NASCAR Cup Phoenix II
Bell: Competing in Phoenix season finale "extremely tough"
Christopher Bell’s rollercoaster NASCAR Cup playoffs took another bad turn even before Sunday’s season finale at Phoenix began.
Jim Utter
Edited: Nov 7, 2022, 4:31 PM
Copy link
Share on Viber
Hours before the start of Sunday’s race, in which Bell was one of four drivers competing for the 2022 Cup series championship, he and his fellow Joe Gibbs Racing drivers were informed of the death of team vice chairman Coy Gibbs.
Coy, the father of 2022 Xfinity Series champion Ty Gibbs, and son of team owner Joe Gibbs, died early Sunday morning. He was 49.
The news sent a shockwave through the NASCAR garage and the JGR organization.
Read Also:
“You wake up first thing this morning and super excited and thrilled with life and where you’re at and the opportunity given to you. To receive news like that a couple hours before you get in the car is extremely tough,” said Bell, 27, who was competing for his first series title.
“Just really kind of puts it in perspective that what we’re doing here is not the big picture for sure. Yeah, just thinking of Joe. I just can’t imagine what Joe is going through and the entire Gibbs family. That’s the important piece.”
For a while Sunday morning, Bell said he and the other JGR drivers were in shock, not knowing whether they should compete or not. Just before driver introductions, Bell said team president Dave Alpern encouraged them to do so.
“That was an experience like I’ve never gone through in my entire life,” Bell said. “In that moment you don’t know what’s right and what’s wrong and you don’t know if you should get in the race car and race, if you shouldn’t race.”
A real contender
Bell and his No. 20 Toyota team – which were one of top performing teams in the playoffs – still managed to give a good accounting of themselves.
Although he struggled in practice and qualified 17th, Bell managed to work his way to 11th by the end of the first stage.
He never led a lap but at one point late in the final stage he was in position to run down eventual winner and series champion Joey Logano but ended up unable to do so.
A slow final pit stop shuffled Bell back in the field but he rallied to finish 10th in the race and took third in the final season standings, a career-best.
Read Also:
- "Heck of a drive" leaves Chastain as Cup title runner-up
- Elliott "looking forward to the off-season" after finale crash
“There were a couple things that we definitely could have done different today, but ultimately (Logano) was lights out all weekend, winning the pole and being super strong in practice,” Bell said.
“We were just kind of playing catch-up, the rest of us were playing catch-up to him. The best car won the championship for sure.”
Bell ended the season with three wins, 12 top-five and 20 top-10 finishes and won four poles. He twice won last-chance elimination races in the playoffs to advance to the title race.
“I think the season was successful. To get to the final four is what every driver in NASCAR’s goals are. I’m very proud of that effort,” he said. “With 40 or 50 (laps) to go, the last green flag pit stop we put ourselves in position to race for it. You can’t ask for much more than that.”
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article "Heck of a drive" leaves Chastain as Cup title runner-up
Next article Roger Penske adds another first to his long racing resume
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Jim Utter
Erik Jones agrees to multi-year contract extension with Legacy Motor Club
NASCAR Cup
NASCAR Cup
Erik Jones agrees to multi-year contract extension with Legacy Motor Club
Goodyear's option tires at Richmond "were like Mario Kart with a star"
NASCAR Cup
NASCAR Cup
Richmond II
Goodyear's option tires at Richmond "were like Mario Kart with a star"
NASCAR: Austin Dillon move was "really close to crossing the line"
NASCAR Cup
NASCAR Cup
Richmond II
NASCAR: Austin Dillon move was "really close to crossing the line"
Latest news
'There’s more to come' as IndyCar and NASCAR leaders eye future doubleheaders
IndyCar
Indy IndyCar 3 min
'There’s more to come' as IndyCar and NASCAR leaders eye future doubleheaders
Johann Zarco says “I didn’t want to break the engine” after Malaysian GP DNF
MotoGP
MGP MotoGP
Malaysian GP
1 h
Johann Zarco says “I didn’t want to break the engine” after Malaysian GP DNF
Homestead NASCAR Viewer's Guide: Everything you need to know for the season finale
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Homestead-Miami
1 h
Homestead NASCAR Viewer's Guide: Everything you need to know for the season finale
Mercedes fined for George Russell skipping F1 Mexico GP media duties
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
Mexican GP
2 h
Mercedes fined for George Russell skipping F1 Mexico GP media duties
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe