Christopher Bell Appreciation Thread

I remember hearing a survey of the 16 playoff drivers just before the playoffs started. I don't remember who ran the survey but when the 16 playoff drivers asked who would win it all this year, 8 of the drivers picked Bell.

He has been my favorite all year although I wouldn't have minded seeing Brad win it either.
 
Tumbleweed said:
I remember hearing a survey of the 16 playoff drivers just before the playoffs started. I don't remember who ran the survey but when the 16 playoff drivers asked who would win it all this year, 8 of the drivers picked Bell.

He has been my favorite all year although I wouldn't have minded seeing Brad win it either.
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He has the best crew chief in NASCAR, and a certain Hall of Famer after putting up with KB's bull**** while winning two championships. Then, he takes on the young Bell, and takes his to two consecutive Final Fours....and hopefully a third. Love this team. I don't know that I'd call him a favorite over Larson, but you are going to have to keep an eye on him if the gets to Phoenix.
 
I love Bell. He will win the Cup Championship next year. Calling it now. He was so pissed this weekend. I like it.
 
Mike Crayne said:
My bet is Bell told him that he was leaving as soon as his contract was up unless he can dirt race.
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Could be. Bell was going racing big time with his father in law and the wife. He had a 410, and a midget, hauler etc. built and bought. Coy passed away and Joe pulled the plug. I know Bell wasn't happy about it. Can't say I blame him. I hope he didn't sell all of his stuff.
 
CBell could always get his Chili Bowl-winning midget out of the living room.
 
Bell had a whole team lined up.

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StandOnIt said:
Sold out Joe must have finally figured out that it's good for business.
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Mike Crayne said:
My bet is Bell told him that he was leaving as soon as his contract was up unless he can dirt race.
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Both reasons are wrong. Bell wasn't pushing the issue, and in fact was completely caught off guard by JGR's policy change. The real reason... Ty Gibbs wants to race some dirt track events. And what Ty wants, Ty gets. Also, with Briscoe joining the team next year, 75% of JGR's cup drivers want to race on dirt. (Source: Jeff Gluck in The Athletic)
 
LewTheShoe said:
Both reasons are wrong. Bell wasn't pushing the issue, and in fact was completely caught off guard by JGR's policy change. The real reason... Ty Gibbs wants to race some dirt track events. And what Ty wants, Ty gets. Also, with Briscoe joining the team next year, 75% of JGR's cup drivers want to race on dirt. (Source: Jeff Gluck in The Athletic)
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That's Jeff Gluck's story. Watching Hendrick Cars.com pace truck driving around in the High Limit racing series, and HendrickCars,com on the front wing of Kyle Larson's #57 dirt sprinter might have something to do with it from the wig's side of TRD also.

Years ago when Coy Gibbs was alive, Bell went to Australia to race like many do during our off season here. Bell was planned to come back and race at the Chili Bowl also. Bell had a bad wreck down there, not bad enough to quit racing at the Chili Bowl, but Joe Gibbs forbade him to do so. That was Bell's last race on dirt period.
Bell with his father in law who was a dirt racer had put together a dirt team for the year after to race a whole lot more but Gibbs put the kabosh on all of that (photo above).

Years later (This year) I saw Ty's name in a roster at Millbridge and thought that was odd at the time. CBell was in the same race? and the rest of the year they haven't raced at Millbridge or anywhere else to my knowledge. (I was looking)
It's good for some to believe that Ty was the key to Bell coming back to what made him famous in Nascar, good for Ty's reputation, but other factors are involved also IMO.

TRD has a large stake and getting larger in the dirt world. I would say easily that TRD has the most engines at any midget race in the country (it's the cheapest one) and it's a bad fast engine, and they have developed a V8 ecently for the 410 sprint cars that is competitive.
To have their best sprint car driver in the world not being able to drive one with TRD plasterd all over it is terrible business.
 
LewTheShoe said:
Both reasons are wrong. Bell wasn't pushing the issue, and in fact was completely caught off guard by JGR's policy change. The real reason... Ty Gibbs wants to race some dirt track events. And what Ty wants, Ty gets. Also, with Briscoe joining the team next year, 75% of JGR's cup drivers want to race on dirt. (Source: Jeff Gluck in The Athletic)
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bull**** post. You spew crap about Ty stirring the drink, and then cite Gluck. Nothing in there like that at all. Nothing. Opinions as statements of fact are consistent here, but misquoting a journalist to support a narrative is crap.
 
I accept whatever the Poacher's messenger has to say on the matter.
 

After more than two years, the football-coach-turned-NASCAR-team-owner will largely lift the restrictions that prohibited his Cup Series drivers from extracurricular racing on dirt. The decision comes as the team prepares to add a second driver with a dirt background to its Cup roster in 2025 (Chase Briscoe is joining Christopher Bell), plus new interest in dirt racing from a third driver, Ty Gibbs.

In a statement to The Athletic, Gibbs said he has “always preferred (drivers’) focus remain on racing in NASCAR.” But with three-quarters of JGR’s Cup roster expressing a desire to race dirt (all but Denny Hamlin), the team “felt it was fair to come up with a process to consider those opportunities.”
 
I wonder if Bell and Briscoe will run Toyota engines in their dirt cars? 🙄
 
Nice for JGR to release this news now, takes some heat off the Nascar antitrust suite in the news.
 
