“I’ve got four words: Thank you, Joe Gibbs!” Christopher Bell uttered these words after edging Kyle Larson in a 1-2 finish at the 40th Annual Tulsa Shootout. Joe Gibbs had strict racing restrictions in place for two years, prohibiting his NASCAR drivers from competing on dirt tracks. However, the football coach-turned-race team owner reversed those in November 2024 – and Bell has been on fire ever since.

Most people thought that Christopher Bell’s early-season dirt success would soon fizzle out before Kyle Larson’s Cup Series domination. Boy, were we wrong! Bell has been relentless so far, winning three of the first four races. And this fiery streak stemmed from Bell’s long hiatus, as he claimed recently.

Christopher Bell confesses to chafing under restriction

After all, the No. 20 Toyota driver carved out a golden name in dirt racing. Christopher Bell is a three-time Chili Bowl Nationals winner, clinching his titles in 2017-2019. Thus he belongs to an elite group of drivers including Sammy Swindell and Kevin Swindell. Thus you can imagine the amount of discontent that Bell had to put up with. While he could not do what he loves, his long-time dirt rival and Rick Hendrick’s golden boy Kyle Larson soared. In 2024, the latter secured notable wins like the Chili Bowl Nationals, the Barberville World of Outlaws, and the USAC Midget Madness.

In a recent interview with NASCAR, Christopher Bell opened up about his feelings. He had to bottle up his emotions while his HMS rival scored dirt racing trophies. “Certainly, I did have some resentment. It bothered me. Like, I was sitting on this couch, watching races, watching Kyle getting to go do all the stuff, all the fun stuff that I wanted to do.” Eventually, Bell admitted, he came to grips with the reality and was cool with it. “It took me a little bit to be able to overcome that. It wasn’t until probably late 2023…was whenever I finally came to peace with myself and I had just accepted that dirt racing was not in my cards right now.” 

However, that inner resentment never went away. So when Joe Gibbs finally opened the gates, Christopher Bell pounced on the opportunity and let out the bottled-up desires. Besides his Tulsa Shootout win, Bell clinched several more laurels just in 2025. He won the O’Reilly Race of Champions and the World of Outlaws Federated Auto Parts DIRTcar Nationals – winning both Dash 1 and the Feature. Now that Bell is able to race at par with Kyle Larson, he is finally happy. “Now I get to have some fun and just get my mind off of the Cup Series grind.” His streak hardly stopped in dirt racing – Christopher Bell clinched three back-to-back Cup Series races in Atlanta, COTA, and Phoenix – a feat that nobody has done in the Next-Gen era.

Clearly, Joe Gibbs’s blessing worked wonders for Christopher Bell’s outstanding pace. Yet even as he seeks to rival Rick Hendrick’s team, the latter proudly acknowledged him.

Camaraderie among rivals

Well, Christopher Bell may have acquired a pace not seen before in his career. Yet his rival Kyle Larson is constantly behind him. During their off-season dirt pursuits, Larson also beat Bell in 1-2 finishes. His wins include the Chili Bowl Nationals feature and the World of Outlaws DIRTcar Nationals races on 5th February and 7th February. Similarly in NASCAR, Larson overturned his drafting track weakness at the same time as Bell did. Before the 2025 Ambetter Health 400, both were a combined 0-for-75 on drafting tracks. Bell had an average finish of 18.9 and Larson had one of 22.9. However, both walked away from Atlanta with podium finishes, with Bell winning and Larson clinching third place.

This level of competition is something extraordinary and even amazed Kyle Larson’s team. Hendrick Motorsports No. 5 crew chief Cliff Daniels hailed Christopher Bell’s pace and looked forward to more battles with him. “Those two are so good at finding different lanes and finding grip and building a run and all those things. They’re both so good at it and they push each other a lot at it. Kyle and I talked about it over the winter, it’s a lot of fun to see Bell back in the mix on dirt tracks. I know that those two are going to push each other in a great way competitively, dirt, pavement, whatever they drive. It’s fun to watch those two battle.”

Christopher Bell is on a trailblazing journey this year. What is more, his neck-to-neck rivalry with Kyle Larson is keeping us at the edges of our seats. Let us see where this competition heads.