PRN - Garage Pass Podcast
PRN - Garage Pass Podcast
PRN - Garage Pass Podcast
Christopher Bell Joins: An Unfiltered Conversation
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Christopher Bell joins to chat with Andrew Kurland about his quest to win his first Championship, off-weekend plans, and a fun speed round of random questions that may surprise you.
Oh, we've got a good one for you today. I sat down with Christopher Bell to talk racing and have a little bit of fun. That's up next. Repair ends garage pass. This is Danger Curl.
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SPEAKER_00I think one of the most underrated drivers on the track and off the track is Christopher Bell, the driver of the 20. I got the chance to sit down with him. We talk a little bit of racing, but mostly we just have some fun and honestly get to know Christopher a little bit better. I had a lot of fun with this conversation. Check it out. I saw you posted a video from North Wilkesboro. You're just taking a golf cart around, waving to fans wearing Christopher Bell shirts. And I guess my question is when you're just out and about, whether that's grocery shopping during the week or whatever, like, do you get recognized a bunch?
SPEAKER_01Not a bunch. Um yeah, I would say not a bunch. I will say the Netflix deal really uh I got noticed a lot more after the Netflix deal. I think that just probably appealed to more casual uh fans. And so yeah, that that really boosted it, I guess, a lot. But for the most part, uh, you know, I'm just I'm just a normal guy out there, man, hanging out.
SPEAKER_00And in the Netflix deal, I learned that you're big on your lawn care. How's the lawn doing this summer?
SPEAKER_01I appreciate a good lawn, but one thing that I did realize over time is that my lawn is never gonna be as nice as you want it to be unless you do it yourself. And uh I just don't have the time or the commitment to do it myself. So my lawn is probably a solid, I don't know, 82, 85. Um it's it's it's a B fringing on that B plus. So it's nice, but it's never gonna be that solid A plus unless I do it myself, and I'm just not gonna do that.
SPEAKER_00And all right, say you got the time to do it yourself, like what all are you doing to your lawn?
SPEAKER_01Oh, dude, the so the guy who has the dream lawn right down the street from me, he is literally manicuring that thing. I mean, he's literally has scissors going around trying to trim every blade, like it is nuts. So um, yeah, his lawn is the dream lawn, but he spends hours and hours a day out there working on it. So uh probably not gonna ever get there.
SPEAKER_00Hey, and we do have an off-week coming up. Not that you necessarily want to do lawn work the whole time, but uh, do you have any good off-week plans coming up after Indy?
SPEAKER_01I do. I'm gonna spend a lot of time on my boat, that's for sure. Not on the lawn, but I'm gonna spend a lot of time on my boat out there wake foiling and wake surfing, hanging out with my buddies. That's what I'm gonna be doing.
SPEAKER_00I was about to ask, the wake surfing. Now, it's in wake foiling, is that like with the like it's like a surfboard looking thing, and then like a little like stick at the bottom of it? Is that what that is?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so I've I've fallen in love with wake foiling. It is so enjoyable because you're literally flying. You you have uh different wing or you have a wing in the water, and that's essentially what you're riding. So you're standing on a board, but the board never touches the water. Uh, you're just flying. You're you're literally flying a wing. Um, and you got to be careful because that thing will stall if you get too much angle and if you get it pitched up too much, it'll stall. If you get it uh angled down, you'll nosedive. Um it's so much fun to ride. Uh, and it just doesn't take as much energy as wake surf or yeah, as wake surfing. So you can bounce around from wave to wave. Um, and it is, man, it is so so much fun to fly that thing.
SPEAKER_00You get a good day in Lake Norman, and uh at least for me, the first thing that I'm focused on is what is the playlist looking like as we're out on the water all day. Like what what are a few songs that you know you're queuing up first once you guys head out onto the water?
SPEAKER_01Man, it depends on the mood. It depends on the mood. Sometimes uh so what's been hot and heavy right now is uh one of my buddies, he's on a uh vice tone kick. So we've we've been listening to some vice tone. Um sometime it's just like some country, some slow country music, and then other times we get into a little bit more like uh Lincoln Park, what's that alternative? Little pump or pop rocks, whatever. So uh yeah, it depends on the mood.
SPEAKER_00My dad raised me Jimmy Buffett, Kenny Chesney. I feel like you're you're out of the book. We're jamming to that.
