Earlier this year, Christopher Bell looked nearly unstoppable. Back-to-back-to-back wins at Atlanta, Austin, and Phoenix shot him into elite company. He became only the 29th driver in NASCAR history to pull off a three-peat. It wasn’t just the wins, either. It was how he did it. Fast cars, clean execution, and a sense that maybe, just maybe, the No. 20 team had cracked the code.
Fast-forward a few months, and that dominance feels like a distant memory. While the wins still shine on the stat sheet, Bell and his team are now fighting something a little tougher to fix, i.e., consistency. The kind of week-to-week performance that doesn’t always show up in victory lane, but determines who’s really playoff-ready and who’s not. And by Bell’s own admission, things haven’t exactly gone to plan.
Christopher Bell’s performance dip sparks questions
With three early-season wins under his belt, Christopher Bell is already locked into the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series playoffs. His victories at Atlanta, Circuit of The Americas, and Phoenix didn’t just build hype, they launched him up the points standings. Bell currently sits sixth overall. With five regular-season races left, he is still in prime position to climb even higher. On paper, things look solid, right?
But as Bell himself admitted, “It’s been a struggle, no doubt.” Since completing his historic three-peat, Bell’s momentum has cooled significantly. The No. 20 Toyota has been plagued by inconsistency, especially on intermediate tracks. His finishes since Phoenix include a 29th at Homestead, 35th at Talladega, 30th at the EchoPark Grand Prix, and 24th on the streets of Chicago. Not exactly playoff-caliber numbers.
“We learned quickly what our strengths and weaknesses were,” Bell explained. “The intermediate package has just been a little bit of a struggle for us.” There were flashes of promise at Dover, where Bell qualified third and led 67 laps. But even that effort faded by the checkered flag, as he dropped to an 18th-place finish. “Coming off of last weekend, was definitely our best intermediate race for the season so far,” he said, trying to find a silver lining.
Road courses, though, have been a relative strength. Christopher Bell won at COTA and finished second in Mexico. But even there, Bell was realistic: “Road courses have been pretty good except I’m not Shane. So that’s that.” Shane van Gisbergen has been in a league of his own on road courses. He completed his own road course races three-peat, with a dominant victory at Sonoma.
Despite some optimism about his team’s playoff potential, Bell isn’t sugarcoating the current state of affairs. “Our performance has been down, no doubt,” he said. With the postseason approaching, that slump isn’t going unnoticed. And it is exactly where the conversation next veered.
Bell banking on playoff magic to turn season around
Despite the recent cold streak, Christopher Bell isn’t sweating it. At least not when it comes to the postseason. In fact, he’s feeling quietly confident. “I actually feel more optimistic, especially coming off of Dover where I led laps and was able to actually score stage points,” Bell said. He finished second in Stage 1 and won Stage 2. For a while, it looked like the No. 20 team might just win it all until a late-race spin off Turn 4 on lap 392 took him out of contention.
Still, that flash of speed is all Bell needs to believe his team’s not far off from clicking again. “Performance has been off, but I don’t think that that means anything for the playoffs and what’s to come,” he said. And based on the past couple of years, he’s got reason to feel that way.
Bell’s playoff resume speaks for itself. In 2024, he advanced into the Round of 8 for a third year. “I go back to the last couple seasons of, you know, going into the Round of Eight. I could have won multiple races in the Round of Eight that I didn’t win,” Bell said. “And I did win a couple of them still.” It’s that near-miss energy that has fueled Bell through the grind of this year’s schedule.
But more than personal history, Bell’s counting on the team around him. “I will say one thing that I love about this 20 group is they show up and perform the most when it matters the most.” Inconsistencies aside, Bell’s betting big on the ‘clutch’ factor that’s carried this group before. And with the playoffs looming, there’s no better time for that switch to flip.
The post “It’s Been a Struggle” – Christopher Bell’s Drop Off After His Three-Peat Raises Some Concerns appeared first on EssentiallySports.
