"You've got to be f****** kidding me," Christopher Bell radioed in anger as he crossed the finish line at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. After leading 155 of 267 laps, he finished second — just 0.662s shy of winning the race and an automatically advancing into the NASCAR Cup Series Championship 4.
They did all they could do. #NASCARPlayoffs pic.twitter.com/0ei2yKqxS1
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) October 20, 2024
But there's nothing the driver of the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota did wrong. He never made a mistake. His pit stops were fast and he maintained an advantage over William Byron and Alex Bowman through the final cycle of green-flag stops. But that didn't stop Joey Logano from stretching the fuel and stealing the win out from under him anyway.
"I don’t know, and I don’t think I’ve come to terms with it yet," said Bell in his immediate post-race reaction.
"Just a bummer. Everyone on this team did everything perfect today. This thing was obviously on rails, the pit crew did an amazing job, Adam (Stevens, crew chief) called an amazing race. We did everything we needed to put the Camry into victory lane, and unfortunately, it wasn’t meant to be today.”
While the way he lost may be different, this isn't exactly a new feeling for Bell leaving the Round of 8 playoff race at Vegas. He started from pole in Sunday's event and led the most laps. Last year was a similar story, starting from pole and remaining in contention for most of the day. In the final moments, he ran down Kyle Larson and was literally touching his back bumper as they took the checkered flag, losing by 0.082s. Back then, he said it felt like he missed out on the 'golden ticket', which likely aligns with his feelings after Logano's victory last weekend.
But in 2023, Bell did not crumble after such a agonizing loss. No, he stepped up and won the very next week at Homestead-Miami Speedway. As he aims to make the Championship 4 for the third consecutive year, could we see history repeat itself yet again at Homestead?
“It is a whole new race next week," said Bell. Despite last year's success, he was hesitant to say that things will go the same way they did one year ago. "This track means nothing for next week, and fortunately, we were able to go and win in Homestead last year, but nothing is guaranteed. Just because I ran second this week, doesn’t mean I’m going to finish anywhere next week. I think the points look pretty good, which is a positive, but you are never safe in this deal. We needed to win today, and unfortunately, we didn’t. We will go on to the next one.”
The good news for Bell is that he has more points than any of the seven playoff drivers not yet locked in after Vegas, holding a 42-point buffer. But as we've seen in recent years with this round, a win from the very capable drivers below the cut-line can and will erase that deficit. The NASCAR playoffs are all about the 'win and you're in' system, and it's never more important than it is in this round -- even more so than the finale.
