What could have been - the story of Bell's season so far

"What could have been..."

Christopher Bell says it twice with a small smile on his face. But it’s a painful or almost sarcastic smile, the response from the Joe Gibbs Racing driver stemming from the question of what the story or theme of his season has been. And even with plenty of racing left to go, that is what Bell immediately says before expanding.

“Oh, my goodness, it’s just been trials and tribulations, for sure,” Bell tells RACER. “Our year has been littered with what could have been. Obviously, the Toyotas are super fast, and my team has been doing a great job of bringing fast cars to the track just like my teammate Denny [Hamlin] has been. Denny has won a lot, and we have been close to winning a lot, but we just haven’t done it.

“I know that we have all the pieces of the puzzle to put it together, and I don’t feel like we’re out of title contention yet. We’re definitely going to have to go on a tear when the Chase starts, and every position that we can make up is going to help us, and every spot we leave on the table is going to make it harder.”

Bell doesn’t believe the highs have come yet for his No. 20 team with Adam Stevens at the helm. There is confidence that those highs can come, though.

The team has been winless since September. And while being close and having fast race cars should provide some comfort, the losses have been particularly tough this season.

Bell led 176 laps and finished second at Phoenix Raceway. He finished third a week later at Las Vegas Motor Speedway after leading 31 laps, and there was a three-week stretch at Kansas Speedway, Talladega Superspeedway, and Texas Motor Speedway during which Bell led a combined 100 laps, but his best finish was 17th.

There were back-to-back second-place finishes at Charlotte Motor Speedway and Nashville Superspeedway. Daniel Suarez stole the race at Charlotte when Bell and Hamlin couldn’t get themselves sorted for second place and allowed him to play defense before the rain came. Bell then couldn’t hold off Hamlin or teammate Chase Briscoe at Nashville in a three-way battle for the lead going into the final lap.

Bell then finished second again at Chicagoland Speedway, EchoPark Speedway, and Indianapolis Motor Speedway. For those keeping count, that is six times the bridesmaid with over 400 laps led on the season.

Despite the dejection, Bell participated in his media obligations after each race, but it was clear the defeats were deep cuts. Bell put it on his shoulders, saying that he wasn’t good enough and wasn’t getting the job done.

“I look back at Nashville, Chicago, Phoenix, and those are races that you can pinpoint and say, ‘Execution lost us the race,’” says Bell. “And then, man, there are so many other ones like Kansas, Texas, Atlanta, where those were like, what do you do? How do you do anything different in those moments?

“It’s not meant to be. Our sport is very competitive; winning is hard. It’s crazy how when you’re in a position like I am now it feels like winning is hard. But I’ve been on the other side of it, too.”

The other side of it would be winning three straight races in the first month of the 2025 season. Those moments make a driver feel like he can do no wrong.

While teammate Denny Hamlin leads the points and has four wins, Bell's season has been one of multiple near misses. Sean Gardner/Getty Images

With how long a NASCAR season takes to play out, it usually brings many peaks and valleys. The difference as to why it hurts more than others sometimes is that, as Bell has discovered this year, the performance of his car is the best it’s ever been. Toyota is also the fastest manufacturer by a wide margin.

Bell believes the ceiling is as high as it’s ever been for his team. They are “championship caliber, all day,” when at their best. Except the lows are too low compared to previous years. In other words, on the bad days, if those could be a little less hurtful, it would be a step in the right direction.

This is the deepest Bell has gone into a Cup Series season without a win.

“Wow,” he says.

After a winless 2020 rookie season, Bell won the second race of the 2021 season. In four of the last five seasons, Bell has traditionally won at least one race before the eighth race of the year. The exception was that it took Bell’s group until the 20th race of the season, New Hampshire, to win in 2022.

“That’s crazy,” Bell laughs. “It’s not a good stat. It certainly is odd to not have won, but it doesn’t feel like we’re a mile away from winning.”

June 7 might have been a day Bell won. He was battling for second at Michigan International Speedway when Chase Elliott got loose underneath him, bounced off the left side of the car, and sent Bell hard into the outside wall. So hard that it was registered as the hardest hit in the Next Gen era.

It was the first time in Bell’s life that he had been injured in a race. Bell was left with a fractured left wrist, which required a cast for multiple weeks, and an adjustment behind the wheel.

Bell looks back now and is proud of how he rebounded from that incident. However, “I wish we would have handled San Diego differently. I don’t think getting out of the car was the right move.”

In playing it safe given a fast, tight course, the decision was made for Bell to turn over the car at the first caution on June 21. Brent Crews took over but subsequently fell out of the race due to a mechanical issue. Crews is an experienced road course racer, and Bell has no qualms over the job that he did, but it was not being able to drive his car that Bell has a hard time swallowing.

“That one was a bummer, and I think we gave up a lot by me getting out of the car there,” says Bell before laughing again. “That just adds to (what could have been), right? I would have been really, really proud of how I handled the injury and everything had I persevered and gone through San Diego because we had great races … with the cast on my arm.”

There are 14 races remaining in the season, with the next four being the final push to the Chase. Bell sits 10th in the standings, one of three drivers in the top 10 who are winless. He is tied for the fourth-most top-10 finishes in the series and is sixth on the laps led list this year.

But even with everything that could have been already, Bell still believes the best is yet to come.

“What has challenged me the most has been the teasing of success,” he says. “Everything has been right there but so far.”