Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour presented by NASCAR on FOX - Christopher Bell Interview after his win at Atlanta Motor Speedway | VICTORY LAP

Episode Date: February 24, 2025

Fresh off his victory at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Christopher Bell sits down with Kevin Harvick to break down how he got the job done, the moment he knew he had a shot at the win, and what it means to secure a victory early in the season.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to Kevin Harvick's happy hour presented by Echo Park Automotive and NASCAR on Fox. In today's victory lap, we have this week's winner with Christopher Bell, who claims he's not very good on the super speedways, doesn't like the super speedways. But I would assume that he likes to win. So I anticipate this conversation going pretty well. So let's hear what Christopher has to say. Well, Christopher, thank you for joining us on our victory lap again this week. and starting off with two speedways, you just never know how this is going to work,

but it's got to feel pretty good to get one of those with a W. Yeah, Kevin, you know how hard the season could be starting off with Daytona, Atlanta back to back. And fortunately, getting a win in, you know, the first two races is always amazing, but to do it at Atlanta, which is definitely not one that I had circle as a potential win, is something that is going to hopefully carry,

carry forward. And just now we're getting into the bread and butter of our schedule going into Cota and Phoenix, Vegas, are all racetracks that I feel like our team can do really well, score a lot of points, and be contending for wins. So I'll take it. I'm not much of a super Speedway guy, but glad to finally get a win there. Well, I think when you look at the Speedways, they're one thing, but just tell us, for me, I always felt like I was just on edge every single corner at Atlanta. Tell the fans the difference in just the, from Daytona to Talladega to Atlanta, because in my mind, it's a whole different ballgame and how quick everything happens and the things that you do inside the car. Yeah, it's so weird because you have the same rules package as you do

at Daytona Talladega, but it races so different. And one thing that it is, is so unique about that place, it truly feels like if you're complacent on your position and you're not contesting to go forward, you're going backwards. And every race that I've run there, I keep notes. And every time of my notes, it says the time that I say I'm going to ride is I just start going backwards. And you have to be on offense to maintain your position and even think about moving forward where Daytona, Taledega, you know, the tracks a little bit longer in distance and the stages are longer so that there is an element of fuel conservation that you have to be really mindful of at those style tracks where you don't have to be as mindful of it at talent or Atlanta.

So I'm sure that plays into a little bit as well. When you look at qualifying, we were concerned for you. And, you know, just the speed of the forwards and the way that you guys qualified. Did you ever have a concern in your mind that you guys had made the right decision on the handling side of the car? or were you confident from the things you'd done in the past that you were in a good spot? Well, I'll be honest, Kevin. I don't really know what to think of the correlation between qualifying speed and how your car races

because I've had plenty of races. I go back to 2022 the first year of NextGen. I swept the polls at Talladega and we qualified really well as a group. The Toyota cars did. But those were really bad races for me in general and we didn't perform well. even at Daytona we qualified well. Briscoe won the pole, which was a huge deal for Toyota and our whole team. But we didn't race well in the Daytona 500.

So, you know, we qualified bad at Atlanta and everyone's saying that, yeah, we've got downforce in the car. We're going to race better. But you look at the forwards and they qualify up front and they race fine too. So I don't really know, you know, what to think of it, what to make of it. At the end of the race, you had myself and Ross Chastain restarting in the front two rows, and we qualified both of us in the 30s. And then you saw Austin Cendrick and Blaney and Lugano, Josh Berry, who were all in the top five, and they were racing there at the end too.

So I genuinely don't know what to think. Yeah. Well, I guess the biggest question I would ask from a driver to driver, was it comfortable, even though you went for downforce? Was it any more comfortable to drive? Well, so I mean, honestly, no. Like I had moments, especially early on in the race, where I'm really fighting the balance of the car. And it got to be middle of the second stage.

