Denny Hamlin, Bubba Wallace describe working with Michael Jordan at 23XI Racing
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- NASCAR driver Christopher Bell has experienced both major wins and losses at Martinsville Speedway.
- Bell is returning to Martinsville for the Xfinity 500, a race that will determine the Championship 4 playoff field.
- He enters the race 37 points above the cut line but may need a win or a top-two finish to advance.
- A win by a driver currently outside the top four could jeopardize Bell’s position in the playoffs.
Christopher Bell’s NASCAR Cup career has seen its highest of highs and lowest of lows at Martinsville Speedway.
His playoff win at the half-mile track in Ridgeway, Virginia, in 2022 clinched his spot in the Championship 4 to avoid certain elimination.
And a year ago — again needing a win to keep his playoff dreams alive — the 30-year-old Norman native slid into the wall during a desperation attempt to make one final pass and gain the points he needed to advance. But making the pass as he rode the wall, a move that was banned in NASCAR a year earlier, Bell was penalized and eliminated from the playoffs.
“I’ve had ups and downs at Martinsville, that’s for sure,” Bell told The Oklahoman this week. “I’ve had probably the biggest win of my career a couple years ago to make it to the Championship 4, and then I had probably the biggest loss of my career last year, getting kicked out.
“I’ve experienced the highs and lows of Martinsville, but one thing’s for sure. If you’re going to to on and be a NASCAR champion, you gotta be good there.”
Now, Bell is back at Martinsville for the Xfinity 500, set for 1 p.m. Sunday on NBC. And like previous years, this race will trim the playoff field from eight to the Championship 4.
“There’s gonna be a lot of intensity at Martinsville,” Bell said. “Certainly, we’re going there with the mentality that we’re gonna have to win the race. We’re gonna need to be up front, leading laps, scoring a lot of stage points.
“It could be totally unnecessary, and I hope it is. That’ll make my day a whole lot less stressful. But we’re expecting a battle and that’s what we’re gearing up for.”
This time around, Bell’s playoff position is less precarious. While a win would guarantee his spot as a finalist, he also enters 37 points above the cut line in the third position, with Kyle Larson one point behind him in the fourth and final spot.
Bell’s Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Denny Hamlin and Chase Briscoe have won the last two races to seal their spots and are now waiting for Bell to join them.
But even a 37-point edge isn’t a guarantee.
Of the four playoff drivers currently sitting outside the cut line — William Byron, Joey Logano, Ryan Blaney and Chase Elliott — each of them has at least one previous win and several races in contention for wins at Martinsville.
A win by one of those four would bump Bell down a spot, leaving him in a battle with Larson, who only trails by a point and owns the head-to-head tiebreaker over Bell.
That literally leaves Bell knowing a third-place finish might not be good enough, if the wrong two drivers are ahead of him at the end. But finishing at least second will lock him into his third appearance in the Championship 4.
Only in his sixth year in the Cup Series, Bell has finished fifth or better the previous three seasons. He has now reached the playoffs five straight years.
And if he can replicate his results from the summer race at Martinsville, he’ll head to Phoenix Raceway on Nov. 2 with a shot at the title.
“The summer race helps me feel good about what we have,” Bell said. “And even off of that race, we feel like we made a lot of gains on our cars to improve performance. And I think I’m gonna be a better driver this time.
“I think we’ve got all the tools we need to go out there and have success.”
NASCAR playoff standings
Here are the standings heading into Martinsville, the final stop before the Nov. 2 championship race at Phoenix:
- Chase Briscoe: Clinched Championship 4 berth
- Denny Hamlin: Clinched Championship 4 berth
- Christopher Bell: +37 points
- Kyle Larson: +36 points
- William Byron: -36 points
- Joey Logano: -38 points
- Ryan Blaney: -47 points
- Chase Elliott: -62 points
