Christopher Bell now blazes around some of the toughest and most challenging tracks in the country, expertly wheeling his No. 20 Toyota Camry XSE. The Japanese carmaker has been a supportive pillar throughout his career and has played a significant role in his current position. That partnership, however, came to be because Bell chose Toyota over Ford at the very beginning of his journey.
Bell was on the verge of stepping into NASCAR in 2015, with a major decision to make. He could either remain with Toyota or move to Ford’s camp with Roush Racing. Joining Roush would have provided a clear path to the Cup Series, beginning with a year in the ARCA Menards Series, followed by stints in the Truck Series and Xfinity, before eventually reaching the Cup level.
Toyota couldn’t offer him this kind of assurance. He narrated in an interview last year, “The Toyota guys, they didn’t have that path available for me. The only thing that they could tell me is that, ‘We are not going to let you down. We don’t know how it’s going to work out, but as long as you perform, then we’re not going to let you down.’”
So, in 2015, Bell could have either run a full-time season in the ARCA Menards Series, or he could have stayed with Toyota and raced 10-15 late model races. The latter also included an assured entry into the Truck Series race at the Eldora Speedway. He ended up choosing to stay with Toyota, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Bell explained, “That’s what it ended up being. I went with Toyota because they gave me the late model races and that truck race at Eldora.” It should come as no surprise that he ended up winning that race in the Eldora Speedway, driving the No. 54 truck for Kyle Busch Motorsports and firmly planted himself for a full-time season in 2016.
He spent a couple of years driving trucks full-time and moved to the Xfinity Series in 2018. In 2020, he joined Leavine Family Racing in the Cup Series and then his current team, Joe Gibbs Racing. Toyota’s promise had been that it wouldn’t let him down as long as he kept performing. He has managed to do just that over the past decade.