NASCAR: Why wasn’t Christopher Bell promoted to Leavine Family Racing?

Many people believed that Christopher Bell would sign with Leavine Family Racing for the 2019 NASCAR Cup Series season. Here is why that didn’t happen.

Matt DiBenedetto, who is currently in his fourth season competing in the NASCAR Cup Series and his second season driving for Go Fas Racing, took a gamble when he announced last month that he will not be returning to Go Fas Racing in the 2019 season.

That gamble ended up paying off for the 27-year-old Grass Valley, California native, as he has signed with Leavine Family Racing to replace Kasey Kahne, who just announced his immediate retirement after confirming in mid-August that the 2018 season would be his last.

However, many people believed that Joe Gibbs Racing Xfinity Series driver Christopher Bell would end up being Kahne’s replacement.

The 23-year-old Norman, Oklahoma native competed for Kyle Busch Motorsports in the Truck Series in the 2016 and 2017 season. After winning the 2017 championship, he was promoted to Joe Gibbs Racing’s Xfinity Series team for the 2018 season as the driver of the #20 Toyota.

Bell currently sits atop the playoff picture with 29 of the 33 races on the schedule in the books. He has won six of those 29 races, an all-time record for an Xfinity Series rookie.

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It was expected that with Furniture Row Racing, the team that have had a technical alliance with Joe Gibbs Racing since the start of the 2016 season, set to shut down at the end of the 2018 season, Leavine Family Racing would switch to Toyota and form a technical alliance with Joe Gibbs Racing.

Both of these things are set to happen, as the #95 Chevrolet that Kahne drove for the first 25 races of the season and that Regan Smith has driven in each of the last five races is set to become the #95 Toyota next year as the effective replacement for the #78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota that is currently driven by Martin Truex Jr. through a technical alliance with Joe Gibbs Racing.

However, with Leavine Family Racing having signed DiBenedetto, Bell will not be promoted to the Cup Series by Joe Gibbs Racing for next season, meaning he will not be the driver of the #95 Toyota and will instead likely continue driving the #20 Toyota in the Xfinity Series in 2019.

Why is this the case?

Here is what Toyota Racing Development president David Wilson had to say about why Bell did not land the ride with Leavine Family Racing next season despite the fact that they are set to form a technical alliance with Joe Gibbs Racing, according to Yahoo Sports.

"“Between ourselves and Joe Gibbs Racing, we’ve been very intentional about Christopher’s development. Was there some conversation? Absolutely. But we collectively decided to stay the course and genuinely believe it will serve Christopher to invest another year (in Xfinity). It’s not going to hurt him.“One of the challenges of this new alliance is next year we’re…starting from some respects from ground zero (with a new partner in Leavine Family Racing). I don’t think it’s fair to put a rookie driver in the midst of that. This is why Matt will be a good fit. His experience will lend itself to building this alliance and building the level of competitiveness.”"

Should Christopher Bell have been promoted to the NASCAR Cup Series to drive the #95 Leavine Family Racing Toyota in the 2019 season as opposed to Matt DiBenedetto? When will Bell end up landing his first full-time Cup Series ride, and for which team will he drive when he does so?