LOUDON, NH — Joe Gibbs has fielded Cup cars for Denny Hamlin since 2005, taken a decade from Tony Stewart and is about to replace Martin Truex Jr., who drove for the team for the last six years of a 21-year career. The Hall of Fame football coach and NASCAR team owner knows how to get all the miles and years he can from his elite drivers. Gibbs may have a long – very long – contender to stay in the No. 20 Toyota.
Christopher Bell isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.
“We can ride it for 20 years,” Gibbs said.
Why not? The 29-year-old driver from Oklahoma has become a legitimate contender for the Cup Series title this season after navigating the humid climate at the New Hampshire on Sunday to win for the third time for Joe Gibbs Racing. That total matched Kyle Larson, William Byron and Hamlin for the most in the series this season. Bell has won multiple races in each of the last three seasons and has 11 top-10 finishes in 18 races in 2024.
If he maintains that kind of consistency as NASCAR enters the second half of its season, Bell could find himself among the four drivers vying for the championship in the season finale at Phoenix Raceway.
“I just think Christopher is talented, and the further he goes, we all really appreciate that,” Gibbs said. “I think he is a young and very talented guy. I’ll tell you, he’s the all-American guy. Sponsors love him. He’s just a kid that everyone loves.”
Even after Bell hoisted the traditional lobster in victory lane, he still couldn’t completely let go of some of the victories that had eluded him this season. He complained about a missed opportunity at the Circuit of the Americas when he failed to catch Byron in the final two laps and another contest at Richmond. As difficult as 2024 has been for Bell and Gibbs’ team, it’s hard for him not to think it could have been better.
“It’s very easy to start racking up wins, right?” Bell said. “It’s been a fun trip and I feel like we’re close to hitting our stride. I’m excited about what’s to come, that’s for sure.”
Bell had a little help in New Hampshire — where his moonshot bid in the Xfinity Series ended in victory as part of a weekend sweep – thanks to bad weather and NASCAR’s call to finish the race on wet tires.
It was a race that Bell would not have won before this season – New Hampshire was stopped by rain with 82 scheduled laps remaining and would not have resumed without wet weather tires. That would mean a checkered flag for leader Tyler Reddick.
Once the sky cleared after a 2-hour, 15-minute delay, NASCAR rolled tires on an oval for the first time to end a Cup Series race and allow it to reach its scheduled finish. Because of late accidents and caution flags, New Hampshire still managed four extra laps, giving Bell the victory in 86 laps on a wet track.
“They’re a lot of fun,” Bell said. “What we lost in the next generation car is being able to slide the car and make it really loose, yeah, I can’t describe it any better than that, but we got that back with the wet tires. Whenever the track is damp, you can slide the car more and drive it more hanging, drive it more on the right rear. It’s a lot of fun to do, for sure.”
Bell, Gibbs and crew chief Adam Stevens praised the wet tires.
“I don’t know what to say other than it’s just a knife edge,” Bell said. “You’re going to keep trying, pushing your entries, pushing your mid-corner speeds, pushing your exits until you figure out the limit and what’s too much.”
Bell also won this season in Phoenix (perhaps a sign of championship?) and last month’s shortened rain Coca-Cola 600 with 151 laps remaining in the race.
He won NASCAR’s Truck Series championship in 2017 for JGR and made his Cup debut driving for Leavine Family Racing in 2020 as part of a Gibbs alliance. When Leavine closed at the end of 2020, Bell was officially back with the JGR group and replaced Erik Jones. He won on the twisty Daytona course in 2021 and finished third in the standings in 2022 and fourth last season.
“Christopher really sacrificed on his way up,” Gibbs said. “He ran a lot on dirt and everything. When I met him he said, ‘Coach, this is all I can do, I need to be successful in racing.’”
Through 162 career Cup races, Bell has certainly found the success he told Gibbs he needed to find in NASCAR.
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