Christopher Bell is putting himself back in contention for the regular-season championship with a midseason stretch of consistent performances.
The Joe Gibbs Racing driver finished second behind Kyle Larson at Kansas Speedway on Sunday after scoring 14 stage points. This was his fifth time in the past six races finishing inside the top 10. The lone exception was a crash at Talladega Superspeedway in which Denny Hamlin spun him on a restart.
This performance -- paired with some other drivers facing adversity -- moved Bell up three spots in the Cup Series standings. He is now third in points. He is 85 points behind Larson and 50 points behind William Byron in second.
It was a strong day for Bell, even if he didn't feel like it immediately after the checkered flag waved.
"I didn't feel like we were very good today," Bell said after Sunday's race. "We qualified well, had good pit stops -- never really had any issues to set us back, but on the track, we were constantly going the wrong direction instead of going forward, but everyone fought hard on this Reser's Camry and got us a good finish.
"I don't know. I'm sure I will be a lot happier about it tomorrow and later in the week, but just didn't feel like we were very good, and we were still right there, so I think that is a testament to how good this team is."
The No. 20 team has been streaky during Bell's tenure at Joe Gibbs Racing, which began in 2021. He has won 12 races but has also dealt with stretches where he and the team struggled.
Take last season as an example. Bell scored three wins in the first 18 weeks of the season, but he had seven finishes outside the top 30 in the first 20 weeks. He didn't reach victory lane from late June until the rest of the season but posted nine more top-five finishes and 12 more top-10s.
This season has been a little more consistent for the Oklahoma native. He crashed in the Daytona 500 but then won three consecutive races. Bell finished 12th and 29th at Las Vegas and Homestead, respectively, and then began piling up top-10 finishes during this midseason stretch.
Erasing an 85-point deficit will not be a simple task, especially if Larson and the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports team continue to deliver dominant performances. Yet, Bell and the No. 20 team are off to their best start together with three wins, eight top-10 finishes, and an average finish of 11.2.
The main area they need to address after the trip to North Wilkesboro for the All-Star Race is stage points. Bell only has 62 points earned during the early stages, and he only has one stage win. Adding more as the midseason stretch continues will only help them better contend with Larson and Byron.