“Two separate things”: Christopher Bell shares his insight into qualifying and racing in NASCAR

NASCAR driver Christopher Bell has had a fantastic start to the 2025 Cup Series season, with back-to-back wins in the last three races. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver is currently second in the championship behind William Byron, who won the only other Cup Series race, the Daytona 500.

However, Christopher Bell hasn't had the best qualifying record this season. He qualified P20 for the Daytona 500, P32 at Ambetter Health 400, P19 at the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix, and P11 at the Shriners Children's 500. Despite the poor qualifying, Bell managed to win three races.

The Joe Gibbs Racing driver recently came out before the Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and detailed his insights into NASCAR qualifying and racing. Christopher Bell explained the differences between the two as he reflected on his poor qualifying form this season and how a bad qualifying doesn't result in a poor race.

“We have come to learn - at least from my group - qualifying and racing is kind of two separate things. How you qualify doesn't necessarily dictate how you are going to run in the race,” said Bell (via Speed Digest)

The JGR driver then reflected on how he's been lucky with the pit stall selection, which is crucial for qualifying, yet hasn't managed to put it to good use. Christopher Bell claimed himself to be lucky to get away from poor qualifying results and suggested that qualifying at intermediates like the Las Vegas Motor Speedway has been his strong suit. He added:

“We've gotten away with our poor qualifying efforts, so far, but yeah, certainly, we want to focus on qualifying, but we've learned, where we qualify doesn't mean nothing for how we are going to run during the race. Qualifying at these intermediates has been our strength. We expect to qualify and practice a lot better here than what we've done the last couple of weeks.”

Christopher Bell finished the 2024 playoff race at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway in P2 after taking the pole position. He also led the most laps (155) but was overtaken by 2024 champion Joey Logano.

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Christopher Bell comments on NASCAR’s points system as he trails William Byron in the championship

NASCAR: Shriners Children's 500 - Source: Imagn

Christopher Bell has had three wins and a retirement in the four Cup Series races so far. If it had been a normal championship scoring system like IndyCar, where the winner gets the most points followed by decreasing points awarded to others, Bell would've been leading the championship.

However, in NASCAR, points are awarded for the stages followed by the points for the final result. Despite trailing William Byron in the championship, who has more stage points than Bell, the JGR driver hailed NASCAR’s points system as he said,

“I genuinely think that the points format is really cool the way that it is because it rewards running well throughout the entire race. I’ve gotten great finishes and won the races. But at Atlanta, I led one lap, and at COTA, I led nine laps. The car that I’m racing – William Bryon – has scored more stage points than me. I’m content with the point system and understand the reason why I’m not leading the points is because I haven’t scored stage points,” he said (02:28 onwards).

William Byron sits on top of the championship with 165 points (including 45 stage points), whereas Christopher Bell is P2 with 152 points. However, the JGR driver only has 26 stage points to his name.