"I was bummed": Christopher Bell opens up on NASCAR's rejected suggestion for the All-Star race

Christopher Bell recently opened up on his thoughts and opinions about the All-Star race. The All-Star race is NASCAR's annual exhibition race which takes place in the middle of a season. While the race itself doesn't pay points, the winner of the event takes home $1 million.

From 1987 until 2019, the race was held at Charlotte Motor Speedway. But the venue was shifted to Bristol in 2020, Texas in 2021 and 2022, and as of now, North Wilkesboro from 2023 onwards.

Ahead of this Sunday's All-Star race, Christopher Bell was asked about his ideas regarding the identity of the event going forward. The #20 driver said:

"I was bummed that we didn’t get to do the ‘run what you brung’ thing. I thought that was really cool. I understand the reasoning behind it, and how it does make it a really expensive event, but I genuinely enjoy trying different things."

"I, obviously, haven’t been around the sport for that terribly long, but where we at – Texas Motor Speedway, we tried a different package a few years ago. Here we had the option tire, which I’m not a big fan of the option tire, but I think it is a good event to try that. I would have loved to try something and see if you hit on something. I think this and the Clash are two events that are great opportunities to try and improve our sport,” Bell added.

Bell was further asked whether he feels the All-Star race is just like 'any other race' on the calendar. He claimed that it is, but only 'a little bit.' Bell pointed to the unique format of the event as well as the aspect of a million dollars on the line.

Because of those things, Christopher Bell claimed drivers don't race the way they would in any other event. He mentioned that during his early days in the Cup Series, the one thing that took him by surprise was that the All-Star isn't 'just another race.'

He claimed that every driver is a little bit more aggressive than a usual Sunday race because of the 'win it or wear it attitude.'

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Christopher Bell comments on the future of North Wilkesboro Speedway on the NASCAR calendar

After Texas hosted the All-Star race for two years, NASCAR announced that the event would be shifted to the iconic North Wilkesboro Speedway. The racetrack, which holds a special place in the sports' history, underwent repaves and restoration to make it ready to host the million-dollar exhibition race.

But this season, it'd be the third straight year for NWS to be the host of the All-Star race. And as per Christopher Bell, coming back to the facility for the third consecutive season shouldn't ideally be in the form of the All-Star race.

"Hopefully, the future of this venue is to have a Cup Series race year-in and year-out. I think it is a deserving venue. We should be at these race tracks, and I think there is a lot more tracks throughout the country that the sport should invest in and bring back. I would love to continue to diversify the schedule and get to where we are going to tracks one time a year, and I think the crowds would be much larger if that was the case," Christopher Bell described.

He added that NWS is 'an amazing racetrack'. Bell mentioned how coming to race in 2023 was 'super, super special' as he deemed it to be 'a huge success.'