Christopher Bell came so close to glory in the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series, it still stings to think about. He rolled into the playoffs as a legit title contender, armed with extra playoff points from race wins and stage points, looking like a lock for the Championship 4. But Martinsville turned his dream into a nightmare.

On the final lap, Bell pulled a wall-ride move to gain ground, only for NASCAR to flag it as a safety violation, disqualifying the lap and knocking him out of contention in the most gut-wrenching way possible. To rub salt in the wound, Chevrolet teammates allegedly played blocker roles, shielding William Byron, who advanced to the Championship 4 instead.

Bell didn’t hold back, saying he felt “cheated out of a chance to compete for a championship.” Even after that heartbreak, Bell showed his grit at the Phoenix finale, leading 143 laps and finishing fifth, closing the season ranked fifth in points. He called it bittersweet, “We left a ton on the table,” but stayed hopeful, saying, “I know the best is still ahead of me.”

Now, in 2025, Bell’s back in the playoff hunt, but a devastating seven-word admission, “No Excuse, We Should Have Done Better,” lays bare his frustration and determination to make things right.

Bell believes he could’ve done better

Recently, while chatting with Fox, Bell got real about his 2025 season when asked about his performance since the early races. “Even now I think we’ve run worse. I don’t know, it’s been clear we’ve run worse than we did in 2024. We just haven’t been able to qualify well, and that leads to fewer laps led and fewer stage points in 2025. It hasn’t been as good as 2024. There’s no reason for that. We’ve got all the tools we need to go out there and do it.”

He’s not sugarcoating it. Bell started 2025 on fire with three wins in the first four races at Atlanta, COTA, and Phoenix, but the momentum fizzled. No victories since, and poor qualifying has hurt his ability to lead laps or rack up stage points, which are gold in the playoff format. Last year, he was a stage-point machine on intermediate tracks, but this season, those small execution gaps have added up. With Joe Gibbs Racing’s top-tier Toyotas, Bell knows the issue isn’t the car, it’s about putting it all together.

On the schedule changes, Bell added, “I think that the schedule, like they’ve taken a couple good tracks from us in the summertime and put them in the playoff time. So hopefully we reap the benefits of that. But that’s no excuse. We should have done better even on our weaker tracks. We needed to do better. And yeah, it’s not lost on us.”

That’s Bell owning it. The 2025 schedule shuffled some of his best tracks, like short tracks and road courses, into the playoffs, which could be a game-changer. He’s got clutch wins at Martinsville in 2022 and 2023 to prove he thrives when the pressure’s on. But he’s not leaning on the schedule as a crutch. Even on tracks where he’s historically struggled, like Dover or Darlington, Bell knows elite drivers like Kyle Larson find ways to grind out top-10s. His blunt “we should have done better” shows he’s not just frustrated, he’s ready to fix it.

Bell’s eyes a deep playoff run

In a recent appearance on WIS News 10, Bell reflected on his season and what lies ahead. He said it clearly started strong, recalling how at the Daytona 500, he was out front in the closing laps before being collected in a crash. Still, he admitted the thrill of leading late in NASCAR’s crown jewel, then backing it up with wins at Atlanta, Phoenix, and COTA, made him proud and convinced him they were headed for big things.

He conceded the inconsistency has been frustrating, though his runner-up at Watkins Glen added another spark of confidence. “Hopefully it’s leading us with some momentum into the playoffs, and it starts off at the Southern 500 (at) Darlington Raceway. It’s a great racetrack for me. I was actually looking at my stats the other day, and they aren’t very impressive from Darlington, but it’s certainly a track that I love going to, and I feel like we could win at any moment at that racetrack,” Bell stated.

JGR’s Director of Competition, Chris Gabehart, isn’t sleeping on Bell’s potential either. Speaking on Motor Racing Network with Steve Post and Todd Gordon, Gabehart said, “I mean, they (Bell and his crew chief, Adam Stevens) are explosive.” He emphasized that the No. 20 team has a knack for heating up at the right time, pointing to their ability to seize opportunities week after week. Despite the winless streak since early 2025, Gabehart stressed that the team’s performance hasn’t dropped off.

He highlighted Bell’s runner-up at Watkins Glen and JGR’s road course dominance, noting Bell’s COTA win and two second-place finishes as proof of their strength. Even at Dover, where Bell spun while trying to pass a teammate, Gabehart saw it as a sign of his respect for clean racing, even if it cost him a win. With the playoffs kicking off at Darlington on August 31, Bell’s painful admission and JGR’s confidence signal one thing: he’s ready to bury last year’s heartbreak and chase that championship with everything he’s got.