning in all three starts.
And he capitalized on it.
“Winning New Hampshire was a really big burst of gratifying feelings,” Bell said in a media conference on Tuesday. “It was a really big deal.”
Bell punched his ticket into the playoffs, where he now has a completely new life. His 11 playoff points put him 10th on the playoff grid with a four-point cushion to start the first round.
Last season, Bell came into the playoffs in a similar position. He advanced to the Round of 12 behind a 3rd-place effort at Richmond, but his 24th place at Las Vegas a few weeks later set him back. Top 10s at Talladega and the Charlotte ROVAL weren’t enough to push him into the Round of 8.
This year, Bell hopes his playoff run won’t end so soon.
(Photo: Josh Jones | The Podium Finish)
“Last year’s Playoff run was definitely a learning experience and just not beating yourself,” Bell said. “Just not eliminating ourselves. I think we have the performance capability in this No. 20 group to make it deep into the Playoffs. It is just going to be a matter if we can execute and get away with limiting our mistakes and getting the results that we are capable of getting.
“My expectations are to hopefully make the Round of 8. Last year, we made the round of 12 and I feel like we are stronger than where we were last year and last year, if we didn’t have a bad race in the round of 12, we arguably were in the hunt for the Round of 8.”
Bell enters the playoffs amid his best stretch of the season. In the last seven races, Bell has three top fives and an average finish of 12.7.
Overall, Bell has seven top fives and 14 top 10s. He has an average finish of 14.5 and four DNFs, but two of those were in the first two races.
Though Bell’s victory came at New Hampshire, a one-mile track, Toyotas have had speed at intermediate tracks. They won in consecutive races at Kansas and Charlotte and have contended in other races at Auto Club and Michigan, as well.
Four of the ten playoff races are at mile and a half tracks, which Bell believes is an advantage for the team.
(Photo: Sam Draiss | The Podium Finish)
“The Playoffs, I think, plays well into our strengths with a bunch of mile and a halves,” Bell said.” I would expect Darlington, Kansas, Homestead, Texas, Vegas – all of those race tracks to be ones that we perform well at. The ROVAL is definitely one that we have circled – on a place that we need to focus on to get better. That’s no secret. The tracks are there, so hopefully, we are able to execute on the tracks that we are good at and have great showings.
“The second round is probably going to be the hardest with Talladega and the ROVAL – I say that it’s all going to be hard – but Talladega and ROVAL definitely is a wild card round.”
Bell embarks on his second playoff run with crew chief Adam Stevens calling the shots. Together, the duo has a pair of victories while Stevens has 28 wins and two championships in six seasons with Kyle Busch.
Stevens has the experience that Bell knows will be valuable as they pursue a deep playoff run.
“Adam [Stevens] is definitely one of the best crew chiefs that you can ask for,” Bell said. “He definitely knows the ins and outs of it. It is really cool to just be able to sit with him in his office. He has everything mapped on roughly how he expects it to lay out and how many points we need to win per event.
“He’s been around the block for sure, so I lean on him a lot to lead us down this path. I feel like if I do my job, we are going to have a really good shot at having a great showing.”
(Photo: Stephen Conley | The Podium Finish)
The playoffs kick off Sunday at Darlington Raceway for one of NASCAR’s crown jewels, the Southern 50o. Beyond that, the series travels to Kansas Speedway and finally Bristol Motor Speedway to conclude the Round of 16.
To set the tone for the playoffs, Bell wants to start strong at a place he finished sixth at in the spring.
“Darlington is such a tough race track and the Southern 500 is such a long race that you just have to not beat yourself,” Bell said. “Guys are going to have adversity. Last year, I think out of the 16 Playoff drivers, darn near every one of them had their own problems throughout the race.
“Take your top-10 or whatever you are capable of, whether that is a top-10, top-five, top-three – you need to maximize your day and move on to the next one.”
