MARTINSVILLE, Va. – Prior to last weekend’s Cup Series race at Talladega Superspeedway, Christopher Bell and the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing team had nearly erased its deficit to Kyle Larson. But in a matter of seconds — and one costly pit-road entry — Bell now faces the steepest uphill climb of his postseason campaign.
Bell led a group of Toyotas onto pit road on Lap 56 but failed to have enough front-brake bias in the No. 20 car, causing him to spin and slam the inside wall. The damage quickly compounded, as Bell suffered two right-front tire failures within the next 10 laps. He took the checkered flag in 35th place, 12 laps down.
“Nobody in the field had any data of where the car needed to be, where your brake marks needed to be or anything like that,” Bell said on Saturday at Martinsville Speedway. “It was a guessing game for all of us and we had many conversations going into Daytona, whenever we first tried the low-downforce package, of what getting to pit road was going to entail and there wasn’t any green-flag pit stops at Daytona. There was no data on what was going to happen or what we needed.
“The minute I touched the brakes, the rear tires locked up and it was game over. It was a matter of not having any data on it and we guessed wrong.”
Instead of departing the 2.66-mile behemoth as soon as Bell returned to the garage, he met with the No. 20 team at its hauler. They held each other accountable rather than point fingers.
“Last week was a trying moment for our team and I was really happy with how we all came together,” Bell added. “It would have been really easy to tear each other down in that moment – and none of us did. I was proud of our group in last week and how we handled it.”
Adam Stevens, two-time championship-winning crew chief and leader of the No. 20 team, took his share of blame for the incident. Like Bell, his mind has shifted to the final two races and facing a 74-point hole to Kyle Larson.
“He’s driving the race car that we prepared, so it’s not all on him by any means,” Stevens said on Saturday. …. “It’s whoever does the best over these 10 and Talladega is one of those 10 and we didn’t do our best last week and that’s the situation we put ourselves in.”
The No. 20 team has now turned its attention toward winning at Martinsville and the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Meanwhile, Larson extended his championship lead by 68 points with a miraculous last-lap charge at Talladega, going from first to 11th and back to first in the final two miles of the race.
But don’t count Bell or either of his Joe Gibbs Racing teammates out. Denny Hamlin moved into second in points at Talladega, 73 points back of the lead. Chase Briscoe is 79 markers out.
“It is a mentality shift. Where we’re at now, we know that the only way forward is to go out here and win two stages and a race and then go to Homestead and win two stages and a race,” Bell noted. “In reality, we have nothing to lose so now the pressure is off. It’s a matter of going out there and throwing Hail Marys. We’re at that point now, so that’s what we’re going to do.”
Bell has secured just one victory through the first 34 races of the 2026 season, but the No. 20 team has been remarkably consistent, recording eight runner-up finishes. His 11.8 average finish through the first six races of The Chase ranks third among all drivers, trailing only Larson (6.5) and Joey Logano (11.5).
Since 2022, Bell has also won one race each at the final two tracks on the 2026 schedule, giving him reason to believe he can still overcome the sizable points gap.
Stevens said: “This is a 10-race playoff. It’s not a nine-race playoff. So, you got to bring your best every week. It’s going to be tough for anybody to make up 70 or however many points we have to make up, but it’s not mathematically impossible. I think it’s going to take some special circumstances, but we’ve been a victim to special circumstances plenty this year. But you don’t want to put them in a position where all I have to do is show up, and I don’t think they’re quite there yet. But another weekend like last and they certainly will be.”