Christopher Bell has had a strong NASCAR Cup Series season and is looking to end it on a strong note. The 28-year-old NASCAR Cup Series driver is one of four drivers competing in the Cup Series Championship race at Phoenix Raceway on Nov. 5. PopCulture.com spoke to Bell about what he needs to do to beat Ryan Blaney, William Byron and Kyle Larson for the title.
“You just have to limit your mistakes and I would say no mistakes, but all four of us are going to make mistakes and probably make many of them,” Bell told PopCulture. “And it’s going to be the guy who makes the least for the team, not just the driver, but the team that makes the least amount of mistakes and executes the best. That’s going to be your champion. So going into the Championship 4 race, all of us are going to have fast cars. We’re all going to be very competitive and it’s going to be about the details that separates the champion from the other three.”
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Of the four drivers, Larson is the only one who has won the championship before, winning it all in 2021 (also won the regular season title). However, Bell is the only one who has made the Championship 4 for the second consecutive year. In 2022, Bell finished third and Joey Logano won the title. Bell said being back in the Championship 4 does help his chances, but it doesn’t guarantee him anything.
“Having the experience probably gives me a little bit of an advantage compared to William and Ryan who haven’t been in this situation,” Bell said. “But it’s small. It’s very small, and obviously, Larson is a champion of the sport, so he knows what it’s all about. And ultimately it’s one race that we’ve already done 35 of. … Nothing is different at all this week than it is in the previous 35 weeks. So while I have experienced being in this position, I don’t think that you can rule any of them out.”
Bell started the 2023 season strong with a third-place finish in the Daytona 500. During the year, Bell won two races and notched 19 top-10 finishes and 10 top-five finishes. Bell said he was confident that he was going to have a good year because of the consistency with his team.
“My team is the same as last year, so I felt like we could be in this position, but everything has to go right,” Bell explained. “And I’ll be honest, our season really came unglued right towards the end of the regular season in the summer stretch, where if you would’ve asked me then I would’ve said, I don’t feel great about it. But it came together at the right time and we found ourselves in position here.”
