Christopher Bell: 'I think we know' NASCAR championship is already decided

Joe Gibbs Racing driver Christopher Bell. IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Christopher Bell: 'I think we know' NASCAR championship is already decided

By Samuel Stubbs | Last updated Nov 1, 2026 6:38 PM ET

Christopher Bell considered the question from NBC's Kim Coon and halfway shrugged.

"It's just another race," Bell said when asked about the Nov. 8 NASCAR Cup Series season finale at Homestead. "Another opportunity to fight for a win, but... I think we know."

Bell will go to Homestead 67 points back of points leader Kyle Larson, who only needs to score nine points in order to lock up the championship.

Bell had an opportunity to take a chunk out of Larson's lead on Sunday after Larson didn't score points in Stage 1. Bell finished the stage in fourth after choosing to pit during the race's opening run.

What happened to Christopher Bell's speed at Martinsville?

Early in Stage 2, it looked like Bell's No. 20 Toyota was capable of winning, though the Hendrick Chevrolet of William Byron soon proved to be the fastest car on the racetrack. After a spin following contact with Joey Logano, Bell scratched and clawed his way to a 10th-place finish and now needs a miracle to win the championship next week.

Two championship contenders go around! @dennyhamlin and @CBellRacing are both collected in this incident. https://t.co/SV38tH7cjr
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) November 1, 2026

"I got tricked into thinking I was better than I was," Bell said. "My team, [crew chief Adam Stevens] did a great strategy call there in stage one to pit and got us a bunch of track position. On the stage two start, I felt like I was pretty good. Adam came on the radio and said that William was running part throttle. I’m at 100%, he’s at 80%. I don’t know, just I was pretty close on the short run, then the long run I fell off."

There were opportunities available for Bell on Sunday, but his inability to take advantage of them, combined with a crash last week at Talladega that put him behind the eight ball, have made his title odds very low going into the final race of the season.

Samuel Stubbs

Hailing from Arkansas, the same neck of the woods as NASCAR Hall of Famer Mark Martin, Samuel has been covering NASCAR for Yardbarker since 2024. When he’s not writing about racing, Samuel covers Arkansas Razorbacks basketball. He's a member of the National Motorsports Press Association and the U

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