A year ago, Christopher Bell collected three consecutive wins at Atlanta, COTA, and Phoenix, becoming only the 29th driver in Cup Series history to pull off that feat. Fast forward to 2026, and he is watching that same Phoenix track hand a win to Ryan Blaney, despite leading 176 laps to finish second. He is watching a Hocevar nudge cost him Atlanta. And now, at Nashville, he had the Cracker Barrel 400 in his hands with four laps left and gave it away on his own, with nothing to blame.

“I didn’t need anything. My car was amazing. Had the right strategy, the right everything. And I just did not win the race. I didn’t do a good job of driving, and I got no one to blame but myself,” Bell told the media (via Frontstretch) after the race at the Nashville Superspeedway.

The final caution of the night came out with 13 laps to go, just as Bell had run down Zane Smith, who was stretching fuel, to take the lead. When the green flew with four laps remaining, Bell led his teammates, Chase Briscoe and Denny Hamlin, into what was a dream restart for the #20 driver. He was out front, among the fastest cars, with his winless season suddenly staring at a remedy.

And he had dominated the long runs all evening as Hamlin found himself digging back from last place after being penalized for jumping the start, which was, remarkably, the first start/restart violation of his 735-race Cup career.

As just two laps remained, Briscoe was already fading. Then, it was Hamlin’s experience against Bell’s determination. But what Hamlin did next tilted the scales. He identified that Bell and Briscoe were scrapping hard into the first corner of the restart, used their battle to slide to the inside of the #20, and went side-by-side with Bell all the way through the final lap.

On the white flag lap, Briscoe made up ground, and the three JGR Toyotas went three-wide, Hamlin working a bumper-to-bumper side draft off Bell that put him clear entering the backstretch, and from there, he never looked back. The margin at the finish read 0.115 seconds, which was far too hurtful for Bell.

As celebrations ensued in the #11 garage for Hamlin’s 62nd career win, and Toyota’s first-ever at Nashville Superspeedway in six attempts at the 1.33-mile concrete oval, Christopher Bell found himself lost for words, placing the blame squarely on himself.

“I opened the door, and Denny got right inside of me, and then it was going to be a drag race from there. There’s nobody to blame, no circumstances. It was all completely in my hands, and I dropped the ball,” Bell lamented.

It was Bell’s second consecutive runner-up finish after the rain-shortened Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte the week prior, where he told reporters bluntly: “It’s 2026, nothing’s gone right for us so far.”

Championship slipping out of Christopher Bell’s hands?

Just weeks ago, Bell was quite confident about the season going forward, despite not having won a race.

“We don’t think that the championship mindset has wavered,” he told Matt Weaver in a conversation. “And we still think that we still have a shot at it.”

However, it was apparent that the reality of the season was setting in as they kept missing out on the chances to win races.

“At the beginning of the year, it’s like, all right, we’re going to win the regular season championship, have the number one seed going into the Chase. And then week 2, 3, 4, Reddick’s, you know, getting a big gap on the field, and it’s like, okay, maybe we’re not going to be able to get that regular season championship, let’s just run, you know, top whatever. And now here we are, 12 races in or however far we are, and we’re outside the top 10 in the regular season standings,” he added.

Undoubtedly, Christopher Bell has had tough luck this season. At Atlanta, Bell was running second in overtime, outside of race leader Bubba Wallace, when Carson Hocevar forced into a gap that closed, sending Bell’s #20 hard into the outside wall and out of contention. That led to Bell finishing 21st.

Again, at Phoenix, he was arguably the best car on the track, leading a race-high 176 laps and winning both stages, before his crew’s call for four fresh tires at the penultimate stop dropped him to eighth for the restart. He clawed back to second but ran out of laps, as Blaney pulled ahead by 0.399 seconds.

“I think, had that yellow flag not come out at Phoenix, and I won the race, we’d be sitting here talking about how great of a season I’ve had,” he said about the heartbreak.

But it’s not his speed that has been posing these problems – through the first ten races of 2026, Bell’s #20 led 303 laps, third-best in the Cup Series. And what makes Nashville particularly difficult to digest is that in 2025, he won four races, including three in a row to open the season. He has now gone 14 races in 2026 without a win, finishing second three times.

With the Chase format rewarding race wins for seeding, every winless weekend chips away at his leverage heading into the postseason. He remains inside the top 16 and in playoff contention, but the ceiling of where he could be is what raises the concerns. There are still races left where Bell’s form gives him a genuine shot, but if Nashville proved anything, it is that coming close is not the same as winning. And in 2026, Christopher Bell has been very, very close, and very, very empty-handed.