The third-year Cup driver at Joe Gibbs Racing had started the season getting caught up in a wreck in the Daytona 500 and a week later retired after 94 of 200 laps at Auto Club Speedway in California with engine failure.
After a 10th-place finish at Las Vegas – on a weekend where he did win the pole – he spun out at Phoenix and finished a disappointing 26th. That left him 30th in the series standings and seemingly a long way from a win or the playoffs.
Now, entering the season finale championship race at Phoenix Raceway this weekend, Bell is one of the four drivers eligible to win the series title joining Joey Logano, Chase Elliott and Ross Chastain.
Not only that, but he’s the only driver in the Championship 4 who has won more than one playoff race this season.
How times have changed
While Bell and his No. 20 JGR Toyota team always believed the potential existed to rise among the best that doesn’t mean there weren’t doubts – and plenty of obstacles to overcome – along the way.
“I remember telling Bell when we were (30th) in points, he was distraught and concerned,” Bell’s crew chief Adam Stevens explained.
“I’m like, ‘Dude, I do not know what you’re worried about. We have the performance, and the capability is right there, you’re just having trouble seeing it’.”
Said Bell, “You were definitely a lot more positive than I was in that moment.”
Stevens said he was confident Bell and the No. 20 “weren’t that far off” from the teams running up front each week.
“We suffered for finishing, we didn’t suffer for performance. We were certainly not a (30th)-place team,” Stevens said. “Our set-ups weren’t where they needed to be at the start with this new car, but we were learning.
“We were capable of running up front. We crossed the finish line at (first) Atlanta P2, got bumped to the back for going under the yellow line. We were up front (first) Vegas, got loose over the bumps and spun out racing for the lead.
“That was potential performance. Two top-fives gone that were well within our grasp.”
Slowly, the team inched back up the standings as its finishes began matching its performance on the track.
Bell finished third at Circuit of the Americas, led 63 laps and ended up sixth at Richmond, Va., and grabbed seventh at the Bristol Dirt Race.
As the season entered the spring and early summer months, Bell found his groove. He put together a string of five consecutive finishes of ninth…
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