Christopher Bell reflects on ‘best qualifying session’ clinching his first pole of the season at Martinsville

Joe Gibbs Racing driver Christopher Bell won his first pole position of the 2025 season at the Martinsville Speedway. Later, in a post-qualifying interview, the latter expressed his true feelings about his run and referred to it as one of his "best" qualifying sessions.

Bell was the 17th driver during the qualifying session and completed the 0.536-mile track in 19.718 seconds with a top speed of 96.034 seconds. He waited for the next 21 drivers to complete their laps until he was declared the fastest driver on one of NASCAR's shortest tracks.

No one came close to Christopher Bell's time, but Hendrick Motorsports driver Chase Elliott put up a remarkable performance as well. He covered the distance in 19.735 seconds at a speed of 95.951 mph but still fell 0.017 seconds short of the JGR driver.

Reflecting upon his 14th career pole position, Bell told NASCAR:

"Yeah, you're telling me it's, I don't know, it's kind of down in the dumps after practice, but that was the, definitely the best qualifying session I've ever felt out of my car here at Martinsville. It was; it was just easy, I don't know. I've been really good at qualifying in the 20. And I went out there, and the car had so much grip. It just it cut a really good lap."

"Really proud of every one on this 20-team. They've been working hard to improve our Martinsville package, and, yeah, well, we'll see what happens tomorrow, but regardless, starting up front, it's gonna be a huge help," he added.

Christopher Bell's teammate and oldest driver on the grid, Denny Hamlin, qualified fifth for the 400-lap race. He was followed by Martin Truex Jr.'s replacement, Chase Briscoe, in 11th place and the #54 Toyota Camry XSE driver, Ty Gibbs, in 13th place.

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Joe Gibbs Racing ace Christopher Bell paid a special tribute to his mentor and icon

Ahead of the Martinsville Speedway weekend, NASCAR Cup Series driver Christopher Bell and his team announced their livery for the throwback weekend at Darlington Raceway. The JGR driver will honor Rick Ferkel at the Cup and Xfinity Series race scheduled for April 6, 2025.

Before dominating the Cup Series, Bell had Rick Ferkel as his mentor. Ferkel was an original World of Outlaws member and won over 400 featured events before he passed away in January 2024.

Christopher Bell expressed his true feelings about the paint scheme and stated (via Joe Gibbs Racing):

"Rick really helped put me on the national scene by giving me my first opportunity in a full-blown sprint car [...] He hired me to drive a sprint car when I was a 16-year-old kid. I moved in with him and his family for a while."

"After I left Rick Ferkel Racing, he became a life mentor, a driver coach, and someone that I would lean on every week for advice, and he’d check in to see how I was doing. Rick always preached to me to make sure I drove as hard as I could at all times, and I’m honored to get to pay tribute to him at Darlington," he added.

Bell will drive the #19 Sports Clips Toyota Supra GR in the Sport Clips Haircuts VFW Help a Hero 200 on April 5, 2025. Meanwhile, in the Cup Series race, the Goodyear 400, the JGR will get behind the wheel of the #20 DEWALT Toyota Camry XSW.

The 30-year-old driver ranks fifth on the points table with 186 points to his credit. He has secured three wins, three top-five, and three top-ten finishes in six starts so far this season. He has an average start of 18.5 and an average finish of 12.5.