NASCAR CUP SERIES: COOK OUT SOUTHERN 500

September 6, 2026

Christopher Bell

Press Conference

An Interview with:

THE MODERATOR: We are going to continue here with our media availabilities. We're now joined by tonight's race winner of the Cook Out Southern 500 Christopher Bell.

First 500 win after seven runner-up finishes this year, and you open the Chase with a win. Could you have imagined this going any better tonight?

CHRISTOPHER BELL: Yeah, I really couldn't have. Wow, what a night. Darlington is literally the track that -- it is NASCAR. Like, there is no other track that's harder to drive, that rewards a talented driver more than Darlington and the Southern 500. This is the epitome of NASCAR, and I'm just super grateful to be here.

Yeah, it's better than a dream come true.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. I know that there will be lots of attention placed on the Chase and all that stuff, but I just want to know two crowned jewels now, how does that feel?

CHRISTOPHER BELL: I mean, it's just incredible. Yeah, the Southern 500 has always been my golden ticket. You know, the Daytona 500 is a huge race, but it's 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.

Between this one and Charlotte, I'm tickled to death. So I'm really just blessed, blessed to be here, for sure.

Q. You just mentioned between that and Charlotte. Do you rank Darlington higher in terms of the crowned jewels?

CHRISTOPHER BELL: Yeah, I always have because this racetrack is so hard, and the 500 miles here is just -- it is the ultimate test of mental toughness and just keeping yourself in it. My Coke 600 is amazing, but I wish it was 600 miles, so hopefully -- yeah, hopefully I get another opportunity at the Coke 600.

Yeah, I mean, obviously the Daytona 500, the Brickyard are races that everybody wants to win, but you know, these are the driver ones for sure.

Q. Adam mentioned when he came in here that he didn't expect, like, for this to be the place and ultimately ends up being that way, but just overall, I mean, when you look at how this race went, you had the pit road failure and then Chase takes the lead for you right before the rain comes, the ups and downs, what's the emotion in the car when you're in the mix and it's, like, taken away from you, and then you get an opportunity again?

CHRISTOPHER BELL: Yeah, it's just such a long race. Everything that goes on, everybody in the field is going to have, you know struggles and problems. Honestly, I thought I was out of it after the stage two mishap whenever I won stage two. Then I'm, like, we're going to have an opportunity to win this race. Then the pit road mishap. Back to damage control. Where can we end up finishing? Can we bet back into the top 10, top 5?

Yeah, at the end having the opportunity to race for it was -- that's all you can ask for. I knew that that last restart, if it ended up being the last restart, it was all about who was going to be the first car on four tires.

Then Kyle did a great job holding us off with the older tires for a while, and then ultimately, it was just too much. He got ate up. It was all about being that first car on tires.

Q. Kind of the obvious question, but this is certainly huge in terms of the Chase, and if you could talk about coming out and setting, you know -- raising the bar and getting right on Denny's rear essentially with the points?

CHRISTOPHER BELL: I was debating on coming in here and making a joke about my two off weeks that I get since I won, I advance to the next round, I get to take the next two weeks off, but it ain't happening this year. And I love it. I absolutely love it. That's the way it's supposed to be.

Yeah, we're off to a great start, but no off weeks. Right back to work next week at Gateway and going have to -- I still believe that I will have to win more races in the Chase if I want to be the champion.

Yeah, so we're off to a really good start, but there's no more off weeks, and I love it.

Q. With the way your season has kind of unfolded, did you think the other shoe was going to drop at some point and this is going to be another second-place finish, it's going to be another win that should have been, that kind of thing? Did that thought ever cross your mind late?

CHRISTOPHER BELL: Not really because there was so much race left. Obviously the restart, whenever Chase got by me, was -- that was a bummer, but you know, there's still a lot of race left.

I remember under the yellow flag I was having to tell myself that there's still, whatever it was, 40 laps to go. That's a really, really long run here at Darlington on tires.

Yeah, Chase got by me on the restart, and then you know, just went into managing my tires and focusing on how many laps we had left, and I'm, like, the cars are going to change a lot, people are going to start sliding around. Then the yellow came out, and I knew at that point that we were going to be pitting and putting new tires on. Then it goes back to the restart.

Yeah, the restart was just all about, you know, who got out front between the four tire guys. Ty actually, he did a really good job following me through, and he almost got beside me down the front straightaway whenever I got blocked by Kyle. It was important for me to stay in front of Ty. Then, yeah, 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 in the closing laps, for sure. You know, all of these second-place finishes, whenever I'm in second chasing the leader, I never won. Whenever I was in second chasing the leader, I finished second. Whenever I got the lead, I'm like, this is my race, I'm going to win this thing finally. Thankfully the yellow didn't come out.

Q. I wanted to ask you about that. Once you kind of cleared Ty, kind of and you Larson, right, and from the outside perspective, from our perspective, it's like you got four tires, he's gone none. It seems like a foregone conclusion that you're going to pass him. As well as he was holding you off from your position, are you thinking it's just a matter of time?

