“Definitely not the one I circled as a potential win”: Christopher Bell comes clean after claiming the controversial Atlanta win

Christopher Bell won last Sunday as the caution flag came out on the final lap of the Ambetter Health 400 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. But a win at Atlanta wasn’t something that the Joe Gibbs Racing driver was hoping to deliver.

Christopher Bell explained his point as he spoke with Kevin Harvick during a recent episode of the latter’s Happy Hour podcast. Winning one of the first couple of races of the season was indeed a great way to start the year given that it corkscrewed him into the playoffs, but Bell, who is not a “superspeedway guy” himself had his eyes set on other racetracks in the weeks to come.

“You know how hard the season can be starting off with Daytona, Atlanta back to back,” said the Oklahoma native. “Fortunately, getting a win in the first two races is always amazing, but to do it at Atlanta which is definitely not one that I had circled as a potential win, is something that is gonna hopefully carry forward.” (0:50)

Christopher Bell started 32nd (Row 16) but meticulously gained positions while the race continued. As he battled Hendrick Motorsports ace Kyle Larson and Carson Hocevar of Spire Motorsports, a multi-car wreck took place behind the leaders, forcing NASCAR to wave the yellow flag.

As per the rules, the field was frozen under the white flag and Bell, the then-leader, was announced the winner. Needless to say, Bell hopes to replicate his success next week at COTA, then at Phoenix, and again at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Speaking of which, he said,

“Just now we're getting into the bread and butter of our schedule going into COTA and then Phoenix, Vegas are all racetracks that I feel like our team can do really well, score a lot of points, and be contending for wins.”

Bell’s next race, which will be at Circuit of The Americas (COTA), is scheduled for March 2. Fans can watch him in action exclusively on FOX or listen to live radio updates on PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio from 3:30 pm ET onwards.

Coach Joe Gibbs reflects on Christopher Bell’s win amidst his team’s underwhelming qualifying efforts

None of the Joe Gibbs Racing drivers qualified better than 25th for last Sunday’s race at the 1.5-mile quad-oval in Hampton, Georgia. So there was a lot of work for the entire JGR camp ahead of the event.

Team owner Joe Gibbs opened up on the same during a post-race media availability.

“The day started off with us yesterday, I guess you could say, instead of today with qualifying,” Gibbs said. “I don't think we've ever qualified that far back, all of our cars. So we knew we were going to have to do a lot of work today.”

But they did come through. Christopher Bell won his 10th career victory in the NASCAR Cup Series and his teammate Denny Hamlin bagged his first top-10 finish of the season. However, Chase Briscoe and Ty Gibbs finished 21st and 32nd, respectively.

“I really felt like our other three cars, we just kind of kept fighting all day long, worked our way up, and eventually with restrictor plate and particularly here at Atlanta you have to have things go your way,” coach Gibbs further explained.

As of now, Christopher Bell is the only Joe Gibbs Racing driver qualified for the playoffs. All eyes are on the other three JGR drivers as NASCAR prepares for its upcoming road course race at COTA.