Christopher Bell aiming to find the missing ingredient of winning recipe after third successive pole at Kansas

Despite having five finishes inside the top 5 in the last 8 races, Christopher Bell hasn't been able to convert any of his good runs into a win, with his last win coming at New Hampshire in June, notably his third win of the season.

However, Christopher Bell would have a huge chance to not only win at Kansas this Sunday, but he could also register his spot in the Round of 8 of the playoffs. And to do that, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver would start from the best place possible, the pole. On Saturday, Christopher Bell won the pole for the opening race of the Round of 12. Following this, he was asked how he plans to convert his pole to a win on Sunday.

“Well, I haven’t done it yet. I don’t know, Kansas has been a weird track for us because we come here, and we obviously qualify really well but it seems like over the course of the long run I just haven’t had what I need to compete with the best cars. We’re consistently good, like we’ve finished top 10 a lot or on the verge of top five, but certainly every race since the Next Gen introduction we haven’t been the winning car here," Bell said [at 2:05].

Christopher Bell mentioned that with some adjustments on his car and working on himself as a driver, he's hopeful of continuing to improve and drive towards a better result.

While claiming that Kansas is a 'tricky racetrack' because of the top lane being so fast, Bell noted that the balance changed constantly throughout the race which deterred 'committing to the top'.

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Pole winner Christopher Bell opens up on his race strategy for Kansas

Further in the press conference, Christopher Bell was asked to share his mindset on Saturday and how different it would be going into Sunday's race.

In response, the JGR driver said that he plans to study the data from practice and focus on the positives and negatives.

"I won the pole here several times and sometimes I’m able to lead and sometimes I lose the start and that’s a big, big part of the run is getting the lead, getting that clean air. If you can get the lead and get clean air, you’re going to lead for a period of time, and then just managing it from there. It starts at the wave of the green flag to make sure that you get the launch and get out front and then that’s a big first step of the race," Bell said [7:47].

As for how aggressive he'd be at the start of the race, Christopher Bell likened it to 'walking a tightrope'. He suggested he'd be trying to balance the risk and reward factor, with the starting stages of the race being far riskier.

Bell further claimed that this risk-reward ratio would change as the race plays out and he would be looking to be aggressive early on to get and/or retain his lead. However, the 29-year-old also mentioned that he wouldn't be too aggressive to avoid jeopardizing his race.