With the third and final race of the NASCAR Cup Series Round of 16 underway, Joe Gibbs Racing’s Christopher Bell finds himself far too close to the cut-off line for comfort, hanging on with a 32-point cushion. His 2025 campaign has been a rollercoaster with three wins in the opening four races, only to stall into a winless drought that has left him searching for consistency. That tension came to a head at World Wide Technology Raceway last week, where the track’s brutal demands pushed him well to the edge, and his team radio caught a rare burst of frustration. And for the first time, Bell has broken his silence about that uncharacteristic outburst.

At Gateway, he clawed his way to a seventh-place finish in the Enjoy Illinois 300 while teammate Denny Hamlin snatched the win in the No. 11 Toyota. That came just one week after another Joe Gibbs Racing driver, Chase Briscoe, stole the spotlight by winning the playoff opener at Darlington, where Christopher Bell struggled home in a disappointing 29th place. For the normally even-tempered Bell, Illinois was the breaking point. As the checkout flag fell, his frustration erupted over the team radio in a rare outburst: “We just f—— ran seventh with the best car on the track,” he yelled. “Every f—— week it’s the same s—. We’re the last car to pit road. I’m over it!”

Now, a week later and with emotions cooled, Bell finally addressed the meltdown ahead of Bristol. Speaking to reporters at Bristol Motor Speedway, the 30-year-old clarified that his anger wasn’t aimed at anyone within his No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing team. He went on to say, “It’s professional sports, and we’re all on the same team. I want to win, (crew chief) Adam [Stevens] wants to win, all of my team, we have the same common goal. So, I don’t think anybody takes it personally because we all want the same thing. And if I win, it’s good for Adam. If Adam wins, it’s good for me.”

The irony? Christopher Bell’s season began with a bang. He dominated the early stretch, winning three of the first four races, namely Atlanta, COTA, and Phoenix 2025, looking like a lock for another Championship 4 run. After those early fireworks, the Victory Lane visits dried up. Aside from a triumph in the exhibition All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro in May, his momentum disappeared. The team’s last top five in a points-paying oval race came way back at Kansas on May 11, leaving Bell searching for answers.

Even crew chief Adam Stevens admits the frustrations have been building up. In an interview with NASCAR, he mirrored Bell’s feelings and pointed to Darlington as a trigger. He said, “It’s been a few weeks since we’ve won, and it just weighs you down. You know, little extra pressure of the playoffs, a little extenuating circumstances with not having a great finish at Darlington, even though we were quick. And having to really be mindful of points coming into Bristol with the new tire — we just don’t know what kind of weekend it’s going to be here, right? So I don’t think he had a full understanding of that in the heat of the moment, and frustrations come out. It’s a frustrating sport.” 

The frustration stems from a glaring contrast within the JGR stable. Denny Hamlin already has a series-best five wins this year, while Briscoe and Hamlin have taken the first two playoff races. Bell, meanwhile, hasn’t been able to convert his car’s speed into results. The stats tell the story. Since leading 105 laps in Phoenix back in March, Bell has just led 113 laps across the last 24 races.

Bell knows the standard is clear, and it is set by his own teams. The No. 20 driver admitted, “I’m happy for my teammates, but that’s the barometer. And if your teammates are out there winning races and leading laps, that shows that the cars are capable. We have the equipment. And I haven’t been leading laps and I haven’t been winning races, so there’s obviously something going on that’s keeping us from doing that.”

And with Bristol looming large, every detail matters. In Friday’s qualifying session for the Bass Pro Shops Night Race, Bell posted a 15.214-second lap, tying Josh Berry but slotting into 10th place on the grid by tiebreaker. While AJ Allmendinger stole the pole, Bell’s top 10 start gives him a fighting chance, but with only a slim playoff cushion, he knows he will need far more than clean laps to keep his championship hopes alive. Springing from his string of performances, many wonder if the dynamic has changed since JGR Chase Briscoe joined this year.

Has Christopher Bell lost ground to Chase Briscoe at JGR?

Christopher Bell once looked destined to become the clear-cut leader at Joe Gibbs Racing, piling up two Championship 4 appearances in his first four seasons. He first achieved that status only in 2025, storming to 3 straight victories in February and March. But the dynamic shifted quickly after Chase Briscoe joined the team, injecting new energy into the No. 19 crew and turning the spotlight in a different direction.

Briscoe’s first season with the team has been electric, amid dropping an unexpected view on the championship issue. Over the summer, he scored two major victories, including a dramatic Southern 500 triumph, and stacked up six top-two finishes in just 12 races. While Bell still edges him in season wins (three to two) and career totals (12 to four), the No. 20’s prolonged drought without a victory has magnified Briscoe’s rise.

Much of Briscoe’s surge stems from his speed off the line. Paired with crew chief James Small, he’s become a qualifying force, earning six poles and averaging a 9.8 starting position compared to Bell’s 13.6. That track position has fueled results, producing four runner-up finishes and his Southern 500 win. Bell, meanwhile, has been consistent but not dominant, with four runner-up finishes but no victories since March. In a playoff system that prioritizes wins over consistency, that gap is glaring.

Bell’s struggles aren’t just personal; they reflect wider Toyota trends. The manufacturer notched only one win in 2024, and now in  2025, drivers like Hamlin, Briscoe, Bubba Wallace, and Tyler Reddick have all surged while Bell has slept behind. As Briscoe thrives with little pressure in his debut JGR season, Bell is left chasing momentum, a reminder of how quickly fortunes in NASCAR’s ever-shifting pecking order can change.