Longtime NASCAR sponsor Mobil 1, the Official Motor Oil of NASCAR, recently launched the "Every Mile Matters" campaign, a television commercial that features raw footage of Joe Gibbs Racing driver Christopher Bell as he climbed through the ranks to get to the Cup level.
"It was definitely a lot further up the chain than me, but I was super excited when they came to me with the idea," Bell told FanSided's Beyond the Flag, speaking about when Mobil 1 first pitched the popular new TV spot.
"Mobil 1 has just been such a huge part of my racing journey, and that ‘Every Mile Matters’ motto really hit home, because from my first ever mile that I drove in that little yard kart that everyone sees, we were using Mobil 1 through that, through my micro sprints, through my junior sprints, and then obviously all the way up to the Cup car.
"It’s been quite the ride and I was really excited when they brought that storyline of what they were wanting to do."
Growing up, Bell admitted that driving a Cup car was never actually his goal; he simply wanted to make a living driving any kind of race cars he could drive.
"It was not a goal of mine," he admitted. "I had very simple goals as a kid, and it was just to make a living driving race cars. I started racing whenever I was so young, when you never quite know how good you’re going to be or what the future is. When you start as a six-, seven-, eight-year-old kid, it’s just about enjoying it and having fun.
"Then once I got into high school, when the teachers start putting pressure on you like, ‘what are you going to do with your life? Are you going to go to college?’ It was at that point that I pretty much said, ‘I’m going to be a professional race car driver.’ That was my only goal: to cash checks driving cars. It didn’t matter what the cars were."
Bell got that opportunity fairly early on, and he hasn't slowed down since.
"I was fortunate enough to accomplish that goal early on in my life," he continued. "From the time I was 16 or 17 years old, I was a pro racer making a living driving race cars and getting paid to drive race cars for different people.
"I never really looked and said, ‘I want to be a NASCAR driver.’ That was never on my agenda. It was just to live in the moment and focus on doing the best that I can in that moment. Succeeding in the moment allowed other opportunities and doors to open up.
"For me, I started out driving for my parents. Whenever I got into the adult classes and got out of the youth classes of the micro sprint ranks, my equipment wasn’t up to what it needed to be. Then I got my first big break when I got hired to drive at 15 years old. That was the turning point because I got into great equipment in the adult classes and was able to perform well and win races. It was at that point where it sank in that I think I’m good enough to do this."
So getting to see some of that old footage as a result of the partnership really brought back memories for the 31-year-old Norman, Oklahoma native, and he admitted that it now feels kind of surreal to look back on that journey.
"Never in a million years did I think that I would be sitting where I am today," he continued. "To be the first ever Oklahoma driver to make it to the Cup Series, I think surreal is the right word. I never thought it was going to be a possibility to go to the Cup Series. I’ve just enjoyed the journey along the way and tried to make the most out of every opportunity. It’s been quite the ride."
But for Bell, in some ways, he hopes the journey is just beginning. He is now in his seventh season as a full-time Cup Series driver and sixth with Joe Gibbs Racing, and he won a career-high four races a season ago.
This year, Bell has already led more laps than he did all of 2025, although the finishes have yet to go his way.
"It’s been so frustrating," he said. "‘Trying’ is the right word, for sure. But we’ve been performing really well. One of the goals we set out for the 2026 season was to lead more laps throughout the races. In 2025, I was fortunate to win a lot – we won four races plus the All-Star Race – but my laps led were actually pretty low. This year we’ve already led more laps than I did through the entirety of 2025.
"That’s been a really good stat that we’ve been looking at, and I’m really proud of that because it shows great car performance. We’re doing a good job bringing fast cars to the track and executing races well."
Despite a five-race stretch of finishing 17th or worse, Bell has led laps in three of those events. He was leading at Texas Motor Speedway when he was collected by a spinning car a lap down. It was arguably his best chance to win since he led 176 of 312 laps at Phoenix Raceway, only to be forced to settle for second.
"A couple of them have slipped away from my doing, but for the most part, we’re doing everything we need to do to have the results we’re expecting and striving for," he said. "It just hasn’t worked out."
But all those laps led, coupled with the outright speed that Toyota and Joe Gibbs Racing have shown through the first half of the regular season, has Bell optimistic that there's no reason he can't still contend for his first Cup Series championship.
"I’m optimistic that if we keep going down this path, it’s going to turn around and we’re going to be in Victory Lane shortly."
And while the elimination of "win and in" has effectively meant that DNFs and poor finishes hurt a lot more now more than they did during the Championship 4 era, one of Bell's reasons for optimism actually stems from the new "Chase" playoff format.
During the 2025 postseason, Bell scored more points than anybody prior to the season finale, yet he was still omitted from the Championship 4.
"I was aware of that for sure, and I feel like that’s been the last couple years of my Cup career," he said of that bizarre statistic. "I’m very excited about the change. I think the new format does a really good job of blending the regular season with this new playoff ‘Chase’ structure."
"One thing I hated about the old format was that it kind of discredited different races. Certain tracks got really rewarded and had a ton of pressure on them. The best example is the championship race. If the championship event is one race at one track and you’re not good at that one track, you’re never going to be a champion.
"I don’t want to use that as an excuse, since Phoenix is probably my best track, but we weren’t able to get there the last couple years and never had a shot at it."
Bell is a two-time winner at Phoenix, but both wins came in the March race. Had his 2024 win come just four months earlier, in November 2023, he'd have been crowned champion.
"The old format rewarded greatness in spurts," he added. "If you won a race in the regular season, the rest of the regular season didn’t really matter. Once you got into those rounds, if you won a race, you could take the next weeks off. If you didn’t win a race, you got shuffled behind the guys who did, no matter how they performed at the other tracks. So I definitely enjoy this new format."
Bell, now a 13-time Cup Series race winner, is a Coca-Cola 600 winner, albeit in a rain-shortened edition of Charlotte Motor Speedway's crown jewel event two years ago, so he is most definitely looking forward to this Sunday evening's running of the longest race on the NASCAR schedule.
But for somebody who simply wanted to drive race cars growing up, there's another pretty big Memorial Day Weekend race that's long been on his radar.
"Hopefully before my career is over," he said of the Indy 500. "I’d love to do it for sure."
Prime Video's live coverage of the Coke 600 is set to begin at 6:00 p.m. ET this Sunday, May 24 from the four-turn, 1.5-mile (2.414-kilometer) Concord, North Carolina oval.
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