Bell, Joe Gibbs Racing reflect on tragedy as team goes after a title
AVONDALE, ARIZ. >> The sun was barely up on championship morning a year ago when word began to spread that something was terribly wrong at Joe Gibbs Racing.
The Cup Series title-deciding finale at Phoenix Raceway was hours away from starting and a flurry of activity around the Gibbs cars seemed to indicate the team was looking for a replacement driver for Ty Gibbs, who had won the Xfinity Series title the night before.
Christopher Bell was set to represent JGR in the championship
four, but rumors were flying that the entire organization might pull out of the race. Coy Gibbs, the vice chairman of the organization, son of team owner Joe Gibbs and Ty’s father, had been found dead in his hotel room that morning and the team was in chaos.
The four Cup crew chiefs climbed onto golf carts and headed to a meeting with their drivers to decide if they were even going to race.
“I don’t remember the time of day that we were starting to hear that something horrible had happened. It was pretty early in the day,” said Bell crew chief Adam Stevens. “It just took you completely away from prepping for the race, focusing
on changes and doing all that stuff that we do every week, to worried about your teammates, worried about Coach, worried about the Gibbs family.”
Stevens is well-prepped for championship pressure. He’s one of only two active crew chiefs in the Cup Series with multiple titles (he won twice with Kyle Busch) and led Bell back to the championship four this season for Stevens’ seventh
appearance in the finale.
But nothing prepared him or the No. 20 Toyota team for the emotions of last year’s finale. Joey Logano won the race and his second title, while Bell finished a distant 10th in the race and third in the championship standings.
“Last year was just a whirlwind of emotions — going in there in my first championship four, it was very exciting and happy,”
Bell said. “It flipped very quickly on Sunday morning. I don’t ever want to relive the shocking news that got told upon us hours before you’ve got to go perform at your highest at the most important race of your career. That was not ideal. Last year was just insane, like unheard of.”
Stevens felt once the race began the team was able to focus on trying to win the title.