BRISTOL, Tenn. — After the checkered flag last weekend at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway, Christopher Bell had a rare outburst on his radio, expressing anger with a seventh-place finish while his Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Denny Hamlin and Chase Briscoe finished first and second.
The heat-of-moment sizzle stemmed from a good place — a burning desire to win for a driver and No. 20 team that haven’t won since March.
MORE: Playoff standings | At-track photos: Bristol
“We just [expletive] ran seventh with the best car on the track!” Bell radioed at Gateway. “Every [expletive] week, it‘s the same [expletive].”
Bell and crew chief Adam Stevens spoke after the proverbial smoke settled and head into Saturday night’s Round of 16 cutoff race (7:30 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App) in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs “in a really good spot,” Bell said Friday.
“I think it was definitely a buildup of frustration and not performing up to our standards, and not getting the results that I think that we should get,” Bell said. “Well — not even think; should. We should get better results, and we haven‘t been doing that. It was frustration.”
Bell opened the year by winning the second, third and fourth races of 2025, immediately firing off as a team that looked destined for another trip to the Championship 4. But the visits to Victory Lane vanished — save for a win in the exhibition NASCAR All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro Speedway in May. The No. 20 team’s last top five in a points-paying oval race came at Kansas Speedway on May 11.
“We’re all on the same team,” Bell said. “I want to win. Adam wants to win. All of my my team, we all have the same common goal. So I don’t think anybody takes it personal because we all want the same thing. And if I win, it’s good for Adam. If Adam wins, it’s good for me. So I don’t know; it’s professional sports.”
In a Friday morning interview with NASCAR.com, Stevens echoed Bell’s sentiments verbatim. He explained the context of a 29th-place finish at Darlington Raceway in the postseason opener, which added to the nuanced lead-in to last week’s brief verbal unleashing.
“It’s been a few weeks since we’ve won, and it just weighs you down,” Stevens said. “You know, little extra pressure of the playoffs, a little extenuating circumstances with not having a great finish at Darlington, even though we were quick. And having to really be mindful of points coming into Bristol with the new tire — we just don’t know what kind of weekend it’s going to be here, right? So I don’t think he had a full understanding of that in the heat of the moment, and frustrations come out. It’s a frustrating sport.”
The lack of results to bolster the No. 20 team’s pace is a significant contributing factor to Bell’s disappointment. Hamlin has won a series-best five races this year, and Briscoe and Hamlin, respectively, won the opening playoff races at Darlington and Gateway. Bell’s confidence in his equipment hasn’t wavered, but the post-race rundowns haven’t supported the mid-race speed he has shown.
Since leading 105 laps in his March victory at Phoenix Raceway, Bell has only led a combined 113 laps in the last 24 races.
“I’m happy for my teammates, but that’s the barometer,” Bell said. “And if your teammates are out there winning races and leading laps, that shows that the cars are capable. We have the equipment. And I haven’t been leading laps and I haven’t been winning races, so there’s obviously something going on that’s keeping us from from doing that.”
What complicates that challenge is that Stevens can’t point to a singular theme holding the No. 20 team back from reaching its maximum potential.
“You just have to go track by track and week by week, and I don’t really think there’s a recurring thing there,” Stevens said. “To your point, we’ve had speed. We’ve suffered in execution here and there. And there’s lots of races and lots of tracks on the schedule, so you’ve got to take it all in stride. There’s 37 weekends if you count the All-Star Race, and you’re not going to win them all. And it comes and goes, just like anything else in professional sports.”
Stevens’ measured approach comes from 10 prior years of Cup Series crew-chiefing, a tenure that has resulted in two titles and 40 victories combined with Kyle Busch (2015-2020) and Bell (2021-present). Together, Bell and Stevens have made the Championship 4 in two of the last three seasons. To underestimate the confidence either has in one another is to ignore their past and recent successes. Per NASCAR Insights, the No. 20 Toyota ranks fifth in speed throughout the first 28 races of 2025 and places Bell as the fifth-best passer in the series.
“When we sit down and set our goals for the season, top of the sheet is to win the championship,” Stevens said. “And there’s nothing that’s happened at any point in time that’s taken that goal away. So it’s still right there in front of us. We have the cars. We have the speed. We have the driver and the team to do it, so eyes on the prize.”
