The ‘win and also you’re in’ could also be gone, however the significance of successful stays important within the battle to turn into a NASCAR Cup Collection champion. Ryan Preece confirmed simply how beneficial a win will be final than every week in the past at Daytona Worldwide Speedway.
And whereas there’s one level between every place on observe, that abruptly jumps to twenty factors between the runner-up spot and the race winner. Meaning the hole between P2 and P22 on the observe is equivalent to first and second.
Sadly for Christopher Bell, there isn’t a driver extra skilled with second-place within the 2026 season than he’s. Seven instances he has completed second, and all of them have been below three tenths of a second.
Phoenix Raceway– 2nd, 0.399s behind
Coca-Cola 600 — 2nd, below warning
Nashville Superspeedway — 2nd, 0.115s behind
Chicagoland Speedway — 2nd, 0.276s behind
EchoPark Speedway — 2nd, 0.068s behind
Brickyard 400 — 2nd, 0.287s behind
Iowa Speedway — 2nd, 0.253s behind
That is 140 factors Bell left on the desk, however might Bell nonetheless turn into the primary winless champion in Cup Collection historical past by consistency alone?
Bell doubts it, saying at Chase Media day: “Can we do that? Can we win a championship? Sure. With out successful, proper? Can we win a championship with out successful a race? No. That is my reply. I do not imagine so.”
He then declared that “it doesn’t really feel prefer it’s a tall activity in any respect” and is assured that the No. 20 group will attain Victory Lane within the closing ten weeks of the 12 months. His final victory got here at Bristol Motor Speedway final September, and he’s the one Joe Gibbs Racing driver but to win this 12 months.”
Watch: Bell calls Iowa consequence a ‘dangerous second-place end’
As for the seven runner-up finishes which have dominated his 2026 season, Bell stated Indianapolis was his ‘greatest’ runner-up end whereas Nashville and Charlotte are the losses that “undoubtedly damage probably the most,” earlier than he shortly added Iowa as nicely. After which he remembered Phoenix as nicely, lamenting simply what number of robust defeats he is suffered this 12 months.
“…I utterly forgot about Phoenix. Oh, my goodness. We have loads of dangerous ones. Phoenix, I had the race in management all the way in which till the yellow flag. That was too robust to reply.”
CBell is not positive about 2026 title possibilities
Christopher Bell, Joe Gibbs Racing
Photograph by: Meg Oliphant / Getty Pictures
Bell has been near securing championship trophy, making the Championship 4 below the outdated playoff format twice, and he enters the 2026 postseason with 4 consecutive years inside the highest 5 within the closing standings. However does Bell imagine he can actually win the 2026 title?
“I do not know,” he stated candidly. “I really feel actually good about the place we’re at. I am not gonna sit right here and let you know that we’re gonna be the champion in 10 weeks, however I feel that we’re actually able to it. I do imagine that the champion shall be a Toyota. And, I feel the champion will come from the highest six seeds. I’m fairly assured in these statements. So, we’ll see in the event that they prove proper or incorrect. I’m assured in these statements.”
As for the outlook over these closing ten weeks, Bell believes the No. 20 group shall be strongest proper out of the gate, and can should be if they need a title shot come Homestead.
“I have been form of making a small joke that if I’m going to be the champion, then I higher have a factors hole on the sector going into Talladega, the ultimate three,” stated Bell. “So, yeah, actually our energy is the start of it. The primary seven are all actually good tracks for me. So, I feel my greatest hope is that I’ve a factors hole going into the ultimate three.”
Extra stress now
The playoff format of outdated featured a number of resets, elimination and a four-way combat for the title within the finale. It led to wall-rides, brawls, intentional wrecking and numerous different types of chaos. And whereas the present iteration appears way more simple, Bell famous that it places much more stress on being excellent. A single win is not sufficient to erase a nasty stretch of races anymore…
“100% (this one). Completely. Yeah, I feel this format goes to be far more stress.”
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