Crew chief Philip Bell shifts over to the No. 9 Chevrolet at JR Motorsports this season, running a limited schedule of races with new and talented personnel. Last season, Bell led the No. 8 team with Sammy Smith, winning a tough race at Rockingham and leading Smith to a playoff berth and an eighth-place finish in the season standings.
In his career as a crew chief in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series, Bell has 66 starts, two wins (Smith also won at Talladega in 2024 with Bell on the box) and a combined 11 top-five and 18 top-10 finishes.
This year, his drivers will be Carson Kvapil and Ross Chastain for five races each, Shane Van Gisbergen for three, Lee Pulliam at Martinsville and the rest of the schedule yet to be announced.
No. 9 TEAM LINEUP: Crew chief: Phillip Bell; Lead Engineer: Michael Toner; Second Engineer: Reagan Moody; Car Chief: Thomas Turner; Mechanic: Roy Vaughn; Mechanic: Nate Voss.
VARIETY IS THE SPICE: Having multiple drivers is a balancing act, and Bell has different preparations to handle throughout the season. Unlike a full-season slate with the same driver, there are variables that will have to be addressed from race to race.
One variable that doesn’t change, Bell said, is the outcome.
“Basically, with 15 races, that kind of changes the way you operate, because you’re used to building for 33, right?” he said. “How do you approach that at this point? Win every race. I’m not worried about points. We’re not worried about points. The only thing that matters is getting the No. 9 car in Victory Lane. You know, basically, it’s a new team, so it’s a new challenge.”
NEW FACES: Building a new team after having a set group the past two seasons adds to the challenge, Bell said, but he’s confident in his personnel.
“You’ve got to make all these people into a cohesive group,” Bell said. “It’s going really well, the new people, Thomas and Nate, are fitting in well in the shop, and as a part-time team, you need to help out where we can on the full-time cars and just keep flow going in the shop. I think they’re doing a great job of that.”
RHYTHM IS IMPORTANT: Bell is used to the week-in, week-out schedule for 33 races, so cutting back will take some getting used to, he said.
“It’s tough not getting in the rhythm of going to the track every week, but it is definitely a good spot having Cup drivers for a good many of them,” he said. “You really go and focus on wins; we don’t have to worry about points. Some of our guys are experienced, but some ofthem aren’t. It’s a leadership challenge, but that’s the fun part of it, especially on the engineering side. Being a lead engineer myself, it’s a lot of fun going through and working on the process, teaching how we do things here and how we’ve done it in the past.”
ALL-STAR CAST: Having Cup drivers in the car in van Gisbergen and Chastain brings a lot of talent to the mix, and having a short-track legend like Pulliam at Martinsville adds sizzle to it, Bell said.
“It’s a good mix, he said.” “We have SVG for all but one of the road courses. We have most of our races with Carson, so that’ll be fun. And then, Martinsville with Lee is going to be very cool coming from the short-track Late Model side myself. Everybody loves to see someone like Lee get a chance.”
NEW CHALLENGES: Bell has some primary goals for the partial season, and among them is development for Kvapil and seeing Pulliam get the chance to step up and be competitive in his first series start.
“We’re going to work very closely with how we handle Carson’s preparation,” Bell said. “I’m excited about that. Even when he’s not in our car, we’re going to help out on the road courses for him. For the race with Lee, it’s not expecting him to know something. He’s got a lot of racing background, racing intelligence, but he’s new to this side of it, and I don’t want to expect him to know something, and I want his focus to be all on aggression and maximizing this opportunity. The goal is for us to have everything over-prepared for him when we get there.”
LATE MODEL BACKGROUND: Bell has a lot of experience in Late Model racing, growing up with Bubba Pollard and being involved in the sport from an early age. Pulliam’s debut at Martinsville is very important to him.
“When he ran our Late Model last year, I talked to him a lot,” Bell said. “We went to the Florence race with him earlier this year. It’s a lot of fun working with him. He’s a racer.”
— JR Motorsports —