SPEAKER_01We're jamming to that. If it's a nice little slow out there just out for a cruise, we got that going.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, but when you're wake foiling, you probably want something, you know, high adrenaline, you know what I mean? Something to keep you laser focused out on the water.
SPEAKER_01You get you get so far back away from the boat, you gotta have that volume up too.
SPEAKER_00Looking at the chase, you are currently 10th in the standings, but the silver lining that I see out of that is you're only 60 points out of fifth. And and it's a pretty tight field right now with five races to go. What do you guys see as your maximum potential before the chase starts?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I mean, every race that goes by is certainly uh certainly an opportunity ahead of us or an opportunity loss. And you know, we what what do we have? We had a couple good races in a row between Atlanta, Chicago, Sonoma. Um we did really good. And we expected Wilkesboro to be another good race, and Wilkesboro turned out to be a disaster. So, you know, it it I think before Wilkesboro, we definitely were eyeing up that top five position. Uh now Wilkesboro gone. The races are dwindling. I don't know that we're gonna be able to get there. So um certainly we just need to make the most out of what we have and let the let the cards fall where they fall. Um tenth right now, you know, it'd be awesome if we could get to eighth. Uh seventh, it it just depends on how everyone else does. You know, if they have great days, uh you're not gonna make very many, very much gains. Um, but if they have issues, you can certainly make up a lot of points.
SPEAKER_00And with a points reset coming at the start of the chase, too, uh I know there's a certain amount of points that first, second place, and on gets back, but uh Joey Logano, who just won at North Wilkesboro, said, hey, anyone can go on a Tony Stewart 2011 type of run and run away with this thing. Uh is there a certain spot in the points? Obviously you want to be as high as possible, but a certain spot you think that's still within striking distance of going for the championship?
SPEAKER_01So, Andrew, I I feel like that uh has changed a lot. Like, you know, under the old points format, um not even counting like the the playoffs or anything, but just the way that you score points, I think everyone thought that you needed to be in that probably top three, top five going into the postseason. Um, but now with the added bonus for winning races, we have had multiple examples this year of that makes a huge difference. And if you're able to go on a tear and win a lot of races, then you can make up a ton of points. So I think that that's opened the door. And you know, to Joey's point, if anyone who who anyone in that top, maybe not the top 16, but certainly the top 10, if you uh if you're able to win races, you're gonna make up a lot of points, and I don't think you're gonna be out of it.
SPEAKER_00I feel like with now putting together 10 races, and obviously you correct me if if you think differently, but 10 races is a more complete product of crowning a champion. Like, do you feel more in control of your destiny than you have in years past with this new format of the chase?
SPEAKER_01Certainly, yes. I mean, I think I I'm super, super excited about this chase format. Uh I think whoever the champion is gonna be, obviously I want it to be me. Um, but whoever it is is gonna be a very, very deserving champion. Um, and and really, you know, for the first time since I've been in the sport, you know, I I think it's uh all of us are gonna be able to celebrate the champion for sure.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Going to some other pieces of news, New Hampshire, it's looking like will be the start of new practice format. No more groups, it's gonna be 50 minutes of extended practice. How does that fit into you guys and the 20 team of now being able to take a lot more time each week to dial in your race car?
SPEAKER_01I don't know. I I honestly I haven't talked to Adam about it. Um I do have a running joke with my team that it seems like our best races are when we have no practice and we show up and race. Uh so that that goes against that motto. But um in all reality, I I think it's it's probably the right thing to do. You know, I I I think I was I saw something where Dale Jr. was talking about like the rookies and Connor Zillich and um you know the rough go that he's had, and he's like, man, he's not getting any laps. Like, you know, you go out to practice, you have one set of tires, um, and 20 minutes, you know, at most intermediate tracks, you know, you're looking at 30 laps max in practice. Um, and then you go to you know the road courses or whatever, and you're only getting maybe eight to ten laps at a time in practice sessions. So uh I'm excited about the extra time. I think it's the right thing to do for our sport. Uh will it change anything? Probably not, but I do think it's the right thing to do to give us more tires, more, more laps, and more time in practice.
