Christopher Bell, NASCAR’s quiet contender, knows he’s “as big a threat as anyone”

Last year, Netflix released its first season of “NASCAR: Full Speed,” a docuseries following the 2023 Cup Series. The film crew zeroed in on potential championship contenders, planning to shadow the eight drivers they expected to make it to the end. When Christopher Bell made the top eight, they brought him on screen almost randomly.

“I wasn’t in that plan, was I?” Bell asked.

“You were never in that plan,” they responded.

“Imagine that.”

Bell made NASCAR’s final four (formally called the Championship Four) in 2022, the year before Netflix filmed that scene. He made it again last year. This year, with one race left to qualify, Bell has a big cushion over the fifth-place elimination line. He’s led 1,002 laps so far this season, second only to one of the Cup Series’ biggest title threats, Kyle Larson.

The Netflix crew gave Bell the “quiet contender” storyline, and they weren’t wrong. But as he knows well, people notice the “quiet” part — but don’t pay enough attention to the “contender” half.

“I’m definitely quiet,” Bell told Motorsport.com. “I’m quiet and reserved, and people will kind of take that as a weakness. I’m not one of the guys that’s going to be out there hooting and hollering, but I know that I’m every bit as capable as anyone else out there.

“It was interesting to me how the Netflix deal played out last year. They have to pick guys to follow throughout the year, and coming off of 2022, I was a championship contender. We made the final four, then they specifically chose not to follow me because they didn’t expect me to perform well. It made me happy that I proved them wrong and crashed their party.”

Bell, 29, drives the No. 20 car for Joe Gibbs Racing, one of the longtime powerhouse teams in the Cup Series. Modern NASCAR no longer tallies season-long points to decide the champion; these days, the title trophy shows up after a 10-race, 16-driver playoff format. Those drivers get eliminated in sets of four throughout the playoffs, until only four remain. When they get to the last race of the season, points no longer matter — whicheverChampionship Four driver finishes highest wins the title (even if a non-playoff driver wins the race).

This weekend, Bell enters the final race of the eight-driver round, which happens at Martinsville Speedway, in the third seed….