NASCAR driver Christopher Bell knows what it feels like to be close.

Close to a Daytona 500 win, sustaining a dominant season and competing for a Cup Series crown, Bell enters 2026 chasing consistency — the difference between strong seasons and title-winning ones.

Bell’s 2025 run delivered mixed results. He posted a career-high four wins, 22 top-10 finishes (tied for most with champion Kyle Larson) and a series-leading average finish of 11.2. Yet Bell’s best season didn’t unfold as he’d hoped.

It started with heartbreak.

Bell’s best bid to win the Daytona 500 ended abruptly with a crash on Lap 195, ultimately leaving him 31st but oh-so-close, according to his calculations. Third-place finishes in 2023 and 2024 were more impressive on paper than on the asphalt of Daytona International Speedway, site of the 68th edition of the Great American Race on Feb. 15.

“I was in position to win,” Bell recalled. “I was in the front of the pack and unfortunately got wrecked out. But it’s a place that anybody can win at any time.

“We’ve seen that over the years.”

Rather than bemoan a close-call, Bell responded with three consecutive victories, establishing himself as the car to beat in Joe Gibbs Racing’s No. 20.

Instead, the hot streak cooled.

Following a March 10 win at Phoenix, Bell went 24 races until he prevailed Sept. 13 at Bristol despite 11 top-10 finishes along the way.

“I’m proud of the 2025 season,” he said. “I just need to do a little bit better job of capitalizing on the opportunities that we have to win.”

Bell, 31, is widely regarded as one of NASCAR’s top young drivers.

Since a maiden victory on Daytona’s road course in 2021, a race created in 2020 as a temporary event in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, Bell has added a dozen wins to sit at the head of the ballyhooed 2020 rookie crop. The class also featured Tyler Reddick, an eight-time winner, and Cole Custer, who has managed to reach Victory Lane just once.

But Bell is quick to credit his affiliation with Joe Gibbs Racing and its Hall of Fame owner.

“In this sport, you’re only as good as the race car you’re in,” Bell said.

A native of Norman, Okla., Bell sees parallels between his journey and that of his beloved Sooners. Oklahoma reached the 2025 College Football Playoff after several uneven seasons, only to suffer a crushing home loss after leading Alabama 17-0 in the opening round.

“It’s been rough a little bit for us, but we had a pretty good season this year,” Bell said. “It’s kind of like me. We have to build on it and try and get a little bit better.”

Timing could be everything for Bell.

NASCAR’s revamped postseason format did away with the elimination-style playoff system in place since 2014 and returned to a 10-race “Chase,” where the champion is determined by total points across the final stretch.

The top 16 drivers in the regular-season standings will qualify, with the highest point total after the Nov. 8 finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway crowned champion.

Steady, consistent and rarely out of contention, Bell is poised to capitalize.

Bell saw the old format undercut JGR teammate Denny Hamlin, who won six races in 2025 and dominated the season finale at Phoenix until a late caution undid his championship hopes.

“All of us thought that Denny did everything right to win the championship, and it just didn’t work out for him,” Bell said. “Hopefully we get on track to being able to reward the right guy for the championship.”

Bell wants that driver to be him, with the next chapter of a promising career written at the Daytona 500.

“Hopefully I get to continue writing my storybook here that I’ve got going on,” he said. “Hopefully I’m just getting started.”

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