Last year, Christopher Bell punched his tickets to the Championship 4 by winning at Martinsville Speedway. And this year, it might have to be the same. During the closing laps of the South Point 400, the #20 Toyota star tried his best to clear Kyle Larson‘s Chevy using every trick he had up his sleeves, but the HMS icon was just better.

When winning is the need of the hour and there is no clear window of opportunity, one usually resorts to hard racing. However, Christopher Bell stayed clean while he tailed Kyle Larson. But at what cost? Some might feel Bell lost his golden chance to make it to Phoenix Raceway by doing so. Moments after the race, his crew chief opened his mouth about the precarious situation that the number 20 team was stuck in.

Despite exposing a heartbreaking reality, Adam Stevens seemed confident about the future

Bell and Larson, who are rivals in the dirt tracks, were the front runners of Sunday’s round of 8 opener at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Despite running into the wall about 140 laps into the race, Larson quickly rebounded from it. Following the mishap, he made his final pit stop and took advantage of his fresh tires to advance quickly from third place to the lead. During the last few laps, Christopher Bell ran almost two car lengths behind the Hendrick Motorsports icon, trying to grab the lead away from him.

However, capitalizing on the lapped traffic, Bell neared up behind Larson during the last lap. As they entered turn 3, Bell tried to grasp the higher line, while Larson stayed low. Both the contenders stayed that way before Larson veered to the outside as they got out of turn 4. Seeing his chance, Bell tried to drop down to the inside, but Larson was no rookie.

Kyle Larson did the same, blocking Bell and ultimately holding him off by a mere 0.082 seconds. After the race was done and dusted, Frontstretch’s Michael Massie walked up to Bell’s crew chief and asked if he too, felt like Christopher Bell missed his shot at corkscrewing his seat in the ultimate Cup Series battle of the season.

Adam Stevens felt like what’s done cannot be undone. He admitted that their goal was to win, which they couldn’t achieve. Although the team took home 52 points, Stevens wasn’t sure if that mattered anymore. If there are two more winners out of the top 8 drivers and Christopher Bell is not one of them, only one car would get in based on points. And that would hurl them into a very tight situation. On that note, Stevens said, “We don’t have too many bonus points.”

Still, Stevens seemed optimistic about the next two races. “We can win Homestead just as easy as we can win Martinsville. It’s not over till it’s over. We got everything we need right in front of us to make it happen,” he added.

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Despite Stevens’ hopeful claims, Bell seemed to beat himself up quite hard. After all, it could be frustrating not winning a single race even after getting back-to-back pole wins.

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Despite back-to-back pole wins, Christopher Bell failed to snatch the checkered flag

Today’s stock cars are almost similar in components and specifications. Hence, taking someone down solely based on speed is seldom an option. One could get an upper hand only by means of a good pit strategy and a good start to the race.

Speaking of good starts, Christopher Bell has had plenty of them. He won the pole for Sunday’s race with a lap of 186.335 mph, making it his 6th pole win of the season. He has also had three consecutive pole wins at the playoff races at Darlington Speedway, Kansas Speedway, and Bristol Motor Speedway. But none of them found the momentum to bear its fruit.

The Oklahoma native spoke to veteran media personality Kim Coon, admitting how his efforts weren’t enough to beat Kyle Larson. “I don’t know what else I could have done,” Bell said, “I feel like that was my moment to make the final 4 and didn’t quite capture it.”

“Coming to the checker I knew he was gonna be blocking so I’m like I’m going to try and go high and he went high but I don’t even know if I had a run to get by him,” he added with utter disappointment. According to NASCAR, Bell lamented the loss, saying, “…to be that close really stinks.”

Let’s cross our fingers and hope that Christopher Bell shakes off his miseries and wins at Homestead or even at Martinsville like last year, and advances into the top 4.

Read more: Christopher Bell Makes Painful 9-Word Admission After Falling 0.082 Seconds Short of Appeasing Joe Gibbs