Christopher Bell seeks his first Cup win of the season. (Photo: Josh Jones | The Podium Finish)
All things considered, 27-year-old Christopher Bell of Norman, Oklahoma is having a decent 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season.
Tallying four top fives and 10 top 10s after 19 races, Bell ranks eighth in the regular season driver’s standings. However, he holds onto the 16th and final Playoff ranking spot, a byproduct of 13 different winners in a competitive year of Cup racing.
In Bell’s five most recent races, it’s been feast or famine with a ninth at Gateway, 27th at Sonoma, eighth at Nashville, 18th at Road America and 19th at Atlanta.
If there’s a track where Bell can turn things around for his No. 20 Rheem Toyota Camry team, it’s New Hampshire Motor Speedway. After a frustrating 28th in 2020, Bell logged an impressive runner up result last year.
On the surface, New Hampshire shares some characteristics with tracks like Richmond and Gateway. Each track offers relatively lower banked corners than Charlotte or Atlanta.
Moreover, they’re pivotal tracks in terms of offering a prelude to Phoenix, site of this year’s championship race. The road to a championship may start in Loudon, New Hampshire, especially with its sweeping corners and wild restarts.
After placing sixth and ninth at Richmond and Gateway earlier this year, Bell seems like one of the top contenders for Sunday’s Ambetter 301 (USA, 3 p.m. ET). All told, Bell realizes that he and his Joe Gibbs Racing crew have work to do.
When asked about his chances ahead of round 20 of the year, Bell offered some cautious optimism.
After logging the 20th fastest time in practice, Bell turned up the wick in qualifying. (Photo: Sam Draiss | The Podium Finish)
“Yeah, I think so, especially early on in the season,” Bell said prior to the practice and qualifying sessions. “But this year, it seems like our better tracks are the faster mile and a halfs. I’m really looking forward to Pocono (and) Michigan.
“Loudon is a track that we’re a little uncertain going into because I think it’s going to race a lot like Martinsville, like Gateway, which haven’t been our best racetracks, and you can throw Phoenix in there, too. So we’ve got some improvements to do. And hopefully we made them and we’re going to find out here very shortly.”
It seemed like Bell had a lot of work to do after Saturday’s sole practice round, posting the 20th fastest time. In their case, Bell and Stevens found some speed with the No. 20 Camry, advancing to the final qualifying round before posting the fifth quickest effort (30.127 seconds/126.425 mph).
Perhaps Bell can channel some of his NASCAR Xfinity Series success for Sunday’s Cup race. With three wins tallied in 2018, 2019 and 2021, the fourth year Cup racer may be a sneaky pick come Sunday afternoon.
Certainly, a win will offer a respite and sigh of relief for Bell as a new winner outside of the top 16 will knock him out of the provisional Playoff field. Suffice to say, the young racer has that Oklahoma coolness with this high stakes, high pressure scenario with six races left in the regular season.
Surely, the stock car job may offer some stressful but rewarding moments for Bell. Still, there’s nothing like dirt track racing for the three-time Chili Bowl winner as he considers competing in the upcoming High Limit Sprint Car Series founded by Kyle Larson and Brad Sweet.
Bell is considering competing in a newly established sprint car series. (Photo: Josh Jones | The Podium Finish)
“I think it’s really good for dirt track racing to be able to race for more money,” Bell shared. “That’s one thing that’s been on the up and up over the last several years. So that’s really good. And hopefully, I’ll be able to make a couple of them, if not, all of them.”
Editor/Author’s Notes
Nathan Solomon contributed to this feature on-site from New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon, New Hampshire.
