Christopher Bell entered Chase Media Day bursting with confidence as he predicted that race wins would be required to win this season's championship and a Toyota driver would win the 2026 title.

In the opening race of the Chase in Darlington, Bell delivered and provided exclamation point to his comments by winning the Cook Out Southern 500 1.038 seconds in front of Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Ty Gibbs. His first victory on the season after an agonizing seven second-place runs in the first 26 races sent Bell to second in the standings from sixth with Denny Hamlin having a runner up finish in 18 th in points 12 points out of the lead.

"There is no other track that's harder to drive that rewards a talented driver more than Darlington and the Southern 500," raved Bell. "This is the epitome of NASCAR. It's better than a dream come true.

"The Southern 500 has always been my golden ticket. The Daytona 500 is a huge race but it is not a driver's track. There's a lot of things that go into that outside of your control.

The Southern 500 is the ultimate driver's race.

This race track is so hard, and the 500 miles here is just it is the ultimate test of mental toughness and just keeping yourself in it."

Shorty after wining the second Stage Bell thought all chances of winning his 14 th career start were lost due to a mishap in pit road where the front tire changer didn't roll the exiting tire properly to the pit wall and Bell restartied the final Stage in 12 th and he decided it would be just damage control to get himself in position, then race his way to the top 5.

During the final caution period starting on lap 336 in this 367-lap event, only Kyle Larson, Austin Cindric, Ryan Preece and Joey Logano didn’t pit for fresh tires on the final stop and Bell new If it was the last restart then the number one car would win the final laps at Darlington if the vehicle were first to be running in position.

"Ty (Gibbs) did a really good job following me through and he almost got beside me down the front straightway whenever I got blocked by Kyle (Larson)," stated Bell. "It was important for me to stay in front of Ty. Then, once I got the lead I knew I was in the driver’s seat.

"It felt damn good to be able to lead the race on the closing laps. All of those second place runs whenever I am second going after the leader I have never won one and whenever I got the lead, I am like, this is my race and I am going to win this sucker."

Leading into this year's Chase it was well stated through the motor sports community that Toyota cars were favorites to be crowned the champion of NASCAR in the Cup Series and the championship would be considered a loss by co-owner of JGR Heather Gibbs, if not won this season. Currently 1, 2, 5, and 6 in the standings with JGR cars. 23XI Racing is the other Toyota entry in the top 6 of the standings, where Ty Gibbs has a runner-up finish to Hamlin with a 5th in points.

The 3 rd place entry in the final six standings is Ryan Blaney with Team Penske, 16 pts behind leader Hamlin.

Bell described how incredible the Toyota NASCAR Cup cars are. "All of us are still in the chase for the championship and I do believe that one of the four JGR entries, or maybe one of the 23XI cars will do it. We’re doing a great job right now, Toyota and TRD has provided an excellent product for our teams."

Written by

Lakshya