Christopher Bell is ready for a breakout season – Speedway Digest

If you are looking for a subtitle for the 2025 NASCAR CUP series season, try “Christopher Bell Unbound”.

Freed from embargo, which prevented him from driving on dirt for three years, Bell competes with joy this season – and with performance.

On a windy, moderate Sunday on the afternoon, shortened road course in Circuit of the Americas Bell won his second race in a row in the leading division of Nascar and gave without boasting that there are probably further victories.

“I am ready to add further,” said Bell after the race.

This view is not far -fetched. In view of the speed in his team No. 20 and the flawless execution of his team, it is not unimaginable that Bell can extend his winning streak to three or four races.

He is the defending winner of the Children 500 Shriner this Sunday on the Phoenix Raceway (3:30 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and Siriusxm). In last year's season finale on the same flat lane, Bell led a racing height of 143 laps before taking fifth place.

In two of the last three races on the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, where the Cup series will run on March 16, Bell became second place after winning the bar. At the 2024 Playoff event on the 1.5-mile route, Bell led a racing height of 155 laps, but was second place after Joey Logano by 0.662 seconds.

If a race was a symbol of Bell's performance in 2024, it was so close call in Las Vegas. Car no. 20 often had a gain, but Bell and his team have not delivered the Coup de Grace all too often.

This season seems to be very different. A dirt track prometheus Unchained from the ban on team owner Joe Gibbs against extra-curricular races Bell joined new confidence, steel determined and, yes, unbridled joy, 2025.

Before the 30-year-old from Norman, Oklahoma, turned a round in a NASCAR Cup car, the 55-round-no-wing outlaw feature at Tulsa shootout won on a photo finish over 2021 Nascar champion Kyle Larson.

On January 13, he dominated the chili Bowl race of the Champions against first-class midget racing drivers. On February 6, Bell won its first world of Outlaw's Spintuto functions since 2019 after the 12th place in the Cook Out Clash for Cup cars in the Bowman Gray Stadium.

Success on Dirt has undoubtedly contributed to the fact that Bell's sanguine attitude enters into the regular season of the Cup series. But why should Gibbs relax his long -standing ban on the moon in other forms of the race?

“I think as much as everything, we have three of our boys (Bell, New Hire Chase Briscoe and grandchildren Ty Gibbs), who are very involved in dirt things,” said Gibbs. “I felt that I probably made the decision that they really only concentrate on the race.

“They love it and they talked about the low season to have the chance to drive a little dirt to fill their time and to inspire them about things. We will see where it leads, but I made this decision and we will see what happens to it. “

So far, so good.

After the victories in Atlanta and Cota, Bell will try three in Phoenix, a buyer who introduced his next Gen Cup car in 2022. Larson is the last driver who won three consecutive cup races, which he made twice in his 10-year season 2021.

Bell knows that it will not be easy, given the way the next generation car triggered the competition.

“At that time I remember that it was the big three,” said Bell. “Everyone had the big three. It was Kyle (Busch), Martin (Truex Jr.) and (Kevin) Harvick for a bit, and various boys would come and go. It seemed like these teams had a little more.

“Now, by car of the next generation, you can't really get this advantage. Winning has certainly become more difficult. More guys are able to do this. Whether this is a good or a bad thing, but it is the sport in which we live and in which we are currently competing. “

Bell seems to have something extra this year, but it comes from the inside. He appears more determined with higher expectations.

“It's time to put everything together,” he said. “I sit 30 years old here and have the opportunity to live in front of me. I have had this team for a long time and have not performed the standards that I hold myself, and this team keeps everyone.

“So we have to start today and we have a good start this year.”

Another victory at Phoenix is ​​certainly out of the question. Las Vegas is also not a victory, although it is a long shot for every competitor to win four in a row.

In the modern era of Nascar (from 1972 to today) only eight drivers – Cale Yarborough (1976), Darrell Waltrip (1981), Dale Earnhardt Sr. (1987), Harry Gant (1991), Bill Elliott (1992), Mark Martin (1993), Jeff Gordon (1998) and Jimmie and Jimmie (2007).

Five of these drivers – Yarborough, Waltrip, Earnhardt, Gordon and Johnson – have in the years in which they founded the stripes.

Bell could be next in both categories if the last two races have a hint.

“I think it's proof of this team,” said Bell. “You have no weaknesses. We can win on every race track at any time … I have the feeling that we could have a trip. I don't want to speak too early, but so far good. “