NASCAR: Christopher Bell can’t picture replacing a Joe Gibbs Racing driver

Joe Gibbs Racing NASCAR Xfinity Series driver Christopher Bell cannot picture himself replacing any one of the team’s four Cup Series drivers for the 2020 season.

Christopher Bell is currently in his second season driving for Joe Gibbs Racing in the NASCAR Xfinity Series season after winning the 2017 Truck Series championship driving for Kyle Busch Motorsports.

But the 24-year-old Norman, Oklahoma native, who is older than a number of young drivers competing for top teams in the Cup Series, has widely been considered the best driver not competing in the Cup Series for quite some time.

In fact, in August of last season, a season that resulted in Bell earning an all-time rookie record seven victories and finishing in fourth place in the championship standings, he stated that he already felt ready to make the jump to the Cup Series.

Pretty much everyone agreed with him back then, and they would still agree with him now.

Unfortunately for Bell, he was unable to make that jump ahead of the 2019 season. All four of Joe Gibbs Racing’s drivers from last season returning to the team for this season, and although the team formed a technical alliance with Leavine Family Racing, Leavine Family Racing signed Matt DiBenedetto as opposed to Bell.

Bell has now stated that he cannot picture himself making a jump to the Joe Gibbs Racing Cup Series team ahead of the 2020 season either, as he cannot see himself replacing any one of the team’s four drivers.

Here is what Bell had to say about the matter, according to NASCAR.

"“It’s cool, right? I’m honored that people want to know where I’m going to go. That’s better than people not caring, so that’s really cool. I don’t know. I wouldn’t say it’s a distraction just because it goes in one ear and out the other, so it’s not anything that I have any input in. It’s not like I can control that. The only thing that I can control is finishing races and hopefully winning races.“I never really pictured Erik being my hole, and if you look at the Gibbs camp right now, I can’t really picture anyone being my hole because all four of their cars are running exceptional right now. I mean, if you watch any of the races, all four of them are right in the top five. So, I don’t know. I don’t know where I’m going to land, and I’m just enjoying the ride right now. It’s still early in the year. Normally, I don’t figure out where I land until August-ish, so we’re definitely way early in the year to know where I’m going to be.”"

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This could pose an interesting scenario moving forward considering the fact that Bell gives Toyota a lot of credit for getting him where he is in his racing career but he has not committed to remaining within the organization if another good opportunity arises elsewhere, especially if that opportunity comes in the form of a full-time ride with a top-tier Cup Series team.

Denny Hamlin has driven the #11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota on a full-time basis since the 2006 season while Kyle Busch has driven the #18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota on a full-time basis since the 2008 season. Both drivers have contracts to continue driving for the team beyond the conclusion of the 2019 season.

Erik Jones has driven the #20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota on a full-time basis since last season while Martin Truex Jr. is in his first season driving the #19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota after driving for Furniture Row Racing since the 2014 season. From the 2016 season through the 2018 season, the now defunct Furniture Row Racing team had a technical alliance with Joe Gibbs Racing.

Jones is reportedly in contract extension talks with Joe Gibbs Racing while Truex Jr. is assumed to be driving for the team on a multi-year deal.

When the 2020 NASCAR season begins, for which team and in which series will Christopher Bell be driving? According to him, the odds of him driving for Joe Gibbs Racing in the Cup Series at this time are slim. This situation as a whole will certainly be one to monitor closely over the next few months given the ramifications it could have across the board.