After his second-place run at Watkins Glen on Aug. 10, driver Christopher Bell stands sixth in the NASCAR Cup standings. The runner-up showing was his third top 10 finish in his last six races. Bell started the year hot, winning three in a row after finishing 31st in the season-opening Daytona 500. But he hasn’t been able to find his way back to Victory Lane. His recent surge is a promising sign with the Cup playoffs set to begin on Aug. 31 at Darlington.
Going fast and winning races hasn’t usually been a problem for the 30-year-old Bell, who has been pushing cars to the limit—first on dirt and later on asphalt—since he was five years old. He grew up in Norman, Okla., competing in micro-sprint and midget cars on the state’s dirt-racing circuit. His talent got him picked up by Toyota Racing Development, and he eventually found his way to the NASCAR truck series in 2015. Five years later he made the jump to the Cup series. He joined Joe Gibbs Racing, his current team, in 2021.