CHRISTOPHER BELL: I did, yeah, I did feel that. Whenever he got -- he was doing a great job holding me off, but I'm, like, he ain't going to be able to do that for whatever it was, 20 more laps. So I knew that it was just a matter of me trying to build a run, get beside him, and then yeah, he ultimately ended up slipping in one and two there.

Yeah, whenever I got in second and Kyle was on the older tires, I felt like it was mine for the taking as long as the yellow didn't come out, and thank God it didn't.

Q. A lot of my questions have been taken already, so I'm kind of struggling for a second, but kind of to that point about the race for the lead. In previous years before we changed the package to those short-track style package, the leader could probably air block better than what we saw this year.

CHRISTOPHER BELL: It was still very effective.

Q. It looked like it's still a thing.

CHRISTOPHER BELL: Absolutely.

Q. Have we gone in a better direction? Is this Darlington racing like we would think it should be?

CHRISTOPHER BELL: I mean, I certainly -- it's slippery. Like, I don't know if the TV portrays how out of control we are out there. I mean, the cars are -- we have a lot of horsepower and very little downforce in the grand scheme of things. The cars are very, you know, on edge. We're using a lot of brake pedal at Darlington, which we haven't done in years past.

Yeah, I mean, tires matter. The tires can pass the older tires, but you get out there on equal stuff, and you know, it's very difficult to pass still. I mean, I don't know what the answer is other than it would be nice for the trailing car to be able to have some effect on the leader. Like, that is the one thing that we're missing with this package is the leader can defend so well because the second-place guy, we used to be able to pack air. If they went and blocked, you could just approach their rear bumper and get them loose, and then they'd be out of the way where that just doesn't happen here.

The control car has all the power, but yeah, I mean, we have a lot of horsepower and not much downforce, and we're sliding around a lot.

Q. A lot of people in this room have seen a lot of your wins, and I have too. This is probably, just off the top of my head, like the most downright giddy I've seen you in a victory lane setting. Is it purely just because it's the southern 5, or just the way your season has gone? Is it the totality of everything --

CHRISTOPHER BELL: It was probably that damn winless streak I was on. It makes me probably appreciate this more and soak it in more. You never know when your next win is going to come, if this is your last one. Yeah, that was too long. That was too long to go without winning, especially with the product that we're racing with, the Toyota race cars. I mean, they're absolutely incredible.

Everyone else is winning, so you know. And we've been so close. We've been in position. I knew it was just a matter of time, but it was frustrating to go that long without winning.

Q. To work at Joe Gibbs Racing, that's got to be such an advantage. There's so much talent there. Everybody there has won now after today. What kind of an advantage is that, and where do you see the four of you being when this chase comes down to the end?

CHRISTOPHER BELL: Yeah, I mean, I believe that the champion is going to be a Toyota. I said that all week at media day. Then we've got four great drivers, great teams. I don't know. I mean, I go back to, when was it, 2019 when all four of the JGR cars were incredible. This is right there with it.

All of us are still in contention for the title. I believe it will be one of us four or, you know, one of the 23XI cars. We just have a great product right now, and TRD, Toyota has given us that platform, and our teams have hit it. Yeah, we need to make the most of it now, because we know how it goes. Right now we're on top, but we won't be up there forever, that's for sure.

Q. You have Tad Boyd up in the spotter's stand giving you instruction from on high, and it's a very calming voice with lots of good information. How do you process that information, and how nice is it to have a voice like his that, you know, can relay information in a way, keep you calm, give you encouragement, all of that stuff?

CHRISTOPHER BELL: Yeah, I mean, Tad is very experienced. It's awesome to be able to have an experienced spotter that's been around the block. This isn't his first win, so he knows what it's all about. Yeah, he's a great addition to our team.

Q. What do you do next week at Gateway? How do you approach that and heading forward?

CHRISTOPHER BELL: Hit the reset button. One thing is for sure, we were going to have a great qualifying metric for next week at St. Louis, which is super important. We're going to have to capitalize on that, have a good qualifying effort. It's stage by stage. We need to be in position to score points in stage one. Same thing in stage two, and then get a good finish out of the race.

You know, I love this format because every single point, every single stage matters. Ain't no more off weeks.

Q. I remember 24 holding up that big lobster in Loudon and then 25 multiple race wins during the regular season, but how have you and your team dealt with that monkey on your back, and how have you managed being patient to have your ultimate success today?

CHRISTOPHER BELL: Yeah, I think it's just a matter of, you know, sticking with it and talking about Tad Boyd being a veteran on the spotter's stand, like, my entire team are just -- they're veterans. They're very experienced. They've been in the industry for a long time. Even my pit crew, we're kind of the -- we're the old men on the block. Even me, I'm not young anymore.

Everybody, we know and knew that we have what it takes to do what we need to do and what we want to do and get to where we want to go to. Just everybody on our team has the experience, so they felt like we were in the right spot.

