Christopher Bell plans on ending the regular season top five in the standings, but he knows that he must improve in one key area to reach this goal, starting at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
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He has to score stage points in the final two races of the regular season, which take place at New Hampshire Motor Speedway and Daytona International Speedway.
"It's mission critical right now," Bell said on Saturday morning. "The stages really start on Saturdays with qualifying, and we had an okay Saturday last week at Richmond, but (Chase) Briscoe beat us on Saturday and that led to more points for them in Stage 1 and we were just never able to catch them.
"We've got to have a great Saturday today and that puts us in position to have good stages on Sunday. So, it's mission critical and we are absolutely have our eyes on being in the top 10 in the stages and hopefully in the top five in the race."
Last week, Bell qualified eighth at Richmond Raceway. This is exactly where he remained during the first two stages of the race. He scored six stage points.
Teammate Chase Briscoe, to Bell's point, qualified second. He started on the front row and ended the first stage in second place. He then ended the second stage in third place, giving him 17 stage points.
Briscoe finished the race in second place, taking his day-long total to 52 points and keeping him fifth in the standings. Bell ended the day with 36 points after a seventh-place finish. He fell one spot to seventh in the standings.
Bell and the No. 20 team have been decent at scoring stage points; they have not been great. They have 152 through 24 races, putting them sixth overall.
Points leader Denny Hamlin leads the way with 197 stage points. Ty Gibbs is second with 195 stage points. Ryan Blaney is third with 189 points. Blaney is second in the Cup Series standings while Gibbs is third.
The other two drivers ahead of Bell are Kyle Larson (177 stage points) and Tyler Reddick (154 stage points). Reddick is fourth in the standings with a series-high five wins. Larson is eighth in the standings. Like Bell, he does not yet have a win this season.
This statement about qualifying is eerily similar to one that Bell made last September at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. He told reporters that he and the No. 20 team were frustrated with how they were frustrated with their qualifying efforts compared to the other Toyota drivers.
"What we have to do better, is we've got to start qualifying better," Bell said at New Hampshire in 2025. "That is mission critical. Oh, my goodness. All of us are — we're frustrated a little bit of how we've qualifying especially compared to our team cars.
"I say that because the team cars are the barometer. If the team cars are qualifying well, then you should be qualifying well too. And, through the summer months, we couldn't even put it in the top 10. We've made gains on our qualifying performance and now it seems like we can consistently put it in the top 10, but our teammates are consistently putting it on the front row."
Bell did not achieve his goal last year. He qualified 19th at New Hampshire before finishing sixth. He only scored five stage points on the day.
The efforts mostly improved as the playoffs continued. He qualified fifth at Kansas, seventh at the Roval, third at Las Vegas, and seventh at Talladega. He finished these races third, third, third, and eighth while scoring 43 stage points.
These qualifying efforts and finishes put Bell in position to contend for a spot in the Championship 4. He ultimately fell short at Martinsville Speedway after qualifying 12th, scoring 11 stage points, and finishing seventh.
This season, the situation has changed. The elimination format of the playoffs no longer exists. Once The Chase begins, Bell and the No. 20 team will have 10 races to contend for the championship.
The current belief in the garage is that a driver needs to be approximately fifth in points or higher to truly be a championship contender once the reset happens. Bell's goal is to reach this mark with back-to-back points-heavy performances or at least one win.
"The new format has put a lot more pressure on every single race," Bell said. "The previous playoff format you very much have this win or bust mentality throughout the regular season. You're racing for wins. And if you don't have an opportunity to win, it's like, 'Okay, well, we'll try again next week and just kind of put it behind you.'
"Now, every single stage, every race, every position, all those points matter and have an impact on where you're going to be whenever the Chase starts and then you're seeding in the Chase.
"I would say the pressure of the week to week has been a lot more this year and it's just going to ramp up whenever the Chase starts. But in all reality, the races that we're doing now before the Chase starts have as big of an impact as those in the Chase."
