Christopher Bell has spent much of 2026 knocking on the door of victory lane without ever getting through. Seven times now, he has finished second. Iowa offered perhaps the clearest chance to finally erase the pain of those previous runner-ups. Alas, the No. 20 Toyota suffered the same fate again.
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Bell had the pace and track position. But a different strategy from Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Ty Gibbs might have changed everything.
“It’s bad I can start ranking them,” Bell told Matt Weaver about his strategic mishap after finishing second at the Iowa Corn 350 on Sunday. And there was little humor behind it.
Bell was fast throughout the afternoon and led 108 laps. But Gibbs took two tires during the final sequence, while Bell’s team opted for four. On paper, that should have given Bell the advantage. Instead, Gibbs held him off for the final 20 laps to take the checkered flag.
Bell admitted he struggled more when following Gibbs than he had earlier in the race while battling Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney. He continued in the same interview with Weaver,
“I was just sliding around a lot more whenever I was behind Ty than I was with Ryan,” Christopher Bell explained. “So any time that I tried to push the car, I just slid and couldn’t never get there.”
The frustration was understandable because Bell had already seen this movie several times this season. Phoenix remains one of the biggest examples.
At the Straight Talk Wireless 500 in March, Bell finished second in the opening stage, won Stage 2 and led a race-best 176 laps. He appeared to have had everything needed to win until a caution with 25 laps remaining changed the complexion of the race.
The No. 20 team elected to take four fresh tires. Meanwhile, most of the others opted for only two. This sent Bell back to eighth for the restart. It forced him to spend the closing laps fighting through traffic instead of controlling the race. Bell still managed an impressive recovery. He passed Gibbs for second with six laps remaining, but there simply was not enough time to catch race winner Ryan Blaney.
Iowa presented another opportunity. And unfortunately, the No. 20 could not complete the pass. It was painful, because Bell himself acknowledged that staying out or taking two tires had worked for other drivers earlier in the race.
“We saw guys stay out all day and we’re fine. I took two tires at one point, felt fine. I stayed out, felt fine.”
In other words, Bell’s seventh runner-up finish of the 2026 season was not simply about bad luck.
Strategy has played a role in several of the races he could have won. And there is another frustrating pattern. Several of Bell’s biggest heartbreaks have come against fellow Toyota drivers, including Gibbs, Denny Hamlin and Chase Briscoe, while Corey Heim also denied him at Indianapolis two weeks ago.
Bell has shown the consistency to remain near the front almost every week. But with the regular season nearing its end, the question is whether he can finally turn one of those runner-up finishes into the victory that has continued to escape him.