Christopher Bell will drive the No. 95 for Leavine Family Racing for the 2020 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season, making the jump from the NASCAR Xfinity Series, the team announced Tuesday, Sept. 24.
Bell moves from Joe Gibbs Racing’s No. 20 car in NASCAR’s secondary series and will bring crew chief Jason Ratcliff with him. The pair has scored 14 victories over the past two seasons together, most recently a dominant performance at last weekend’s race at Richmond Raceway.
Leavine Family Racing welcomes @CBellRacing to the organization for the 2020 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season as the driver of the No. 95 @Toyota Camry with sponsorship from @rheem and @procoretech.#Team95 pic.twitter.com/FbykWAntpE
— LeavineFamilyRacing (@LFR95) September 24, 2019
He will inherit the seat currently occupied by Matt DiBenedetto in the Cup Series; DiBenedetto moves to Wood Brothers Racing for 2020.
Since LFR switched to Toyota for 2019, it’s scored three top fives and six top 10s with DiBenedetto, nearly winning Bristol Motor Speedway in August.
Longtime sponsor Procore returns to the team, while Bell’s current primary sponsor, Rheem, will also move with him to the Cup Series.
A replacement for Bell in the Xfinity Series has not been announced.
Barring any starts before the end of 2019, the 2020 Daytona 500 will mark Bell’s debut in NASCAR’s premier series.
About the author
Adam Cheek joined Frontstretch as a contributing writer in January 2019. A 2020 graduate of VCU, he works as a producer and talent for Audacy Richmond's radio stations. In addition to motorsports journalism, Adam also covered and broadcasted numerous VCU athletics for the campus newspaper and radio station during his four years there. He's been a racing fan since the age of three, inheriting the passion from his grandfather, who raced in amateur events up and down the East Coast in the 1950s.
A daily email update (Monday through Friday) providing racing news, commentary, features, and information from Frontstretch.com
We hate spam. Your email address will not be sold or shared with anyone else.
Good for Bell and especially good to see Ratcliff coming back to Cup
Seems to have worked out all around Glad for Bell and Ratcliff. Matt has a seat with the first family of the sport.
I suspect Toyota may regret loosing Guido but Christopher Bell deserved the promotion. Fords gain? Time will tell.
I don’t think C-Bell will do any better than Matt. But the team will benefit from more support by TOYOTA & JGR.