Q. Four days ago you said that you cannot win a championship without winning a race, and then --

CHRISTOPHER BELL: I guess I'm still in it then.

Q. When I asked if it was going to be a tall task, right, the winless streak is well known, you said, It doesn't feel like a tall task at all, I think we're going to win, we're going to win. So, A, did you call your shot?

CHRISTOPHER BELL: Whenever I said I was going to win, I meant the race, a race, not the championship.

Q. I know. So did you call your shot for this weekend?

CHRISTOPHER BELL: I guess so. Yeah, I mean, I don't know. Darlington is probably not one I had circled. My wife told me I sucked here (laughing).

So I'm happy that I won at another racetrack. Driving for Kyle, I remember one thing that he talked about -- Kyle Busch, that is. He talked about winning at -- I think he won at every track, I'm pretty sure. Every active track. I was, like, man, that is a really, really -- that's a bad ass stat. Yeah, I just got another one.

You go to the racetracks you've already won at, you want to win a lot at it, but then whenever you go to new racetracks you haven't won at, you want to win too. Yeah, I can't say that I expected to win here, but I felt like we were going to be competitive.

Q. You mentioned this doesn't lock you into the next round. You know what's ahead. With how important it is to come into the first race of a postseason and have it set the tone, does having a win early on and a win so meaningful for you to break the drought as we've been talking about? How important is this to get this one out of the way right now?

CHRISTOPHER BELL: Yeah, I mean, it's a really big deal. I was thinking about the points, honestly, whenever I was in the race. All of us are going to be running up front. At stage one Denny was up there, Reddick was up there, myself. Blaney was fast. Chase Briscoe was up there. I'm, like, yeah, I got to make up 50 points on Denny, who is currently running second or whatever. I knew that it was going to take wins to erase that deficit.

Yeah, we won today and got that, whatever it was, 20 points. I know he had issues. Denny had issues that helped us erase the deficit more, but you know, all of us are going to run well week in and week out. So it's going to be those wins that make the difference that catapult you to the lead in the points standings.

Q. After New Hampshire I saw you walk by. I think it was New Hampshire -- and shake the hand of everybody on your pit crew just to let them know you appreciated what they did. How hard has this 33-race stretch been on not only you, but the guys that do support you every week?

CHRISTOPHER BELL: Yeah, I mean, I'm sure it's been really hard on them. A lot of people on this team are doing their job. Like, they're doing their job, and they deserve to be in victory lane, and it just hasn't worked out.

I love those guys. They're incredible at what they do, and the fact that they had that hiccup at the end of stage two and they had 100-something laps and whatever it ended up being, two or three more pit stops, they had to shake that and get back to work. They showed up and did it. I think that speaks to their experience level. Yeah, it was awesome.

Q. You're still savoring just the ability to win the Southern 500, but what's it mean to you to give Adam Stevens his first Southern 500 win?

CHRISTOPHER BELL: That was cool.

Q. When he told me that, as much time as he spent with Kyle, it was kind of surprising to me.

CHRISTOPHER BELL: You don't get the opportunity to give Adam a new place that he hasn't won at before, so that was really cool. He told me he won an Xfinity race or O'Reilly race, but never won a Cup race here. So that's awesome.

Q. They mentioned on TV that when you broke your wrist at Michigan, you thought your season was over. What were your thoughts then? Because this is such a tough track, did you do something to kind of reinforce your wrist at all for this race?

CHRISTOPHER BELL: Yeah, I mean, thankfully I've healed a lot since the crash. I certainly -- yeah, I didn't know what the future held whenever I was sitting in the Infield Care Center in Michigan.

I thought for sure that I would have to have surgery. So then it was, like, Okay, how many races am I going to miss? Whenever I found out I didn't have to have surgery, I'm just going to be in a cast. I'm, like, Well, as long as I can physically drive the car, I guess I'm not going to miss any races.

Then I didn't know how well I could drive the car. We had a really bad performance in Pocono, and I'm, like, not knowing where we're headed. Then we went to Sonoma and did really well. So that was kind of the turning point that, like, you know, I think we can still have a shot at it.

But, yeah, I've definitely been uncomfortable not really in the car, but after the races. My wrist has just hurt and been sore, so I've been wearing this, you know, sort of a wrap on it. It feels really good right now.

At New Hampshire I was pretty -- I was in a lot of pain post-race, and then Daytona was an easier race on me, and then this one I would have thought would have been really hard, but I feel good. So I think I'm making strides in the healing process.

Q. This weekend was full of irony because I think about Sheldon Creed and O'Reilly Auto Parts. You were waiting for that one, weren't you?

CHRISTOPHER BELL: Christopher Creed finally won (smiling).

Q. Just talk about the irony of --

CHRISTOPHER BELL: That is very ironic. We saved the best question for last, guys. Sheldon Creed won and Christopher Creed won. How about that? Oh, my gosh.

I didn't even think about that. That is hilarious. That is absolutely hilarious. But, yeah, good stuff.