Christopher Bell eyes Cup Series championship as new Joe Gibbs Racing leader

Sports fans can rarely recognize a "passing of the torch" moment exactly when it happens. 

Said moments are usually looked back on in hindsight as fairly obvious, but often go unnoticed in the moment. 

In NASCAR, these moments happen fairly often. Jimmie Johnson's victory in the 2006 Daytona 500 could be seen as the moment he took over Jeff Gordon's spot as the top driver at Hendrick Motorsports. 

In the same vein, Gordon's 1995 championship could be the moment that the California kid overtook Dale Earnhardt as the "driver of the 90s."

In hindsight, Christopher Bell's incredibly clutch victory in the penultimate race of the 2022 season at Martinsville can be viewed as the moment that the Norman, Oklahoma, native took his place as the leader of Joe Gibbs Racing. 

That's no disrespect to veteran drivers in Denny Hamlin and the now semi-retired Martin Truex Jr., both of whom put up solid numbers during Bell's recent run of success, but Bell has risen above his JGR teammates and is the clear-cut championship favorite from the Joe Gibbs stable. 

After scoring his first Cup Series win with JGR at the Daytona road course in 2021, Bell earned a pair of clutch playoff victories at Charlotte and Martinsville in 2022 to earn his first Championship 4 berth. In 2023, Bell won at Homestead-Miami Speedway to once more punch his ticket to Phoenix, and only a controversial officiating decision at Martinsville in November kept him out of his third consecutive championship race. 

Eight victories and points finishes of third, fourth and fifth over the past three seasons have earned Bell the reputation as one of the best drivers in the sport, and the 30-year-old isn't going anywhere anytime soon. 

Bell and two-time championship-winning crew chief Adam Stevens have proven to be one of the most dynamic duos in the sport, and Bell's chances of winning a Cup Series championship improve exponentially with Stevens on the pit box. 

Going into 2025, Bell is expected to be in the championship conversation all season, and while two superspeedway races to start the season isn't ideal for Bell and the No. 20 team, it wouldn't be surprising to see him break through for a victory at COTA, Phoenix or Las Vegas, which make up races three-five on the Cup Series schedule. 

The Joe Gibbs Racing torch has officially been passed down to Bell. Now, the only question is whether or not he can relay the torch to the championship stage.