Bell claims ‘2025 feels completely different’ ahead of title – Sports News
Christopher Bell’s six-month winless streak got here to an finish at simply the correct time, with the Joe Gibbs Racing driver taking his No. 20 Toyota to victory lane at the Bass Pro Shops Night Race at Bristol on Saturday to close out the NASCAR Cup Series Round of 16.
The win, which Bell devoted to Charlie Kirk, accomplished a sweep of the playoff first spherical for JGR, while additionally making certain the No. 20 would advance to the Round of 12 for the fifth consecutive yr.
Now with simply seven races remaining, Bell is driving a newfound wave of optimism heading into New Hampshire Motor Speedway, hoping that 2025 may lastly be his yr.
“2025 feels much different than the years past,” the 30-year-old informed Corey LaJoie on his ‘Stacking Pennies’ podcast.
He later defined, “In ‘22 I felt like an underdog and we overperformed. We made it to the championship event. And then 2023, I felt like a favorite but got treated like an underdog, and still didn’t lead to a championship, obviously.
“And then in 2024, I felt like the favorite and arguably was one of the favorites, and it didn’t work out either. We didn’t even make it.
“So, 2025, I feel like we’ve just kind of taken a step back. We started out really strong and then throughout the summer months we frankly were not in championship form at all and and I just felt like it was going to be an uphill battle and we’ve slowly turned the page between Darlington, we had great car performance and not the execution, and then it got better at Gateway and then obviously Bristol worked out really well with getting the win.
“So, I feel like we’re slowly getting back to championship form, but certainly, going into the playoffs, I can’t tell you that I felt like it was ours to lose. That’s for sure.”
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Now fourth within the Playoff image, 20 factors above the Round of 8 cutoff line, Bell heads to New Hampshire Motor Speedway trying to prolong his win streak at a observe the place he’s reached victory lane twice within the final three years.
That being stated, he faces robust competitors from within JGR, with Denny Hamlin main the Playoffs, six factors ahead of Bell, whereas Chase Briscoe has completed within the highest 10 within the final three races.
And it appears that evidently JGR expects nothing much less than the championship from its drivers this season, with Director of Competition Chris Gabehart having stated following Bell’s win, “I do think the champion is coming from this room. I have no idea what door number it’s gonna be. I genuinely don’t. I think it could be any one of these three door numbers. Be ready for your moment.”
Further nailing home his level, Gabehart added that “never does it say we can’t win every race. We’ve won the first three Playoff races. There’s seven to go. Let’s win them all.”
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