Christopher Bell questions ‘legitimacy of the Championships’ while explaining playoff committee’s goal

Joe Gibbs Racing star driver Christopher Bell shared his feelings about the major goal behind the playoff committee.

Christopher Bell questions ‘legitimacy of the Championships’ while explaining playoff committee’s goal

Christopher Bell (Via IMAGO)

Joey Logano’s Cup championship win in 2024 following a poor regular season run, sent the discussion around the current format supposedly yielding illegitimate winners to overdrive. This forced NASCAR to step in and start planning tweaks to end these arguments for good. That’s where the playoff committee comes in.

It’s a 25-member committee that features racers and industry experts, tasked to advise changes to the format for the 2026 season and beyond. Joe Gibbs Racing driver Christopher Bell is part of it and while explaining the goals of the group, admitted that the current championship winner isn’t held in the same bracket as the likes of Jimmie Johnson’s triumphs.

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So, the goal for the whole thing is to help bring more legitimacy to the championship. And I think everybody has believed that the champions of the new age are held to, it feels different than what Jimmy did and the guys back in the day.

Christopher Bell said during a press conference at COTA.

He then went to explain the major goal of the committee and revealed that they want to make the NASCAR drivers feel like they won the biggest deal of their driver. Bell wants the new format to have entertainment and excitement without making any adjustments that affects the legitimacy of the Bill France Cup.

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So, the whole goal is to make the drivers feel like that championship is a big deal, the biggest deal of our life. And so hopefully we can get a format that provides a lot of entertainment, a lot of excitement, and some amazing finishes to the championship race while upping the legitimacy of the NASCAR Cup Series Championship.

Christopher Bell added.

Christopher Bell sees the playoff committee invitation as an honor  

The No:20 JGR driver earlier shared his feelings of being part of the committee. He is honored due to the fact that the industry respects him enough to make him part of the group and sees it as a privilege to help reshape the sport.

Christopher Bell
Christopher Bell (Credits: Sportscasting)

I’m just, well, number one, I’m honored and privileged to be a part of that. And I think it’s really cool that NASCAR and the industry respects me enough to have me be a part of it. So that’s awesome and I’m grateful that I get to help out with that.

Christopher Bell said.

The comments from the TRD driver shows he is really excited to give his inputs to make the sports better. It would be interesting to see how the playoff committee is going to change the sport for the better.