Last Sunday (September 6), Christopher Bell climbed from his No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota Camry to a win at last in the NASCAR Cup Series in 2026.
After seven runner-up finishes during the regular season, Bell started the postseason in the best way: winning The Chase opener at Darlington Raceway and making a statement that the No. 20 is a legitimate contender for the 2026 Cup title. Bell started The Chase as the sixth seed, 50 points behind JGR teammate Denny Hamlin.
As a result of an off night for Hamlin following contact with Michael McDowell in the early laps of the final stage, leading to an uncharacteristic 18th-place finish for the Chase’s top seed, Bell gained four positions in the standings to draw within 12 points of Hamlin.
The regular season was a bit of an odd one for Bell and the No. 20 team. For starters, the seven runner-up finishes he recorded tied the record for most second-place finishes before winning, set by Harry Gant during the 1981 season. After back-to-back finishes outside the top 20 to open the season, Bell scored three consecutive top-five finishes at Circuit of the Americas, Phoenix Raceway and Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
His season dipped after a stretch of five consecutive races with poor finishes due to crashes or other misfortunes. As a result, he fell to 11th in the standings after 12 races. Two second-place finishes at Charlotte and Nashville in the early summer seemed to finally swing the momentum Bell’s way.
One race nearly changed the course of his season in an instant.
A wicked crash into the outside wall at Michigan in June left Bell with a broken wrist. In the weeks after his hard crash, he rattled off four second-place finishes in a five-race span, coming oh so close to reaching victory lane before finally ending his 33-race winless streak at the track Too Tough to Tame.
Bell isn’t the first driver to struggle during the regular season before catching fire in The Chase. Three-time Cup Series champion and NASCAR Hall of Famer Tony Stewart experienced an up-and-down regular season of his own in 2011. After barely qualifying for that year’s postseason, Stewart opened The Chase in spectacular fashion, winning the first two races and looking like a serious title contender.
After finishing 25th at Dover and 15th at Kansas that season, Stewart never finished worse than eighth over the final six races, winning the Cup Series title over Carl Edwards in a tiebreaker with his five victories against Edwards’ one, deciding the championship.
In the case of Bell, he has a prime opportunity to capitalize on his Chase opening-round win in a big way. Like Stewart in 2011, the next few races on the schedule look like a great opportunity for Bell and the No. 20 team.
At World Wide Technology Raceway, the site of the second race in the 2026 Chase, Bell has three top-10 finishes in four starts, with a best finish of seventh in the previous two races there. Bristol, where Bell triumphed in the fall of 2025, is another strong track for the Norman, OK native. In 10 Cup starts, he’s recorded four top-five results, including the 2025 win at the Tennessee short track.
Looking at the middle portion of The Chase schedule, that’s where Bell can really make some noise in the postseason.
It’s no secret that the Toyotas have been the dominant manufacturer on the intermediate tracks this season, having won at both Kansas Speedway and Las Vegas Motor Speedway and nearly winning at Charlotte in the Coca-Cola 600 before rain ended the race short of the scheduled distance. It’s safe to say Bell has excellent chances of winning down the stretch.
After two appearances in the championship race during the playoff format, 2026 represents a golden opportunity for Bell to potentially score his maiden Cup Series title. With how strong Toyota has been all season, it seems very likely that this year’s Cup champion will be one of the six drivers racing under the Toyota umbrella.
With momentum on his side after a Crown Jewel win to start The Chase, watch out for Bell to go on a deep postseason run in 2026.
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