In the nascar standings after three races, Christopher Bell is staring at a number that doesn’t match the speed his team believes it has. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver sits 24th with 59 points, and the gap to leader Tyler Reddick is already 127 points—an early-season scoreboard that feels louder than it should, and yet impossible to ignore.
Why do Nascar Standings feel “upside-down” after three races?
Three races into the season, the order on paper has been shaped as much by misfortune and split-second decisions as by raw pace. Inside the No. 20 camp, crew chief Adam Stevens has emphasized a separation between performance and results, describing an opening stretch that can become “a game of chance. ” His view is that the speed has been present, even when the finish position hasn’t followed.
Bell’s own results underline that volatility. At the 2026 Daytona 500, he spent time near the front before trouble left him 35th at the line. At Atlanta—where he stood in victory lane last year—contact from Carson Hocevar sent him into the wall and he finished P21. At COTA, a late caution produced a tire call from the No. 20 crew that worked; Bell surged from P16 to P3 late, collecting 34 points and jumping seven spots in the standings.
What’s behind Christopher Bell’s predicament at Joe Gibbs Racing?
Bell has been direct about how the current format amplifies early deficits and makes weekly consistency feel urgent. In a recent conversation, he put the frustration plainly: “Yeah, it sucks. It definitely, definitely sucks. ” He also drew a contrast with earlier eras, when a slow opening might have been dismissed as temporary. Now, he argues, it “absolutely matters. ”
Bell also framed the points structure as a double-edged sword—painful when you’re behind, but potentially powerful if you can flip the script. “The cool thing about this format is the upped points for wins, ” he said, explaining why the deficit can look dramatic early, and why a breakthrough can change the picture quickly. Still, he stopped short of predicting where the season goes, saying it’s too early to know whether a regular-season championship run is realistic.
Stevens’ stance is calmer. Speaking on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, he said the garage focus remains on performance fundamentals, insisting that if the speed is there, the results will follow “sooner or later. ” The message is not denial of the scoreboard, but resistance to letting it dictate panic. That posture matters beyond one car: through three races, all four Joe Gibbs Racing drivers sit outside the top 16 in points.
What the early results say about pressure, points, and Phoenix
The wider season story has a clear counterpoint: Tyler Reddick’s surge. Reddick won the DuraMAX Texas Grand Prix, his third straight victory to open the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season after wins at Daytona and Atlanta. The streak put 23XI Racing in a small historical group as just the third team in Cup Series history to take the first three races of a season, joining DePaolo Engineering and Petty Enterprises.
That contrast—Reddick stacking wins while Joe Gibbs Racing searches for a clean weekend—sharpens the feeling that the nascar standings are already shaping the emotional weather in garages. For Bell, the frustration isn’t abstract; it sits on top of specific moments: trouble at Daytona, the wall at Atlanta, and then, at COTA, a sign that the right call at the right time can still change a day.
Next comes Phoenix, with the season continuing at Phoenix Raceway on Sunday, March 8 (ET). Within Bell’s group, the goal is practical: keep the focus on the next race, and climb back toward the front by the close of the regular season. The team isn’t pressing a panic button, but one eye stays on the numbers as the schedule moves on.
For teammate Denny Hamlin, Phoenix carries its own emotional weight tied to last year’s championship disappointment there. “I’m still angry at the track a little bit, ” Hamlin said. “But the track doesn’t have a soul, so it can’t feel the things I feel. ” Hamlin is set to start his No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 11th on the grid for Sunday’s race, describing the task as starting the process over and seeing where the result “pans out” this time.
In early March, the points sheet can look like fate. Inside the No. 20 team, it’s being treated more like a mirror: reflecting what went wrong, what went right, and what still might be possible if speed finally converts into clean finishes. For Bell, the sour taste of the opening stretch lingers—but so does the reminder from COTA that one decision can turn a season’s first chapter, even when the nascar standings say otherwise.
