Bell Makes It Three in a Row
Christopher Bell, driver of the #20 Reser's Fine Foods Toyota, leads Denny Hamlin, driver of the #11 Sport Clips Haircuts Toyota, and Kyle Larson, driver of the #5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet, to the finish line to win the NASCAR Cup Series Shriners Children's 500 at Phoenix Raceway on March 9, 2025 in Avondale, Arizona. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images
With his dramatic .049-second win over teammate Denny Hamlin in Sunday’s Shriners Children’s 500 NASCAR Cup Series race at Phoenix Raceway, Joe Gibbs Racing driver Christopher Bell became the first driver to win three straight races in the Next Gen Car era.
For Bell, his win streak is the result of the work put in by crew chief Adam Stevens and the No. 20 Toyota crew.
“Three straight, it’s surreal. I will never forget 2021, my first year with Adam Stevens. Kyle Larson won three straight. Me and Adam got off to a rocky patch, rocky start. We’re sitting in his office there at JGR. He looked at me and he said, We can do this. He said, I’ve won three straight sitting in these exact same two chairs, talking about him and Kyle Busch. I know we can do it.
“Took a while to get here, but we finally did it. I am just so proud. I’m so proud of all of the mechanics, the engineers, Adam, the pit crew members. Everybody on this 20 car…
“What you’re seeing is everybody pulling the rope in the same direction, everybody doing their job to the best of their abilities. This is what I knew would come out of this team.
“Like I say, it came from Adam. I didn’t know what was capable of this team. Adam knew what was capable of this team. We’re finally starting to see the fruit of it.”
(Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images)
Bell went on to emphasize that his current run of success is a total team effort.
“Man, I’m just a small part of it. The last couple years, we’ve been close. Everyone on our team could feel this. We could feel this, but it was just like fighting against the current. Just something would not work and take us out of contention.
“But we were close. It’s not about me. It’s about everybody on our team. So I haven’t changed as a driver. I’m the same driver that I was back in 2021. The team is working together right now. That’s what it’s all about.”
How did Bell and the team go from a 19-race winless streak dating back to last season, to winning three in a row?
“Well, we should have won a lot in that 19, but we didn’t win any. It was just bad fortune, some lack of execution. Really we had the performance in our team. It drove me nuts that everyone kept talking about that JGR hadn’t won since June, JGR hadn’t won since June. Oh my gosh, it was true.
“But the performance had been there. It was just getting everything to line up. Now we’re clicking. It was just really amazing to be alongside my JGR teammate racing for the win. That’s the way it should be.”
(Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images
Bell’s wins have come at three very different styles of tracks - Atlanta Motor Speedway where drafting is key, the road course at Circuit of the Americas and the 1-mile oval of Phoenix Raceway. According to Bell, winning three straight at those tracks is something he takes special pride in.
“It’s really cool. Really cool. Something that myself as a driver, I’ve worked really hard on to become good at all of the styles of tracks in the Cup Series. I think that’s what it takes to be the best.
“Ever since I was growing up, I tried to just run everything and be strong at everything, whether it was dirt cars, asphalt cars, wing cars, non-wing cars. I’ve always believed that the best race car drivers can win at everything.
“It means the world to me that my team has gotten to be successful everywhere. Yeah, we got an intermediate next. So maybe. I don’t know. We’ll see how it goes.”
As he heads to Las Vegas Motor Speedway to try and make it four in a row, Bell just hopes to continue riding the wave.
“I’ve never been on this side of it before.
“I can promise you this. Everybody is grinning ear to ear and just trying to ride the wave. I’ve raced long enough, not in the Cup Series, but throughout my life, that I know it comes in waves. There’s times where it feels like you can’t do anything right. There’s times where you feel like you can’t do anything wrong. We’re on that side of it now.
I’m just going to keep living, keep living, riding it out as long as we can. We have a great opportunity next week going to Las Vegas. This part of the schedule lines up really good for me.
“It started off scary with Daytona, Atlanta back to back. We survived. Well, we didn’t technically survive Daytona, but we survived Atlanta. Now we’re getting into the bread and butter of what we are good at. I’m glad that we could execute and have a nice, solid day here at Phoenix.”
(Photo by Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images)
Jimmie Johnson was the last driver to win four in a row in NASCAR’s Cup Series. For Bell, just having the opportunity to try to do what Johnson accomplished in 2007 is hard to believe.
“Man, that’s special. That is incredibly special. To hear that and know that I have that opportunity ahead of me. We’re going to a darn good place for it.
“This sport has become so incredibly tough with the parity that we have. The teams are so tight. The cars are really tight. The drivers are tight. Like, everybody performs at a high level. There are 10, 15 guys that could win on any given week.
“The field is littered with talented drivers, teams, crew chiefs,” Bell continued. “It’s hard to do. I acknowledge that. I’m just kind of in disbelief that I have that opportunity, but I’m looking forward to it.”