NASCAR Cup Series star Christopher Bell has admitted that he and his Joe Gibbs Racing team simply were not good enough to advance to the Championship 4 at Phoenix.
Bell was one of four drivers eliminated from the postseason after the checkered flag at Martinsville on Sunday, with William Byron's victory pushing him below the cutoff line.
Agonisingly, Bell entered the race third in the playoff standings and +37 to the cutoff line. However, Byron's win and being beaten by Kyle Larson pushed him down to fifth come time for the cutoff.
In the end, there were just seven points in it.
Christopher Bell assesses playoff exit
Despite the incredibly fine margins, there were no excuses from Bell at Martinsville, who offered a brutally honest assessment of how the No. 20 team had performed.
“We just weren’t good enough,” Bell admitted. “I mean, (whether it was) seven points, one point, it doesn’t really matter.
"We knew that the goal was that we were gonna have to outrun the 5, and he outran us. That’s all she wrote.”
It is the second consecutive season that Bell has been eliminated at the Round of 8 stage at Martinsville, failing to make the Championship 4 last year after NASCAR ruled that his wall ride which got him in was a safety violation and hit him with a penalty as a result.
“It feels a lot better than last year, for sure,” Bell said.
“I genuinely feel like the four going there are very deserving, and it is what it is.
"We knew coming in here we were gonna have to outrun the 5, and we didn’t.”
Denny Hamlin, Chase Briscoe, William Byron and Kyle Larson will now battle it out for Cup Series glory at Phoenix on Sunday, 3pm ET (NBC).
