Through two years of NASCAR Cup Series racing with the Next Gen race car, only one driver has advanced to the Championship 4 both seasons: Christopher Bell.
Bell, driver of the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota and legend on the dirt-racing scene, has spent much of his NASCAR Cup Series career flying under the radar — often at the front of the field but seldom getting his time in the spotlight.
As shown in the new Netflix docuseries, “NASCAR: Full Speed,” that doesn’t bother Bell one bit, as he’s scored three clutch playoff wins in the past two years to reach the title round.
MORE: Go ‘Full Speed’ with NASCAR on Netflix | Christopher Bell through the years
“I’m very quiet, reserved. I keep to myself,” Bell said in the documentary. “I don’t want to be known for social media or known for doing dumb stuff. I want to be known for winning races.
“I haven’t won enough to be that guy yet. One day, I will.”
That confidence is well-founded. Driving for JGR, one of the most successful teams in the sport, Bell has won on a variety of different track types, from Daytona International Speedway’s road course to Bristol Motor Speedway’s dirt to the 0.526-mile Martinsville Speedway back to the 1.5-mile Homestead-Miami Speedway.
RELATED: See all of Bell’s Cup wins | Look back at the career stats for Bell
Execution was lacking throughout the 2023 season for the No. 20 team at times. Still, Bell and the crew persevered all the way to the Championship 4 at Phoenix Raceway, where a chance to win the title evaporated after a brake rotor exploded mid-race.
“Our ceiling is as high as any other team’s ceiling in the industry,” Bell told Netflix.
The 29-year-old Oklahoma native carried that mindset to NASCAR Champion’s Week in December, telling reporters he has “unfinished business … because we left so many races on the table.”
To Bell, racing was his only career path, and he never wanted to do anything else. He grew up dominating the dirt ranks, often dueling eventual 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Larson.
“I never had Plan B. There was no Plan B,” Bell said. “I was gonna make it happen, whether it was dirt-track racing or NASCAR racing. I didn’t even think it was going to be NASCAR racing. So, I was committed. Ever since I was in my early teens, I just wanted to be a race car driver.”
Being underestimated doesn’t bother Bell. Never has. So when Netflix producers finally sat down with him late in the 2023 season, the budding superstar realized something: “I wasn’t in that plan, was I?”
“You were never in that plan,” the producer said.
“Imagine that,” Bell said.