NASCAR doesn’t always reward the deserving race car driver. At times there is luck involved in how things shape up, and there are days when even the best race car on the track isn’t the one doing donuts after the race. Unfortunately, this is what Christopher Bell and the #20 Joe Gibbs Racing felt during last weekend’s race in Las Vegas.

Bell was arguably the fastest driver in the Round of 8 opener, but a late race decision call to get on new tries proved costly for him. Joey Logano opted to play the fuel-saving route and was successful in making it past the start-finish line before the #20 could catch him. All the JGR driver needed was a lap more, but there was no overtime, no late caution, and Logano pulled off a massive victory.

Usually, Bell is a cool and calm customer behind the radio, but he wasn’t able to control his emotions after coming within a touching distance to make the final four. “You’ve got to be f—-ng kidding me,” the driver of the #20 car exclaimed on the radio. Additionally, this was showcased on NASCAR’s radioactive segment. And he was glad that he contributed to this segment once.

Christopher Bell didn’t feel wrong about expressing his emotions

Deciding to pit with 38 to go, the #20 team was going to have to play catch up to the #22 team with fresh tires. With raw speed, Bell started the pursuit, being 26 seconds behind the leader, and managed to close it down to six-thousandths of a second. So you see, Bell’s frustration was him knowing he had the racing-winning car, but they came up short when it mattered.

We’ve heard the likes of Ryan Blaney go ballistic over the team radio. But Bell’s explicit response did catch a lot of folks by surprise. He certainly wasn’t shy in claiming that he simply lost his cool and couldn’t control his emotions. “I was overcome by emotions in that point of time, and I don’t know what to say other than that. Didn’t really think what I was saying; it’s just emotion and disappointment, and yeah, just passion.” He said this in a press conference ahead of the Homestead race.

This was perhaps one of the rare appearances of the JGR driver on the radioactive, but he felt like his contribution was pending for a long time. “Normally I’m not on radioactives, so I think that was one of my first appearances on radioactive, but it doesn’t really matter to me. It was a passionate moment and you know the sport is full of those, and I’m glad that I contributed once in my life,” Bell added.

Despite having a buffer of 42 points to his name and placing second in the playoff standings, Bell isn’t out of the woods just yet. With two more races to go, things could go down south with a single mistake. But on the flip side, the next race at Miami Homestead is one of his strong suits; last year this was the race where he locked himself in the finals. The question is, will he be able to repeat his past heroics and redeem himself?

Will Bell finally be able to convert on his good run?

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Out of all the playoff drivers, Christopher Bell is the one who hasn’t faced the pressure to convert a race thanks to his consistent finishes. He has the best average finish of 5.7 in the last seven weeks, but the victory lane celebrations seem to elude him. But where does he stack up against his rivals this week, and what can we expect from the driver of the #20 car?

This is what Ryan Stevens had to share based on his data and statistical knowledge. “He’s actually second in fast lap percentage this year, sandwiched between Reddick and Larson (at intermediate tracks). One more interesting note on Bell, I did an 18-race sample of qualifying in 2023 and 2024 again tracks similar to this; he’s won the pole seven times. So I would expect him to be starting up front there. I expect another strong run from Bell.” Steven said this on the Out of the Groove show on YouTube.

Another important element here is that Bell has a knack for picking up wins in the playoffs. He’s consistently done it in the Gen-7 era, winning at Martinsville in 2023 and at Homestead last year. So, he knows a thing or two about getting the job done to advance to the finals. But he’s got to do that once again this Sunday to keep his championship dreams alive and kicking.