Christopher Bell Poised to Contend for Win at Watkins Glen

Who would have thought a kid, who cut his teeth racing on dirt in Oklahoma, would become one of the best road racers in the NASCAR Cup Series? As Christopher Bell heads into Sunday's Go Bowling at The Glen at Watkins Glen International, there's no denying that the Joe Gibbs Racing driver has shown a penchant for getting it done on tracks where it's a requirement to turn right as well as left.

Bell surprised just about everyone in 2021 as he scored his first-career NASCAR Cup Series win on the Daytona International Speedway road course layout, just one of two NASCAR Cup Series races contested on the iconic road course, which hosts the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona each year.

A year later, Bell used a late-race restart to steal a clutch win at the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL to advance to the Round of 8 of the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs. After another win a few weeks later at Martinsville Speedway, Bell found himself inside the Championship 4 for the first time in 2022.

He reached the Championship 4 again last season, and as he heads into the second race of the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs he looks poised to make yet another long-sustained Playoff run. Bell's Championship 4 aspirations very well could be boosted this weekend as Bell performed well at Watkins Glen International throughout his first three seasons of NASCAR Cup Series competition.

In fact, Bell has the best average finish of anyone in the field at the eight-turn, 2.450-mile road course located in New York. Bell's average finish at WGI is a staggering 6.0.

That's 2.3 positions better than his next closest competitor, which is Tyler Reddick who boasts a career average finish of 8.3 at Watkins Glen. Could this weekend be his weekend? It very well could be.

Bell comes into Sunday's Go Bowling at The Glen with a relatively comfortable 40-point advantage over the Playoff cutline, thanks to his impressive harvest of Playoff Points, which he carried into the Round of 16.

Aside from Joey Logano, who locked his spot in the Round of 12 by winning at Atlanta, and Ryan Blaney who sits at +45 points to the cutline, Bell has the biggest safety net of anyone in the 16-driver Playoff field heading into Watkins Glen.

With the nice points buffer, and the opportunity to pile on more Playoff Points, which he'll be able to take with him through each round of the Playoffs, you'd expect Bell to have a chance to be a little more aggressive this weekend.

While it's known that he has a great record at Watkins Glen, and he carries a good point cushion into Sunday's race, Bell knows there will be quite a few unknowns heading into this weekend's event.

Among the unknowns will be new curbing in several portions of the track, and a new Goodyear tire compound, which is expected to wear out at a much faster pace than previous compounds used at Watkins Glen. For Bell, the tire compound is the biggest question mark heading into Sunday's race at Watkins Glen.

“Watkins Glen is a fast track. I really enjoy the fast road courses. If there is tire degradation, which we’re expecting there to be, then there will be a huge incentive to not jump the stage to have fresh tires at the start of the next stage," Bell said in a weekly team release.

"On the same breath, the road courses and having that yellow flag – the stage breaks – it really entices a lot of different strategy calls. I’m sure that might hurt the ability to flip the stages if we have high tire degradation but there are going to be some people that try it if you’re mired at the back. It’s going to come down to a very important Saturday and then the tires. The tires are going to be different this year, so nobody knows what to expect.”

If Bell and the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing team can secure a good starting spot in qualifying on Saturday, and get a good gauge of how the tire wear will be in Sunday's race in practice, there's a really good chance that the 29-year-old could score his first career win at Watkins Glen.

Photo Credit: Tyson Gifford, TobyChristie.com