Sunday’s Iowa Corn 350 might have given Joe Gibbs Racing its seventh win of the season, but it also exposed a growing vulnerability for one of the organization’s handful of aces, Christopher Bell.
While Ty Gibbs had the No. 54 Toyota continue his breakout season with his second Cup Series victory, Bell was once again left to settle with the agony of a missed opportunity. And perhaps more frustratingly, Sunday’s race added another chapter to the No. 20 driver’s increasing streak of coming close without getting the win.
But this time, it wasn’t just Bell’s heartbreak that the NASCAR community was talking about. Kyle Petty’s blunt analogy about the No. 20 ace soon put him at loggerheads with fans online, and the NASCAR legend didn’t exactly back down either.
For Bell, Iowa was another one of those races that somehow got away. The 31-year-old led 108 laps, second to only Ryan Blaney, and appeared to have a genuine shot at finally putting an end to his bizarre winless run.
Instead, a late pit-stop strategy saw Gibbs leapfrog his teammate as the fourth-year driver held on to claim his second Cup Series victory. And yet again, Bell was left with another second-place finish.
Unfortunately, this wasn’t just another runner-up finish; it was his seventh this season, tying Harry Gant’s 1981 record for the most runner-up finishes in a season without a win. The disappointment was evident in Bell, who said post-race, “This is what you call a bad second place finish.”
If anything, it was an honest assessment from a driver who knows he has been knocking on the door all season. However, while some of the discussion centered on the No. 20 crew chief, Adam Stevens’ decision to put four tires on Bell’s car during the final green-flag stop, Kyle Petty saw the scenario in a different light.
Speaking on Inside The Race, the eight-time Cup winner raised the alarm, asking, “When is he going to pass the lead? That’s my point! He runs them down. We’ve seen him run them down in multiple races.”
In hindsight, Bell has repeatedly shown the pace to catch the leaders. The problem hasn’t been Bell’s speed. He keeps getting to the leaders, but ends the race trailing them. And that’s exactly what Petty thinks the JGR driver needs to figure out.
In response, host Steve Letarte then put the question even more directly to Petty, asking, “Was this Bell underperforming, or was Ty Gibbs simply overperforming? Petty didn’t hesitate to say flat out, “Yes. Bell is underperforming.”
The 66-year-old wasn’t suggesting Bell suddenly became a bad racecar driver. Instead, quite the opposite. He acknowledged that Bell is an “incredible race car driver” before explaining why the Iowa result still bothered him.
His take was blunt yet one rooted in reality. However, fans clapped back, suggesting that the old-timer is throwing shade at Bell. In response, Petty fired back, “That sir, is a stupid rebuttal…” to an online fan who argued that Bell is a better driver than Petty ever was.
For fans defending Bell, though, there is plenty of context. The No. 20 Toyota has been fast enough to lead 422 laps this season, along with a pole-clinching performance at Las Vegas. Yet despite all that pace, Bell has been undone by pit-road strategy, fuel issues, and late-race incidents, repeatedly coming within inches of the W only to watch it slip away.
Sadly, at Iowa, he faced the challenge of passing on a track where drivers repeatedly complained about the difficulty of making moves stick. In short, blaming Bell entirely for another second-place finish would be an oversimplification.
However, Petty’s take was less about the final result and more about what Bell did when he had the window. “He makes a move with 15-20 laps to go and… he duplicated the shot he had before,” Petty said. “If you go to the well and it’s dry, don’t go back to that same move. It’s not going to work, man!”
His gripe was simple: Bell keeps getting the chances, but the wins keep slipping through his fingers. “How many times can Adam put him in a place to win races and you leave the win on the table?” Petty asked. That’s the part Bell’s supporters may not want to hear, but it’s also something that’s hard to ignore.
Stay close to the on-track action this weekend and every weekend by following our Race Weekend Dashboard for everything you need to know before, during, and after the race. Share your thoughts by joining the discussion on Discord or X, and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube for further updates.
