LONG POND, Pa.: Christopher Bell is no longer necessarily concentrating on winning the regular season championship in the NASCAR Cup Series, instead the Joe Gibbs Racing driver is focused on making sure his team can begin to execute races with the Playoffs on the horizon.
“It’s definitely getting further out of sight that is for sure, but now it is just a matter of getting all we can,” Bell said Friday afternoon at Pocono Raceway. “Whether that be second, third – whatever the case may be. We’ve had a couple of really – not a couple, several really poor finishes in a row here.
“It would be nice to get to the checkered flag without an incident. I think our performance is certainly capable of competing for it, but the way the last few weeks have gone, I don’t know if that is realistic anymore.”
An outstanding second half of the NASCAR Cup Series season in 2022 vaulted Bell to the Championship 4 at Phoenix Raceway last November and through the first 20 races of the 2023 season, Bell has built a solid season resume with one win, five top-five and 10 top-10 finishes, but Bell did not mince words knowing that his Adam Stevens-led team has to be better on execution moving forward to keep themselves in the mix.
“Certainly, the Playoff schedule is really good for us,” added Bell. “I think all of the tracks – minus Talladega, and I think a lot of drivers would be scared of Talladega too, but all of the tracks are really good for us, and the performance has been extremely well, and the cars have been really fast, but execution has really lacked and that is something that really scares me going into the Playoffs.
“We’ve got a month and a half here, six races or so to get it cleaned up, but if the Playoffs would be starting tomorrow, I would be worried about it.”
Bell took responsibility for not executing last weekend’s Cup Series race at New Hampshire. After starting on the pole, the Norman, Oklahoma native showcased a fast race car – but penalties on pit road and a late race crash proved to be too much to overcome.
“I was just trying to get too much and a mental mistake that cost me a bunch of points,” Bell admitted of New Hampshire.
Turning the page, Bell looks to Sunday’s Cup Series race at Pocono for an opportunity to gain as many points as possible but also shake off the recent string of subpar performances that have rattled the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.
“Pocono is one of the tracks that the notes from last year should corollate pretty well, because it is the second time here with the same package,” sounded Bell. “That’s always rewarding. The Toyota cars got a slight body change over the offseason, so we will just have to compare notes to what we did at the other intermediates, but the intermediates have been good for us, so it is definitely a track that we can definitely perform well at. It’s always one that I look forward going to.”
And while execution will be a firm word used around the No. 20 team over the next six weeks leading to the regular season finale at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway on August 26, Bell mentioned executing throughout the race at Pocono will be key towards putting his team front and center.
“Certainly, I think every race track that we go to, we are capable of running well, and generally, we have been running well in the race – just not finishing well,” he said. “Pocono is at least a place that typically gets a little more spread out.
“Restarts are always hectic here, but if we can just – I say we, but the last couple weeks have been on me, not we, it’s been on me – if I can just execute restarts and get in position to have a solid finish where I don’t have to overdrive the car, I think we will be alright. I’ve done a really bad job behind the wheel the last couple of weeks at the end of the races on closing them out.”
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01 or email: [email protected].
