Christopher Bell 'Surprised' By Spotter's Decision to 'Quit' Mid-Year

In what felt like a shocking development following a win in last Sunday's NASCAR All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro Speedway, the team roster for Christopher Bell's No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing team featured a new spotter heading into the Coca-Cola 600, a race that Bell won a season ago.

Bell addressed the departure of his former spotter Stevie Reeves in a media availability on Saturday at Charlotte Motor Speedway, and the 30-year-old racer admitted he was as surprised as anyone, and said the decision to depart the No. 20 team was solely made by Reeves.

“I was surprised as well," Bell said. "It was all Stevie’s decision. He made the decision on his own to quit, and that is all I’m going to say.”

With Reeves out, that opened the door for Matt Philpott, a relatively inexperienced spotter at the NASCAR Cup Series level. Bell will attempt to gel with his spotter on the fly this weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway, but has the full expectation that it will take some time for he and his new spotter to be on the same page.

“[Philpott] doesn’t have a ton of spotting experience, so I’m going to be spending some time on the roof with him today during the Xfinity race, just to see what he’s seeing, see how he calls it," Bell explained. "We had a really good exercise this week doing an iRace, with him spotting me, and I felt like that was really good to learn his language and what he means when he says certain things. We went through a couple of different items. I wanted something a little bit different. The team wanted something a little bit different, so I thought the iRacing experience was really good, and hopefully, we get a little bit closer during the Xfinity race, but I’m sure it will be a period of time, through many races, before we are fully in sync.”

Bell isn't sure what to expect in the mid-season spotter change, but does have a previous relationship with Philpott, who has served as a mechanic for Joe Gibbs Racing in the past.

“Yeah, I’ve never [changed spotters mid-season] before, so I don’t know how to really answer that, but I’ve been around Philpott a lot as a mechanic," Bell noted. "He was on the 11 (Denny Hamlin) car full time, and he was on my car a couple of times throughout the course of the years, so I have a relationship with him, I was able to listen to him on the feedback that we have online, but I don’t know how to answer that other than we will play it week-by-week and see how it goes.”

It's not a very comforting thing to hear a driver, who is a bonafide championship contender with three wins in his back pocket say that he's going to play things week-by-week and see how it goes, but that's where things stand after Reeves' surprising departure after North Wilkesboro.

With the season already 12 races in, Bell and the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing team were really in a pickle as they were attempting to find a new spotter. Bell admits that while Philpott would not have been high on his list if he were looking for a new spotter heading into the season, that he is thankful for Philpott being available to help him through the tough situation.

“Clearly, there is not a ton of options out there with everybody having jobs and continuing on through the season, so there weren’t a ton of guys out there. Nothing against Philpott, but he wouldn’t have been high on the list with his experience level if we weren’t in this situation," Bell stated, "but with that being said, he is trying to get into the spotter scene, and it made sense to go that direction. I think he did the Martin Truex car in the Daytona 500, so he had his foot in the door with our company, and yeah, it just made sense to give him a shot. I think it is important to say – he’s doing us a favor. We are not doing him a favor. He is doing us a favor by filling in.”

Bell's unexpected new spotter will be one of the interesting storylines to follow over the next few weeks. Will he and Philpott get on the same page quickly? We'll get the first chance to find out in Sunday's Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

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