Christopher Bell could be the most interesting driver to follow in the upcoming NASCAR Cup Series silly season. Which five drivers could he replace for the 2020 season?
After winning the 2017 NASCAR Truck Series championship driving for Kyle Busch Motorsports, Christopher Bell was promoted to the Xfinity Series as the driver of the #20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.
The 24-year-old Norman, Oklahoma native had aspirations of being promoted to the Cup Series for the 2019 season and felt that he was ready for a promotion after a 2018 Xfinity Series season that resulted in him finishing in fourth place in the championship standings an earning an all-time rookie record seven victories.
However, Bell ultimately ended up returning to Joe Gibbs Racing in the Xfinity Series this year. Through the first six races on the 33-race 2019 schedule, he sits in second place in the championship standings with one victory, three top five finishes, four top 10 finishes, two pole positions, 349 of 973 laps led, an average starting position of 3.8 and an average finishing position of 9.3.
A move to the Cup Series is certainly no guarantee for Bell for the 2020 season, and even he is willing to admit that, despite the fact that he is considered and has been considered by many fans the top driver not currently competing in the Cup Series for quite some time. But if he does end up moving to the Cup Series next year, there are five key drivers who he has the best chance of replacing.
Who are five drivers who Bell could replace for the 2020 Cup Series season?
Erik Jones
After Daniel Suarez spent two seasons as Joe Gibbs Racing’s lowest driver in the championship standings and was the only one of the team’s four drivers in both of those two seasons who failed to qualify for the playoffs, Joe Gibbs Racing moved on from him and signed Martin Truex Jr. from the now defunct Furniture Row Racing.
While Erik Jones earned his first career victory in his first season driving for the four-car powerhouse team last year in the July race at Daytona International Speedway and he is reportedly working toward a contract extension with Joe Gibbs Racing, the same thing could very well happen to him if he does not step it up throughout the remainder of the season.
Yes, Jones did win a race last year while Suarez went two full seasons without winning a race driving for the team. But the fact that the 22-year-old Byron, Michigan native’s only victory in 43 races driving for arguably NASCAR’s top team is a restrictor plate race victory is not exactly the best indicator of him having a ton of success.
With Suarez now driving for Stewart-Haas Racing, Jones has taken over as Joe Gibbs Racing’s lowest driver in the championship standings down in 16th place and just barely above the playoff cut line. He finished in 16th in last year’s standings as well behind two of the team’s other three drivers, and right now, the team’s other three drivers are all in the top seven, including two in the top two.
Christopher Bell has been waiting in the wings with Toyota and Joe Gibbs Racing for several years, and if Jones cannot prove that he has earned the right to continue driving for Toyota’s powerhouse Cup Series organization, Bell could move from the driver of the #20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota in the Xfinity Series to the driver of the #20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota in the Cup Series.
Matt DiBenedetto
Leavine Family Racing don’t plan to stop at simply switching their manufacturer from Chevrolet to Toyota and forming a technical alliance with Joe Gibbs Racing in their pursuit of becoming more than a mid-pack or backmarker type team.
They have plans to expand from a one-car team to a two-car team for the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series season, and they have never operated as a two-car team before.
Assuming Leavine Family Racing do become a two-car team next season, it is highly unlikely that Matt DiBenedetto, who they signed to replaced the recently retired Kasey Kahne ahead of the 2019 season, will not be one of their two drivers. Additionally, the team signing Christopher Bell would become a great possibility if this expansion occurs.
But if this expansion does not occur, DiBenedetto could be on the hot seat if Joe Gibbs Racing retain their current four-driver lineup and Bell stays within their organization and the Toyota organization in general, which he has made clear that he would like to do despite the fact that he has not committed to it.
Bell, who is set to turn 25 years old this December, justifiably does not want to return to the Joe Gibbs Racing Xfinity Series team for a third consecutive season given what he has shown he is capable of.
To avoid losing him to a rival team and manufacturer, Joe Gibbs Racing could put additional pressure (and money) on Leavine Family Racing to sign the talented prospect, even if it means he would have to replace DiBenedetto, who has performed roughly as expected in his first seven races driving for the team.
But then again, there is always the chance of Bell breaking away from not only Joe Gibbs Racing but Toyota as a whole.
Daniel Suarez
Joe Gibbs Racing cut ties with Daniel Suarez after his first two seasons driving for the team, as he was the only one of the team’s four drivers who failed to make the playoffs in the 2017 season, and the same was able to be said about him in the 2018 season.
Additionally, Suarez was the only one of the five drivers who drove for Joe Gibbs Racing at any point in the 2017 and/or 2018 seasons who failed to win at least one race during this span, and this was the case despite the fact that he was one of the three drivers who drove for the team on a full-time basis in both of those seasons.
