Christopher Bell is a perennial championship contender in the NASCAR Cup Series, but after 23 races this season, is still looking to break through for his first victory, despite driving for one of (if not the) best organizations in the garage.
It’s not that Bell is struggling – he’s not. With 10 top-fives, 11 top-10s, and 530 laps led this season, the Norman, Oklahoma-native is easily a top-five driver in the NASCAR Cup Series; right now, it’s just been the perfect storm of things that has kept the No. 20 Toyota Camry XSE out of Victory Lane.
Throughout the year, the 31-year-old driver has been BRUTALLY close to snapping that winless drought, which after Sunday’s Iowa Corn 350 at Iowa Speedway, has extended to 30 races, just a half-dozen weeks away from eclipsing the one-year mark.
SEVEN TIMES in 2026, including Sunday’s 350-lapper at Iowa Speedway, Bell has finished runner-up in the NASCAR Cup Series – double the number of second-place finishes that any driver has had this year, and the most in a single season (already) since Chase Elliott in 2021.
These aren’t just run-of-the-mill second-place finishes, though. Each of the seven times Bell has been runner-up in the NASCAR Cup Series this year, the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota has been actively involved in the battle for victory.
- PHOENIX (0.399s): Christopher Bell led 176 laps but lost to Ryan Blaney.
- CHARLOTTE: Christopher Bell was fighting hard for the lead with Daniel Suarez and Denny Hamlin when rain started falling, drawing a race-ending caution flag.
- NASHVILLE (0.115s): Christopher Bell took the fight to Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin but fell just short at the checkered flag.
- CHICAGOLAND (0.276s): Christopher Bell ran down teammate Chase Briscoe in the closing laps of the race but couldn’t get close enough to make the pass for the victory.
- ECHOPARK (0.068s): Christopher Bell (notoriously a fan of superspeedways) lost out in a photo finish to Ryan Blaney.
- INDIANAPOLIS (0.287s): Christopher Bell spent 30-plus laps trying to force rookie Corey Heim into a mistake but was unsuccessful.
- IOWA (0.253s): Christopher Bell spent the final green-flag run chasing down Ty Gibbs, and got so close to completing the pass, but couldn’t make it stick at the finish.
That’s a combined 1.398-second margin of victory between six second-place finishes.
If Sunday’s Iowa Corn 350, in which Bell paced the field for 108 of 350 laps, wasn’t bad enough, the seventh-year NASCAR Cup Series driver has now finished runner-up to all three of his teammates at Joe Gibbs Racing this season, as well as 23XI Racing development driver Corey Heim, and Ryan Blaney, twice.
“This is what you call a bad second-place finish, for sure,” Bell said post-race. “I don’t know what else to say. Ty [Gibbs] did a really good job. He did a great job managing the race. I could tell that he was slipping and sliding around. Similar to last week or two weeks ago with Corey Heim, he just didn’t make a mistake.”
While it’s not an ideal statistic to have your name attached to, consider this: Bell, without a victory this year, is still sitting sixth in points – made even more impressive when you consider that after the third race of the season, the No. 20 sat an incredibly disappointing 24th.
With a points reset coming after Daytona in three weeks, for Bell, sitting in the top-six in NASCAR Cup Series point standings with this incredible string of momentum heading into the post-season, could still leave the No. 20 as a legitimate threat to fight for the championship, with or without a win.
Although I’m sure Bell, Adam Stevens, and Joe Gibbs Racing would love to park it in Victory Lane. Let’s check back in after New Hampshire, a racetrack that has been Christopher Bell’s playground.