And I'm telling Adam, I'm like, I don't know, man. Like my balance is what it is. Like, I get in moments where I get really tight, I have moments where I get really loose. Like, I don't know what to ask for. I'm just asking for more grip. And his answer to that is, well, you should have more grip than everyone else. but I don't know. I mean, it worked out, and it was a unique race for me because it was eye-opening going

from, you know, in the 30s to the 20s to the high teens. My car was feeling a certain way. But then once you get put up in that top 10 and that top five, you're like, wow, okay, like this is different. And I will say, like, getting up front, especially at the end of the race, the cars that were up front, they were, they were pedaled down. And they were feeling really cozy inside the cars. it felt like a different race inside that top 10 compared to being in the back,

I guess just the amount of downforce that the car has. And the guys that are making those moves at the front, you have to feel really comfortable and confident in your car to make those moves. And I didn't feel that way whenever I was in the back of the pack. I felt like I could have crashed. So what point did you say, I've got a shot to win this? Was it just the last lap or did you think you were in the mix there, you know, with 20, 30 laps to go, or did it get right towards the end like it looked?

So I have felt this way for a while now, Speedway racing with the Toyota's. Like our best move, or at least my best move on the 20 car is to be behind and then try and poke out at the very end and be the aggressor coming to the line or coming to the end of the stage, whatever. Like I haven't been super successful at leading the races, leading. lines. We saw that at Daytona in the 500 as well. So I think it was maybe 15 to go or something. I actually took the lead early or like I guess in the closing last, but not at the very end. I took the lead and then I got swallowed up and went straight to the bat or straight to around 10th again. So even whenever I took the lead with 15 to go or whenever that was, it might have been 10 to go. I passed Cendrick. I didn't feel like I had a legit shot at competing for the win in the closing laps.

But then whatever you have a green white checker and you're in the front two rows, it was definitely in that time that I was like, hey, I'm going to have a shot at it if I do my job right and everything falls right. But you just, you never know how it works out. You can not get attached on the restart and the bottom lane goes and your lane doesn't go and then you have no shot. But it worked out where I could get Kyle out front and then I had Ricky behind me who, who, you know, pushed me to get me beside Kyle. So I would say it was that green, white checker that really opened it up for me. Well, it was a wild race to watch, and you did a great job there at the end. You just never know.

You got to be in it to win it at the end. So you have two super speedways. Now you're going to go road course racing. That's got to be just a wild transition from the first two weeks to now you have to prepare for a road course. Are you relieved, happy? I know you've talked about the super speedway stuff, and you guys have run good at Kota. you've got to take a deep breath and say, all right, I made it through there.

We've got to win, like you said. But now you're going to Cota. Explain just a workload that goes into the road courses. And you don't put as much time and effort into the super speedway stuff other than studying and things like that. Now you go through, I would assume, a whole week of in the simulator, out of the simulator, being prepared for the road course for the first time this year. Yeah, so, Kevin, the running joke around the 20 team is, and at least for me, I always say

whenever we go to the Super Speedways, that's my off-week. Because you're not, you're, it's a completely different game. Like it, it doesn't even feel like racing. Atlanta may be a little bit more so, but you're not pushing your car to the limit of the tire and finding

that grip on the of the right front, the left front, the left rear of the right rear. And now you're going to circuit the Americas where you're literally pushing every tire, every corner to get the most out of it. So this is a completely different style of racing and a different skill set. And I think you'll likely see the players at the front of Cota be different than what you saw at the front of Daytona and Atlanta. So yeah, you're switching from playing chess to now really focusing on maximizing your race car and your feel in the car and being able to give feedback as to what the car needs to be better,

what you're struggling with. And it's turning into more traditional racing as we get further into the schedule with Kota coming up. Well, it's been a wild couple weeks. I'm super happy that you guys were able to put that car in a victory. And it's a great way to close out those two speedways for a guy that, nah, doesn't really know if he does or doesn't like super speedway racing. So congratulations.

Yeah, so congratulations on getting to Victory Lane. That's what champions do, man. They get to Victory Lane, even at the places that they don't like racing at. So you guys do a great start. We appreciate you taking the time today, and good luck the rest of the year. Thank you, Kevin.