Ryan Blaney, Kyle Larson, Christopher Bell, and Corey LaJoie were among the NASCAR Cup Series drivers participating on December 5-6 in two days of short-track package testing at Phoenix. Shortly after the final session ended, the Spire Motorsports driver made a guest appearance on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, where he detailed what happened and candidly admitted the No. 20 stood out above the rest when it came off the truck.
However, LaJoie revealed, over the multiple sessions, the other teams eventually caught up with the Joe Gibbs Racing car. The driver then interestingly brought up the lone incident in the desert, which, unfortunately, also involved the JGR car and newly-crowned champion Ryan Blaney.
Enjoying some time in the desert breaking in this new Toyota Camry XSE 🔥
“But the 20 car was consistent pretty much on all of those tire sets but a little bit less superior as it went on, as guys started to tune on and balance their cars, optimize them for the downforce packages,” LaJoie said on the show. “He ended up blowing up and putting some oil down. The 12 and I got in it. I scrubbed the wall a little bit, and Blaney pulled in because he had oil all over his car. That was really the most exciting event of the whole test.”
Familiar Problems for Christopher Bell and Joe Gibbs Racing
For fans of Christopher Bell and JGR more broadly, blowing up is just one of numerous mechanical failures the organization has experienced in recent years. The 2023 playoffs provided multiple examples.
Martin Truex Jr. started things off on the wrong foot early in the postseason when the No. 19 blew a right rear tire at Kansas on Lap 4, ending his day early and finishing last in 36th place.
Denny Hamlin joined in on the bad luck late in the playoffs at Homestead when he suffered a power steering failure, lost control of the No. 11 car, and drove into the wall. It severely damaged his car and hopes of making it to the Championship 4 as he finished 30th.
For the No. 20 team, its date with misfortune occurred in the crucial season finale race at Phoenix when the car suffered a brake failure, and like Hamlin just weeks earlier, Bell helplessly drove into the fence. His day and championship dreams both ruined.
Christopher Bell’s Future Looks Bright in 2024
Despite those challenges, there is a silver lining for Bell. He proved in 2023 that the previous year was no fluke. In 2022, the 28-year-old driver was solid in his third full-time season, earning a win and qualifying for the postseason, where he got hot with five top 5s, including a couple of walk-off wins, advanced to the championship race, and finished third.
This year the JGR driver followed a similar path, winning early on the Bristol dirt and clinching his spot in the playoffs. When the postseason started, he once again found himself running up front, recording a pair of top-5 results in the first four races. After a runner-up finish at Las Vegas, Bell won at Homestead and locked himself into the final event at Phoenix. Impressively, his was the only team to make it into the Champ 4 race in back-to-back years.
As they say, you have to be in it to win it. Bell has been clutch over the last two years when it mattered most. There’s no reason to believe he won’t achieve the same or something similar in 2024.
Now, if the team, and JGR as a whole, can manage to avoid mechanical gremlins or encountering some other kind of bad luck, the native Oklahoman just might be able to hoist the Bill France Cup for the organization’s first title since 2019.
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Christopher Bell & Ryan Blaney in Lone ‘Exciting’ Incident at Phoenix Test