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Christopher Bell Hopes To Earn First Cook Out Southern 500 Win On Sunday At Darlington

by Hunter Thomas September 3, 2026 0 comments

DARLINGTON, SC – Joe Gibbs Racing’s Christopher Bell enters Sunday’s Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway with 11 top-five finishes this season, the second most behind teammate and point leader Denny Hamlin.

Despite having seven runner-up finishes in 2026, the driver of the No. 20 Toyota has yet to win a race this season. Now, he looks to tame the Lady in Black in opening race of The Chase.

“Best second place finish was probably Indy,” Bell said. “Yeah, that was that was a great second place finish. I qualified bad, we ran bad all day. I shouldn’t say we ran bad. We improved all day, but certainly second was the best we were all day, so that was awesome. Indy was by far our best second place finish. And then, I don’t know, man. The worst one is hard. I would say Nashville probably or Phoenix. I completely forgot about Phoenix. Oh, my goodness. We’ve got a lot of bad ones. Phoenix, I had the race in control all the way until the yellow flag. That was too tough to answer.”

If there was a track for Bell to break through for a win, Darlington Raceway would probably towards the top of his list. Toyota Racing has won the last three races at the track, Too Tough To Tame, and Bell has earned four top-10 finishes with a best finish of third in the 2024 Cook Out Southern 500.

“I’ve been kind of making a small joke that if I am going to be the champion, then I better have a points gap on the field going into Talladega, the final three,” Bell said. “So, yeah, certainly our strength is the beginning of it. The first seven are all really good tracks for me. So, I think my best hope is that I have a points gap going into the final three.”

Over the past five seasons, Bell has advanced deep into NASCAR’s Postseason, which has been rebranded to The Chase this season. Last year, he topped out in sixth but in 2022 and 2023, he made it to the Championship 4. If Bell can get out of Darlington with a stout finish or even a win, he’ll be in good position early on to make it to Homestead-Miami Speedway as a championship competitor. The challenge at hand, though, is that he sits sixth in the standings, already 50 points behind Hamlin, so he has no room for error.

“I feel really good about where we’re at,” Bell said. “I’m not gonna sit here and tell you that we’re gonna be the champion in 10 weeks, but I think that we’re certainly capable of it. I do believe that the champion will be a Toyota. And, I think the champion will come from the top six seeds. I am pretty confident in those statements. So, we’ll see if they turn out right or wrong. I am confident in those statements.”

The Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway will broadcast live on the USA Network at 5 p.m. ET on Sunday.

Photo Credit: Hunter Thomas/TheFourthTurn.com