While the 2019 season has been better for Suarez after he made the move to Stewart-Haas Racing and replaced Kurt Busch as the driver of the #41 Ford, he is the lowest of the team’s four drivers in the championship standings down in 14th place, and he has recorded just one top nine finish, a third place finish in the race at Texas Motor Speedway, through the season’s first seven races.
Like he was in both seasons driving for Joe Gibbs Racing, Suarez is Stewart-Haas Racing’s lowest driver in the championship standings.
To struggle for three consecutive seasons driving for both of the sport’s current powerhouse teams would not bode well for Suarez, and given the fact that Stewart-Haas Racing team co-owner Tony Stewart and Christopher Bell share a dirt racing background, an open seat of the #41 Ford could be just what Bell needs to break away from Joe Gibbs Racing and Toyota and still land a ride with a top-tier Cup Series team.
With all things considered, it would be shocking if Stewart and Bell have not already had talks about the Joe Gibbs Racing Xfinity Series driver joining Ford’s biggest Cup Series team, which leads into an additional possibility in terms of who he could replace.
Clint Bowyer
It is possible that Christopher Bell will end up at Stewart-Haas Racing but as one of Daniel Suarez’s three teammates as opposed to his replacement, and this could happen if he replaces Clint Bowyer behind the wheel of the #14 Ford.
Bowyer replaced Tony Stewart behind the wheel of the #14 car, which was the #14 Chevrolet when Stewart drove it, ahead of the 2017 season.
While the career of the 38-year-old Emporia, Kansas native has been somewhat rejuvenated during his time driving for Stewart-Haas Racing, especially since he earned his first two victories since the 2012 season last year, there is still an overall performance gap to teammate Kevin Harvick and even to teammate Aric Almirola, who only began driving for the team last year.
While Harvick is the team’s oldest driver, he has no plans of leaving the team or NASCAR as a whole anytime soon, nor should he considering the fact that he is a perennial championship contender who is one of the favorites to win pretty much every race on the schedule.
Bowyer is Stewart-Haas Racing’s second oldest driver, and the only teammate who he has beaten since joining the four-car Ford team is Danica Patrick, whose career driving for a top-tier team is statistically arguably the worst if not the worst in NASCAR history. He beat Patrick in the 2017 season, as he finished in 18th place in the championship standings while Patrick finished in 28th before she retired.
While the 2018 season was a breakthrough season for Bowyer in that it was the season during which he put his 190-race win drought in its grave, it could still be considered a year during which he underperformed in that all three of his teammates finished in the top seven in the championship standings while he finished in 12th place.
So far this season, Bowyer sits in 11th place in the championship standings, and the only teammate he leads is Suarez, and he doesn’t lead by him much with Suarez sitting in 14th. Unless he can secure a few more victories this year, he could be at risk of losing his ride to Bell if Bell breaks away from Joe Gibbs Racing and Toyota to compete in the Cup Series next year.
Kurt Busch
Chip Ganassi Racing’s Kurt Busch is by far the least likely of the five drivers discussed in this article for Christopher Bell to replace for the 2020 season, but the possibility exists for more than one reason.
First of all, Busch only signed a one-year deal to drive the #1 Chevrolet for the team, and he is no young gun at the age of 40 years old. With these two things in mind, it is evident that Chip Ganassi Racing have no immediate desire to commit to the Las Vegas, Nevada native beyond the conclusion of the 2019 season.
Additionally, while Busch has been fairly consistent at recording solid results in both individual races and the championship standings, he hasn’t won more than two races in a single season since he won three races back in the 2005 season.
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The advantage to this is that you know exactly what you’re getting with Busch, but he doesn’t possess a whole lot of upside potential, and in the midst of the youth movement, this logic makes it hard to justify Chip Ganassi Racing retaining him for another season if Bell is willing to leave Joe Gibbs Racing and Toyota to join a Chevrolet team, especially if Busch doesn’t end up winning any races this year.
Finally, the pairing of Bell with Busch’s current teammate, Kyle Larson, would be one that could potentially put fans back in the grandstands. Both drivers are accomplished dirt drivers, and a healthy rivalry between the two stars at the Cup Series level could do wonders for a sport in need of a shot in the arm.
That said, Ross Chastain has been tapped as a potential future Chip Ganassi Racing Cup Series driver as well given the fact that he drove for the team in three Xfinity Series races last year and was supposed to drive for the team in the Xfinity Series this season before that deal fell through. He dominated and won one of these three races, finished in second place in another one and dominated the other one before he was involved in a late crash.
For which team and in which series will Christopher Bell end up driving in the 2019 NASCAR season? Will he be promoted to the Cup Series, and if so, will he replace one of these five drivers? If so, who will he replace? The upcoming silly season should certainly be an entertaining one, especially with Bell’s situation likely to be at the forefront of it.