Revman said:
bull**** post. You spew crap about Ty stirring the drink, and then cite Gluck. Nothing in there like that at all. Nothing. Opinions as statements of fact are consistent here, but misquoting a journalist to support a narrative is crap.
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Oh dear, Revman, such drama. Such a moment to clutch one's pearls and swoon. I did not misquote Gluck nor spew any crap, and I have no "narrative" to promote. So I suggest you yap-yap at someone or something else.

The Athletic lives behind a pay wall, so for any that wish to read what Gluck wrote, see the box below...

Joe Gibbs Racing to lift dirt racing restrictions for its NASCAR drivers​

By Jeff Gluck Nov 18, 2024


Joe Gibbs is calling an audible.

After more than two years, the football-coach-turned-NASCAR-team-owner will largely lift the restrictions that prohibited his Cup Series drivers from extracurricular racing on dirt. The decision comes as the team prepares to add a second driver with a dirt background to its Cup roster in 2025 (Chase Briscoe is joining Christopher Bell), plus new interest in dirt racing from a third driver, Ty Gibbs.

In a statement to The Athletic, Gibbs said he has “always preferred (drivers’) focus remain on racing in NASCAR.” But with three-quarters of JGR’s Cup roster expressing a desire to race dirt (all but Denny Hamlin), the team “felt it was fair to come up with a process to consider those opportunities.”

“We sort of talked things over to come up with a process by which they can request to run certain races,” Gibbs said. “If they get approval from everyone they need on our competition side, then they are free to run the race. That includes dirt, but also potentially other forms of racing.”

The decision is a welcome development for Bell, an elite dirt racer who is one of only three people to win the prestigious Chili Bowl Midget Nationals at least three times. Bell has been sidelined from dirt since mid-2022 with the exception of two micro sprint races in May.

“I was definitely caught off guard by the change of policy,” Bell said. “I was super shocked, but with Chase coming on board and Ty growing an interest in dirt racing, it’s nice we have the majority of our team aligned with it now.”

Briscoe, who will replace the retiring Martin Truex Jr. next season, said Gibbs brought up dirt racing in their initial talks about joining the team. Briscoe is a dirt car owner and has also driven on such tracks regularly, though his schedule will be reduced after the arrival of twins last month.

“I could tell it wasn’t a hard ‘no,’ but it wasn’t something at the time they were super thrilled about,” Briscoe said. “It didn’t feel like the door was shut completely; there was definitely a crack. But I didn’t know in my first year getting there, I would still be able to go do stuff if I wanted to.”

Late last month, Gibbs called the drivers to ask for a meeting at the season’s end to lay out the team’s new approval process. Briscoe’s interpretation was that the requests would largely be approved unless they were deemed particularly risky, such as running at Eldora Speedway in a non-wing sprint car, which offers less protection in the event of a flip.

Racing outside of NASCAR has long been a topic of debate due to the risk of injury. Hendrick Motorsports driver Alex Bowman broke his back in an April 2023 sprint car crash, missed four Cup Series races and failed to qualify for the playoffs that season. He has not returned to a sprint car since.

But Bowman’s Hendrick teammate, Kyle Larson, has continued to race in dozens of dirt events each year and has won crown jewel races such as the Knoxville Nationals.

Drivers with a dirt background, such as Larson, Bell, Briscoe and NASCAR regular-season champion Tyler Reddick, have skills that allow them to find different lines on the racetrack or quickly adapt to changing conditions. At New Hampshire Motor Speedway this season, when NASCAR used wet weather tires on a rainy day, five of the top seven finishers were drivers who grew up dirt racing (with Bell and Briscoe finishing 1-2).

Bell and Briscoe have not announced their participation in any upcoming races — both said they had no plans to run the Chili Bowl in January — but expressed relief they had the option to do so. Briscoe floated the idea of running meaningful races such as the BC39 midget event at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and Bell said driving sprint cars in particular is “advantageous” for stock car racers.

After all, he noted, modern-day NASCAR has limited practice time and practically no testing, so the additional seat time could “improve my performance on Sundays.”

“It’s refreshing knowing I’ll be able to do whatever I want to do,” Bell said. “I’m super excited to reconnect with my dirt fan base and see everybody at a dirt track soon.”
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BTW, Bell's one dirt race at Millbridge this year, he finished 4th ahead of Jade Avedisian and Daison Pursley. Ty has been racing at Millbridge since July for Chad Boat. Millbridge for those that don't know is a close local track for drivers in Nascar. Many do race there.
 
StandOnIt said:
Is this another one of your attempts at humor? lol. I was wondering how large they were going to print TRD on the uniforms. I don't think the dirt fans are ready for Gazoo.
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Rhetorical questions are asked in order to make a point rather than elicit an answer. So, no … it wasn’t another weak attempt at humour.

I think dirt car fans will gleefully welcome the guy who won 3 straight Chili Bowls back into the fold and some more NASCAR fans will get dirt in their eyes.
 
aunty dive said:
Rhetorical questions are asked in order to make a point rather than elicit an answer. So, no … it wasn’t another weak attempt at humour.

I think dirt car fans will gleefully welcome the guy who won 3 straight Chili Bowls back into the fold and some more NASCAR fans will get dirt in their eyes.
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BTW if that was directed at me, I could care less what engine they run. It's common practice of the yotas to stick TRD on everything that moves....or doesn't. Being the cheapest way to get performance out of a midget engine, The TRD brand is going to be the most popular engine in the series.
 
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