Bell’s 2025 balancing act with NASCAR and his long-awaited return to the dirt

After a thrilling battle with Kyle Larson, the Toyota-powered entry of Christopher Bell came away with the win at the Non-Wing Outlaw Golden Driller in the Tulsa Shootout earlier this month. Climbing from his car victorious, he shouts, “I’ve got four words: Thank you Joe Gibbs!” 

And he had plenty of reasons to be thankful. Bell, a three-time winner at the Chili Bowl Nationals and Turkey Night Grand Prix, was told by his team that he was not be permitted to dirt race anymore in 2023. After a two-year hiatus, he’s back and collecting trophies, but why was he put on the sidelines to begin with?

“Most of the people in the company have been on board with dirt track racing and have been in favor of it,” said Bell in a media scrum at the Chili Bowl earlier this week. “Joe has just always been really wary of it and he wants to make sure that I stay healthy throughout the entire NASCAR career and anytime that you open it up to do other races, it’s risky. So I’m trying to show him the utmost respect and choose my races wisely and make sure that I’m not taking anything away from my NASCAR Cup Series schedule.”

Bell also believes dirt racing can help to “improve my Sunday [NASCAR] results and become a better racer.” The Toyota driver has made the Championship 4 twice in the last three seasons, but the Cup title still eludes him, while fellow dirt racing enthusiast Larson is constantly on the dirt and still manages to be one of the top drivers in all of NASCAR.

Yet, even in this return, don’t expect Bell to be running the amount of events Larson is accustomed to. For example, the prestigious Knoxville Nationals is likely not on his schedule for 2025. And that’s not an order from Coach Gibbs himself — just Bell being reasonable as he plans for the year ahead.

“[Joe Gibbs is] really putting a lot of trust in myself and our competition group at Joe Gibbs Racing to make smart decisions and make sure that I’m managing the risk properly and running races that will benefit myself as a driver, allow me a little bit more freedom to have fun. And Saturday races [like Knoxville] are gonna be very, very tough, if not impossible for me to do because I don’t want to do anything that would deter me from my maximum performance on Sundays.”

An Indy 500 in Bell’s future?

While on the topic of open-wheel cars, Motorsport.com’s Joey Barnes asked Bell about his Indy 500 aspirations and if Gibbs would allow him to attempt ‘The Greatest Spectacle in Racing.’

“Going back to what I said earlier, I want to respect Joe and not take advantage of what he’s giving me right now,” Bell said. “I feel like if I were to run the Indy 500, I wouldn’t be able to put my maximum effort into one of our biggest races of the year at the Coca-Cola 600 [where Bell is the defending winner].

“I would never rule out the Indy 500. I would love to compete in it one day, but right now, I still have a lot left on my NASCAR resume before I’m willing to jeopardize performance on a huge weekend in NASCAR.”