Bell 'realistic' about Cup Series title being out of reach

Christopher Bell could only shrug.

It came on a cool night under the lights at Martinsville Speedway, where he stood on pit road with a 10th-place finish and a 67-point gap in the NASCAR Cup Series championship. It wasn’t a reaction that came as a surprise, nor was it one dismal toward his media obligations.

Bell simply had nothing more to say, and no new way to feel about his outlook other than admitting it was “about as I did coming into Martinsville. We already know.”

The championship, in other words, is all but wrapped up. Kyle Larson is in firm control over the Joe Gibbs Racing duo of Bell and Hamlin, who remain the only other drivers in contention for the title.

“I think I have some optimism for sure,” Bell said of the finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway in a week. “But I’m realistic about it, I guess. It’s another opportunity to win a race, and that’s what we have to do. I said in the media center that we have nothing to lose and everything to gain, and that’ll be the same thing at Homestead.”

Sunday could have gone better for Bell and his No. 20 team. In the first stage, Bell thought they had the winning strategy by pitting during the stage, while others didn’t and regretted it. He ended up fourth on the leaderboard.

But in hindsight, Bell said, “I think that strategy, at least me inside of the car, fooled me into thinking I was better than I was, and then once we restacked, I was kind of another pedestrian car."

Bell was forced to take the wave around in the second stage when he was caught speeding on pit road during a green-flag pit cycle, which was interrupted by a caution on lap 199.

Then, on lap 215, Joey Logano spun him in Turn 1. The contact also had Bell bounce off Hamlin. Bell ended up 10th at the end of the stage.

There was not much to write home about in the final stage. With only one caution, which came early in the stage, the field ran over 200 laps green to the finish.

“Today we had a lot of positives, a lot of negatives, and it probably shook out where we should have,” Bell said. “We didn’t lose the championship by any means today. We lost the championship races earlier. Talladega was a big one. Gateway was a big one. The steering issue at Vegas was a big one.

“So, yeah, we didn’t lose it today. We lost it earlier in the Chase.”