Christopher Bell shifts from cast to splint as he continues to heal from wrist injury

JOLIET, Ill. -- Christopher Bell has gotten his left wrist out of a cast and into a splint ahead of Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series race at Chicagoland Speedway. The lingering outcome of his June 7 crash at Michigan International Speedway has led to discomfort rather than pain as his fractured wrist continues to heal. "The pain level has been low ever since the beginning, but I would say my ability to drive the car is the same as what it has been," Bell said Saturday at Chicagoland. "I just keep using the word clunky. Like, I just can't be quick and precise with the wheel, with -- I had a cast on my arm, and now I've got the splint, but my mobility is the same. So hopefully I can gain movement of my left wrist here shortly, and I'll be back to normal." MORE: Chicagoland schedule | Starting lineup His June results reflected the recent abnormality Bell and the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing team have had to navigate. The Michigan wreck triggered a three-week stretch of poor results: 31st at Michigan, 26th at Pocono Raceway and 39th (last) at Naval Base Coronado after rookie Brent Crews substituted mid-race and suffered an engine failure. That, in part, is what made last week's fifth-place effort at Sonoma Raceway so much sweeter for Bell, racking up a whopping 50 points in the process that jumped him two spots to 10th in the Cup Series points standings and further away from the 16th-place cutline to make The Chase in eight weeks' time. "I mean I'm super proud of it, and I'm proud of my team for persevering," Bell said. "Obviously, this has been a trying time with us, and it was depressing after Michigan and then Pocono and San Diego seeing those points slip away and us get closer to the cutline. So it was rewarding to get a lot of points and have a great solid finish, and we're looking forward to what's next. There's no reason that we can't have another great points day here at Chicagoland." [caption id="attachment_517638" align="aligncenter" width="1300"]Jonathan Bachman | Getty Images[/caption] Those hopes took another step forward after Saturday's qualifying session as Bell wheeled the No. 20 Toyota to a sixth-place starting position for Sunday's eero 400 (6 p.m. ET, TNT Sports, truTV, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Bell said he can't overstate how rough the surface of Chicagoland's worn asphalt is. That hasn't been a hindrance to his wrist in his attack through either Friday's 50-minute practice or Saturday's qualifying session, but it will impact how he and his competitors approach Sunday's race. "Denny (Hamlin, Bell's JGR teammate) did the tire test, and he was kind of debriefing with us and telling us what his thought process was," Bell said. "And we knew it was going to be rough, but then I went out there Run 1, Lap 1, and I'm like, holy smokes. Nothing will do it justice for you guys, how rough it is inside these race cars. And what we found out over the course of the Next Gen car, is it does really well on smooth tracks, but the bumps and the rough race tracks are very hard and challenging for the crew chiefs. It's challenging for the drivers because you need that thing as low as you can get it, but the bumps will affect that. So it's going to be a very challenging race." MORE: Crew chiefs Gayle, Fugle preview Chicagoland bumps With the 2026 campaign halfway complete, Bell is simply looking to finish where he knows his cars have potential to take the checkered flag. He was second at both Charlotte Motor Speedway and Nashville Superspeedway, but what preceded Charlotte was a five-race spell of finishes 17th or worse. What followed Nashville was his Michigan downturn -- where he crashed while battling for second. The team's ceiling is winning races and contending for a championship. Its floor? Finishing outside the top 20. "Oh boy, we have them both covered right now," Bell said. "It seems like the lowest of lows and the highest of highs are our capability every single weekend. That's our weakness right now. We need to elevate our floor, and once we do that, we'll be in good shape." As for Bell's wrist, healing appears to be on schedule. "The goal was to be out of the cast for Chicago, and I don't have a cast on my arm anymore, so that's really good," he said. "But honestly, the cast, the splint ... I can wear a normal fire suit, which is nice, and I can wear it close to my normal glove, which is nicer, but my mobility of my wrist is still the same as it would be in a cast. "It's just gonna be (until) whenever I can race with freedom and not have my wrist taped up and locked down. I was hopeful that that would be North Wilkesboro, and I think it'll either be Wilkesboro or Indy, but Atlanta, I think we're gonna take a step backwards and go back to a cast for Atlanta, just with the nature of the beast there and make sure that I have the maximum protection that I can have."