Christopher Bell had this to say Wednesday: “For me, the only stat the matters are wins, race wins.”
And if that’s true (and there’s really no reason to suspect otherwise), the driver of the No. 20 Toyota in the NASCAR Xfinity Series has to be pleased with how his past three weeks have panned out.
Kentucky? Win. New Hampshire? Win. Iowa? Win.
That’s three very distinct tracks, and on Saturday, Bell and the Xfinity Series will travel to a fourth unmistakable track in Watkins Glen (3 p.m. ET, NBC), a track where Bell has never raced before.
If Bell can pull it together and win a fourth straight race, he’ll add to series history. Only one driver has ever won four straight races in the Xfinity Series — Sam Ard in 1983, the second year after the series was rebranded.
Ard, who died in April 2017, had to beat a field chock full of Cup drivers to get that fourth win at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Oct. 8, 1983. The field that day included Dale Earnhardt, Bobby Allison, Darrell Waltrip and Neil Bonnett.
Three wins is also a relatively rare feat in the series. It was last done by Kyle Busch in 2016, 2013 and 2008. But the only other driver besides Bell and Busch to do so since 2000 was Ryan Newman in 2005.
Even if Bell doesn’t get a fourth straight series win, he’ll have 14 more chances to tie records this season. He’s one win (he has four total through 19 starts) from tying the rookie record for wins in the Xfinity Series, currently shared by three drivers who found a lot of success at the Cup level, too: Carl Edwards (2005), Kyle Busch (2004) and Greg Biffle (2001).
“It would be really special to join that elite group of race car drivers that have won five,” Bell said Wednesday, “and I’ve got the best team in the business to go out and try and do it.”
Bell, along with Ryan Preece and Brandon Jones, could give Joe Gibbs Racing a fourth straight win, a feat that’s been done only five times in series history, with the last two of those done by Gibbs.