Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour presented by NASCAR on FOX - Christopher Bell Interview after All-Star Win | VICTORY LAP

Episode Date: May 19, 2025

Christopher Bell joins Kevin Harvick on this week’s Victory Lap fresh off his incredible win at the All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro Speedway. Bell breaks down the final laps that led to his $1 million payday, shares what it's like winning a non-points race compared to the regular season, and even laughs about the hilarious moment when Michael Waltrip accidentally dropped the flag. Plus, Bell reveals what he plans to do with that massive check. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I think it has potential to be serious magic. If you got 40 of us out there at North Wolksboro in an afternoon show, it would be lights out. Well, Christopher, you did a great job this weekend, and I tell you what, after the race, the emotion that I saw out of you, that place was electric, and you were pretty excited about everything that just happened. Explain the race and everything that went on there at the end. Kevin, that was wild, man. I was some of the most intense laughs that I've, you know, had in my NASCAR career so far, just closing in on Joey, knowing that it's basically winter bust. Like, you very rarely have those opportunities where it's like, it really is win it or wear it. And I, yeah, I felt like it was going to be an easy pass.

Whenever I had the two tires, I had the tire advantage on him, and I was able to close the gap. I really thought that I was going to drive right by him. And then really good moves in front of me to make me slip. And then I fell back. And I'm like, oh, man, I don't know that I'm going to have the opportunity to get back to him. And then thankfully I did. I had enough pace with the newer tires to get back to them. And I knew that I had to seize the moment.

I had to, you know, make it happen if I was going to win that race. talk about the racetrack because the fact that it moved up as high as it did gave you guys a lot of options were you guys expecting the racetrack to be that wide Kevin it was it was awesome man I I can't say enough about how enjoyable that race was and for next gen racing I mean that that is as good as it gets on a short track and it was just so I don't think anybody expected the diversity in the the racing line. Like literally at the beginning of the race, my car ended up working the best right around the bottom of one and two. And every time I moved up the racetrack, which was the preferred groove, I slowed down. So I was like, all right, well, I'm going to take what's given and, or given me and started running around the bottom. One and two felt really good, was able to make some passes down there.

Three and four, you still have that concrete patch on the bottom. And you can kind of hook your left side tires down through there. and it adds another element of footwork and technique to make pace on the bottom of three and four. And then whenever the top started to come in, it had a lot of grip and a lot of speed up there. So, I mean, I said it last night. I genuinely think that North Wilkesboro is right at the top of the list for best short tracks, at least for this rules package and this car that we have today. It races really well, and it takes multiple lanes to be able to create momentum on the guy in front of you

and to keep pace with the guy in front of you, and you have that there. What would you think about a 400 lap points race at about 2 o'clock in the afternoon? That would be my vote. I think it deserves a points race. I think that the All-Star race was great last night. But could you imagine 2 o'clock in the afternoon 400 laps?

Oh, I think it would be absolutely amazing. Like just the amount of rubber that's going to get smeared on the racetrack, you're literally going to be from the wall to the white line and everywhere in between. And I think it has potential to be serious magic. I would love to have a points race there, go, you know, have more cars on the track and adding lap traffic. So with 23 cars, I think we had maybe one or two lap cars in there, but it's just not enough to really disturb the air for the leaders.

And now, you know, we've seen even at a place like Martinsville or Richmond, like the Guys, they get out front, they can get a gap. But then whenever you get into a lot of traffic, that's whenever the racing really starts to happen. So I think if you got 40 of us out there at North Wilkesboro and an afternoon show, it would be lights out. So you win a million bucks. Are you a saver or a spender? Is this like an added bonus? I mean, do we go out and buy a boat?

Do we go buy a new sprint car? What do we do? What do we do? Or do we just put it in a bank? Well, I am in the process of building my own midget cars. So I'm sure that will aid in that. But yeah, I don't know. So I will say I'm a huge fan of cardboard checks.

Like cardboard checks have always been my favorite trophy. They're really popular in dirt track racing. And I've won a lot of them throughout my early parts of my career. But that million dollar check has always been like my top prize. Like that's the cardboard check that I wanted for so long. I saw, you know, obviously all you guys win it. and hold that check up for that victory lane picture. And to be able to do that last night was,

you know, something that I've been looking forward to and wanting to do for a very long time. And, and yeah, it's just, it's a really cool, it's a cool, cool event,

cool feeling. And it's just so different than like a normal Sunday cup race. Like, as soon as they wave the green flag, everybody is so much more aggressive than what you would see in a normal points race. And it, it always surprises me how, how different it feels inside the car.

than a normal Sunday race. You talk about waving the flag. Did you see Michael Waltrip drop the flag on racetrack? What an epic fail? I did not know it was Michael Waltrip. But yeah, like I, obviously we knew about the promoters caution or whatever, but he made it a legit caution. We had debris on the track.

That's right. Yeah, he was making sure there was there was no question. But last question, as you win this All-Star race, You guys have won a few races. You've had up and down weeks, and you said yourself, you know, some of the performance hasn't been where you wanted to be. You've had weeks where the performance has been good. Next-gen cars typically up and down anyway,

so that's just the way that it's going to be. What's this win due for the momentum? How does it set you up for the Coke 600 and everything going into Charlotte as far as the momentum side of things and what it does for your team? Yeah, well, certainly it'll give the team a morale boost. One thing that has kind of been, I don't know, something that we paid attention to in 2025 is our good races have come on that low downforce package. And looking at the races that we've run so far, every time we have the intermediate package on, we have not been, we haven't had the pace to lead laps, contend for stage wins and contend for race wins. We've gotten really fortunate to catch, you know, lucky timed yellows or have good restarts.

And I've been able to squeak out a couple top tens and a couple top fives with the intermediate package. But ultimately, we haven't been where we need to be to, you know, contend for race wins. And then we show up at North Wilkesboro with the first race in a long time with that, the lowdown force package. And the car had had pace to contend for the wins. So, you know, going to Charlotte, I think we still need to take another step. forward on the intermediate package. And yeah, so I know the boys are focused on that to try and, you know, keep getting better with that intermediate package.

But it was very refreshing to have a solid race on the short track package again. Well, you guys have rolled through the first part of the season and got three wins, an all-star win. And I can't imagine, you know, that you're not going to win more. So good luck the rest of the year. We appreciate you taking the time and have a good run at the 600. Thank you, Kevin. I'll see you later.