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Christopher Bell couldn’t stop smiling when he competed in the Tulsa Shootout and Chili Bowl Nationals last month after Joe Gibbs Racing loosened rules on its drivers racing outside of NASCAR.
And Bell continues to smile as he enters the Cup season beginning with Sunday night’s Cook Out Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium.
“Just ready to get back into my Cup car, finally,” Bell said this week.
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Tim Brown, the winningest driver at Bowman Gray Stadium, will get a chance to compete in a Cup car for the first time in his storied career.
The new NASCAR season — which begins Saturday with practice, qualifying and heat races at Bowman Gray Stadium — puts the end of the last year further behind for Bell, who said last November he felt “cheated” out of a chance to compete for the championship at Phoenix.
It goes back to the Martinsville playoff race when William Byron faded in the final laps but fellow Chevrolet cars didn’t pass him, allowing him to keep a hold of the final transfer spot to the title race. After that happened, Bubba Wallace slowed and Bell got by him for a position but still needed to get by more cars to overtake Byron for the last transfer spot. Bell ran against the wall in the final corner to try to pass additional cars.
About 30 minutes after the finish, NASCAR announced that it had penalized Bell for a safety violation for purposely riding against the wall. There were no penalties to Byron, allowing him to take the final spot in the Championship 4. Bell just missed making his third consecutive Championship 4.
Since then, NASCAR has updated its rulebook to permit it to penalize manufacturers for such violations and changed the wording in its rule on performance obligations to include “manipulate the outcome.”
“I like the rule change, going from the 100% rule to changing the wording to manipulation” Bell said. “Hopefully, if NASCAR sees any of those shenanigans going on, they’re going to make a call in the heat of the moment to fix it. That’s all that I can ask for.”
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The prerace exhibition moves to a short track in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
Bell said he enters this season energized after his recent racing in Tulsa, Oklahoma. A three-time Chili Bowl winner, he did not compete in the event in 2023 and ’24 because of the JGR rules limiting what drivers could race outside of NASCAR.
Having driven a race car already this year, he said, “makes me feel a little more confident. I would say it’s small but definitely refreshing to have been behind the wheel. Probably more so than anything, it helps keep me in a better mental state than not being able to drive through the entire offseason.”
Bell enters this year as the most recent winner for Joe Gibbs Racing, but that victory happened last June at New Hampshire. JGR enters this season on an 18-race winless streak.
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There are 39 cars seeking 23 spots in the feature race at Bowman Gray Stadium.
After the season, JGR moved Chris Gabehart from Denny Hamlin’s crew chief to competition director. Bell said that Gabehart has been busy since the move last November.
“I’ve had a lot of dealings with him already, a lot of phone calls, a lot of conversations, which I haven’t had conversations with really anybody outside of my 20 team, (crew chief) Adam (Stevens) – every now and then I would talk to (JGR chief operating officer) Michael Guttilla,” Bell said. “But (Gabehart) seems like he’s doing a really, really good job of organizing the teams and making sure that we’re all heading in an aligned path together.
“ … I’ve always had the utmost respect for Chris Gabehart. I felt like he was an amazing crew chief, super smart individual and I’m excited about his new role because I think he really can specifically help the 20 car and overall help the company get going to where all four of our cars are performing better.”
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