SPEAKER_00New Hampshire is my next race that I'm doing with PRN. You finished sixth there last year. Uh, I feel like you're always in the picture and in the battle when it comes down to the end of a race in New Hampshire. What's the biggest challenge that that racetrack provides for race car drivers?
SPEAKER_01New Hampshire is it's it's a tough cookie because you have to balance the short run versus the long run there. Um and you know, typically I mean that that's a common theme across, I guess, every track, but Loudoun, you have a really rough corner and turns three and four, one and two is pretty smooth. Um the the track changes a lot, and it's a place that we only go one time a year, so you just don't have as much data uh at that track as you do other tracks. Um and yeah, it it it's it's a very unique place. Like there's uh you know, you you kind of compare Loudoun to like a Phoenix or maybe a Gateway or you know, some of those type tracks, but it's so rough that you know it it's it's much different than uh you know than all of those other tracks. So yeah, it's it's a fun place to go. I'll tell you what, the crowd always shows up at Loudoun. It's always a super busy packed place.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I'm I've actually never been there, so I'm looking forward to heading there for the first time. Uh before we let you go, just want to hit you with some rapid fire questions. And uh I had fun kind of scrolling through the internet and looking at some of these. But uh first one, how many times can you say what before pretending like you just heard what the other person said?
SPEAKER_01I I'm gonna say the number is like three. I think I'm I think their number is like three. Yeah, so like you say once and you say it again, and then if you don't get it the second time, then you're like, okay, so yeah, the problem it's probably number two. Okay. Let them repeat it three times and you say what twice.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. All right, that's good. I realize that's kind of a wordy question. Um, I'm a terrible texter. How late is too late to reply to someone's text before you just have to start a new conversation.
SPEAKER_01Man, I am so guilty with this. I will text back like a long time. Like people's, I'll get a text message like, are you here? Or um, you know, if I'll be like, an hour later, yes, I'm here. You know, something like that. So uh I'm guilty that I text back, I'll I'll I'll do it at whatever time. The day later or whatever. Did you get that message? Yes, I did a day later, whatever.
SPEAKER_00You gotta turn the red receipts on.
SPEAKER_01I am a big red receipts guy for sure. I always have mine on and I push everyone to have theirs on. I why why would you not have it on? Like, unless you're hiding something.
SPEAKER_00I don't know. Like, what if you're not ready to craft a response yet?
SPEAKER_01You know, someone's asking.
SPEAKER_00At least they know that they've seen the message. That's true. That's fair. That's fair.
SPEAKER_01Um you don't have to reply just because you have your red receipts on.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, but then does the other person feel like, oh, like they're ignoring me? You know what I mean? I mean, you are, that's the truth. Yeah, but I don't want them to know that.
SPEAKER_01Uh I'm a big red receipts guy. I I I love red receipts.
SPEAKER_00Hey, fair enough. Uh, how many snoozes is too many?
SPEAKER_01Oh, one's too many. I hate that snooze button. Never should have never been invented. Wow.
SPEAKER_00Wait, so you're are you like a one alarm guy? Like one alarm and a black?
SPEAKER_01When my alarm goes off, I I'm I'm awake. Dang. That you're living life on the edge.
SPEAKER_00Like what if you what if you miss something? I mean, I don't know. I guess I haven't been bit by it yet. Last question I got for you. How long should you wait before honking at someone when the light turns green?
SPEAKER_01I'm a very compassionate guy, Andrew. Um, my wife's answer would be very different than me. I I don't use the horn. I honestly I I never even think of the horn. I don't know if it's because of the cup car. Like, we don't have it, so I just don't ever think about it. My I so I just I never literally never use the horn. I never even think about it. My wife, the half a second later, she's blaring that thing.
SPEAKER_00So that was our conversation with Christopher Bell. I want to thank him for taking the time, his PR rep Nancy, as well, for setting the conversation up. And I just had a lot of fun. I think I gotta start turning my red receipts on, perhaps, and uh I'll certainly be looking for him out on Lake Norman this weekend as he goes wake foiling. I think I need to work up the courage to do something like that. Maybe wake surfing, at least to start for me. But uh had a lot of fun with that. Everyone have a great NASCAR off weekend. Absence, it just makes the heart grow fonder, and we'll be back racing in Iowa next weekend. But until then, this is Andrew Curlin. Thanks for listening to an extended edition of PRN's Garage Pass.
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