Christopher Bell calls out his team’s current “sloppy” form after early-season dominance with three iconic wins

Christopher Bell has shared his honest thoughts on the current state of the No. 20 Toyota team's performance in the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season. While the Joe Gibbs Racing driver managed a top-five finish in the Toyota/Save Mart 350 race, he believes the team is "struggling" to keep the momentum it had in the first few races of the season.

Bell impressed with his exceptional talent when he accumulated three consecutive wins at Atlanta, COTA, and Phoenix earlier this year. While the 30-year-old has been running close to the front, he hasn't been able to register a win since then.

Speaking with Frontstretch, Christopher Bell shared his thoughts on his 200th Cup start at Sonoma Raceway. He said:

"Honestly, our car performance was pretty good. The 88's [Shane van Gisbergen] got the field covered right now, so need to do a little bit of homework on that... We probably could have easily ran second where the 19 [Chase Briscoe] did if we execute the day a little bit better. We're just struggling to get a little bit of momentum right now. It's just being really sloppy on all accounts." [1:14 onwards]

"And yeah, to walk out here with a fifth place finish hopefully gives us a little bit of momentum and we can keep it going, build on it," added Christopher Bell.

In another road course race dominated by Shane van Gisbergen, Bell managed a fifth-place result. His last best finish was runner-up at the Mexico City race, behind the Trackhouse star van Gisbergen, where the Kiwi started his road course reign in NASCAR's premier division.

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"The teams and the drivers have to take it seriously": Christopher Bell on the growing number of road course races

Among his three wins earlier this season, Christopher Bell triumphed in a road course race at the Circuit of the Americas. The Joe Gibbs ace driver believes that with the increase in the number of road course races, the field needs to take things "seriously" as it will impact their overall standing in the points table.

In a conversation with Frontstretch's Danny Peters on July 13, Bell said:

"I'm good with it... I like it. It's enough now where the teams and the drivers have to take it seriously. Before, whenever it was only Sonoma and Watkins Glen, you had a lot of teams that didn't take the road courses seriously and didn't put a lot of effort into it." [2:35 onwards]

"But now with so many road courses, you have to be good at them if you want any chance at doing well in the season standings," added Christopher Bell.

After 20 starts this season, Christopher Bell currently stands sixth in the Cup drivers' standings. Apart from his three wins, the No. 20 driver has accumulated eight top-fives and 12 top-10s.

NASCAR will now return to action at Dover Motor Speedway on July 20 at 2:00 p.m. ET.