Christopher Bell’s first NASCAR Cup Series victory came at the Daytona Road Course just three years ago in his first year with Joe Gibbs Racing. The #20 Toyota went on to register seven more, with the most recent coming at Phoenix only a couple of weeks ago. Bell was the first Camry XSE to win on the new short-track package, breaking Chevrolet’s early dominance. Now, as the 2024 season moves to a road course for the first time, Bell sets his sights on mastering COTA’s “limitless” ride, taking a page out of another TRD driver’s playbook.

In a bid to make it a perfect 3-for-3 for Coach Gibbs’ gloried organization, JGR’s silent victor draws inspiration from the 2023 COTA champ of 23XI Racing–Tyler Reddick.

Christopher Bell Drawing Inspiration from Texas TRD Champion/Rival

Last year Reddick managed all 20 twists and turns that COTA had to offer with exceptional skill, marking his 3rd road course victory out of five race wins in NASCAR’s premier tier. He showed exceptional speeds at COTA, leading 43 laps in a triple-overtime finish, and even beat veteran Kyle Busch to solidify his claims of becoming a future Cup Series champion. The “no-track limits” style racing certainly seemed to suit the #45, especially on the much talked about “esses” section coming out of Turn 2, through Turns 3, and 4. 

Reddick’s tactics received much acclaim, and even this year his rival from JGR, Christopher Bell, acknowledged his road course prowess before qualifying P4 for the 2024 EchoPark Automotive Grandprix. When the #20 driver was asked about his potential feelings on “maximizing time” through that very section, he had some interesting comments to make to Stephen Stumpf of Frontstretch.

“I don’t love it man, I don’t love it. I wish that they would just put a curb down there or you know, a wall or something to just where it’s black and white and it eliminates the judgment call because, especially through the esses, there’s a ton of lap time to be gained there by pushing the issue and Reddick was the guy last year who was super aggressive through there and made it work.“

Bell reminded everyone Reddick “never got busted for track limits,” while hinting at how COTA might see more aggressive racing this Sunday. “He just pushed the line really aggressively, so yeah, it’s going to force all of our hands to do that, and the guy that is going to be the most aggressive is going to be the guy that gets through the other passes.” 

However, as Bell now starts alongside the two-time Xfinity Series champ, he does hold chances to do even better than the #45,

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In the last eighteen road course races, Reddick and Bell, stand fourth and seventh respectively for the best-averaging finish. The #45 has 3 circuit victories, while the #20 has two. Reddick has an average finish of 12.0, whereas Bell follows closely behind at 14.0. These versatile “road ringers” could very well be the next major rivals on road courses. Nevertheless, the one thing that Reddick lacks this season is a victory, and Bell has already claimed his first. This might help the #20 ride a momentum wave in collaboration with Joe Gibbs Racing and Toyota to a debut victory at COTA.

On the other hand, Reddick has also been phenomenal, showing tremendous speeds in the new XSE body, alongside the package changes. He led a race-high 68 laps alongside Bell’s JGR teammate Denny Hamlin, eventually losing out to what would be the #20’s first-ever victory at Phoenix. Notably, the #45 was the only challenge to Kyle Larson’s #5 Chevrolet at Hendrick Motorsports dominant Vegas display.

Furthermore, Reddick sounded confident in statements on the official NASCAR website, “It’s important for us and this team to go to COTA and perform like we expect: Be in the lead, in the top five, part of the conversation of winning this race.” 

Safe to say, Reddick has already placed himself in the “conversation.” Will it affect Christopher Bell’s “inspirations”? The anticipation boils over in Texas.

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