Call him biased after winning a $1 million prize on Sunday night, but Christopher Bell is not mincing words. He believes North Wilkesboro Speedway is NASCAR's best short track right now.
The Joe Gibbs Racing driver made this proclamation after beating Joey Logano and the rest of the field to score the first All-Star Race win of his career. He climbed from his No. 20 Toyota Camry XSE and told Fox Sports exactly how he feels about the historic track.
"North Wilkesboro, how about that one? That right there is absolutely incredible," Bell said. "North Wilkesboro, best short track on the schedule."
It's easy to make this statement after winning a race and beating a three-time Cup Series champion. After all, Bell now has a guaranteed spot in future All-Star Races. He no longer has to worry about winning his way in or qualifying through the Open.
However, the Oklahoma native provided a deeper explanation as to why North Wilkesboro is "the best" during his post-race interview. He didn't have the full answer, but he highlighted how the short track provided some of the action that has been rarer at other short tracks.
"Definitely having the progressive banking is helping," Bell said. "It helps a lot. But whenever we go to other repaves, the track just stays really narrow and the track is very slippy until it rubbers up; and then once it rubbers up, it gains a lot of grip, and then if you get outside of the rubber, there is no grip.
"But here, for whatever reason, the rubber smears down, and it gets really wide, and the whole racetrack becomes usable. There might be a little bit of marbles at the very top of (Turns) 3 and 4, but for the most part, you can run all over the racetrack."
Bell also pointed to the tire compound that Goodyear brought to North Wilkesboro Speedway, which it previously used at Bowman Gray Stadium and Martinsville Speedway. This softer compound wore better and helped drivers make passes throughout the field.
They still had to contend with aero limitations, but they went two- and three-wide while battling for position.
One statistic that stood out from Sunday's race was the number of lead changes. Eight drivers combined for 18 lead changes over 250 laps. Logano had the dominant car, which he used to lead 139 laps, but many other drivers still spent time at the front of the pack.
This list includes Kyle Larson, who echoed Bell's comments about North Wilkesboro Speedway being the best short track on the schedule.
"That's by far the best short track we have in NASCAR," Larson said Monday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. "It's really racy, and we have grip and can run multiple lines."