Joe Gibbs star Christopher Bell grapples with heartbreak after dominating Vegas yet falling short of victory

Christopher Bell touched upon the disappointing South Point 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, a race where he dominated, only for Joey Logano to claim the victory. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver, ahead of the Homestead race, opened up about the unfortunate event and revealed why it hurts him "so bad."

Bell, who started the race from pole, finished last weekend's race in Las Vegas as the runner-up despite leading over 60 percent of the race. The #20 driver led 155 laps out of 267 laps in total. But in the end, Logano snatched the lead from him, led only six laps, and took the race win.

As a result, the Team Penske driver qualified for the Championship 4, leaving Bell, and six other drivers to race their way out and fill the three vacant positions. While Logano was a happy man after the victory, it was the opposite for Bell.

"Adam [Stevens] told me when we first started racing in 2021, 'I can count on one hand, the amount of time we won the race with the best car and everything went smoothly and majority of your wins come from the days where you don't have the best car or other people make mistakes, and it falls into your lap,' and unfortunately, that was one of those deals," Christopher Bell told Bob Pockrass of Fox Sports.

"And that's happened a lot to us this year. You can start rattling off the races, but it's been a lot of races this year where we have executed and done everything well and didn't win. That's why it hurts so bad."

Even though Bell lost the race, he is not expected to face stiff resistance on his way to Championship 4. The JGR driver stands in second place and is 42 points above the cut-line, seven and 15 clear of Hendrick Motorsports duo Kyle Larson and William Byron.

The #20 driver starts his Homestead race from third place after he qualified in P3, behind pole sitter Tyler Reddick and P2 Kyle Larson. Bell was over a tenth slower than regular season championship winner Reddick during Saturday's qualifying.

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Christopher Bell reveals his target for the upcoming playoff races

NASCAR Cup Series driver Christopher Bell (20) stops for service during the South Point 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Source: Imagn

Christopher Bell opened up on his race strategy for the next two races. NASCAR is all set to host the last two Round of 8 races at Homestead and Martinsville, and Joe Gibbs Racing has a special plan in place for these two races.

Speaking about this, he revealed to the media that gaining maximum points would be his primary target. However, Bell also said that one is never safe in the Round of eight until they have a race win.

"I think that’s what we’re planning on (gaining max points). You know, that’s why you’re in the Round of 8, trying to transfer to the Championship 4. You’re never really safe," Christopher Bell said.

Following this, the JGR star spoke about how he, William Byron, and Kyle Larson would target the same race strategy for the next two races, while the drivers below the cut-line would want a race win to qualify for Championship 4.