Victory is what matters to South Point 400 pole winner

Christopher Bell said he’s glad his No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota team is qualifying so well. He leads the NASCAR Cup Series with six poles.

But as he addressed the media Saturday after winning the pole for Sunday’s South Point 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, the Norman, Oklahoma, native said he’d much rather be talking to the media following a race win

“I want to be here on Sundays,” Bell said after winning his fourth pole of this year’s NASCAR playoffs with a time of 28.98, one-hundredth of a second ahead of second-place qualifier Kyle Larson (28.99).

Bell will lead the field of 36 cars to the green flag at 11:30 a.m. around Las Vegas’ 1½-mile oval in the opening race of the Round of 8 in NASCAR’s playoffs.

While Bell leads the series in poles, he has just one win on the season. A win Sunday would clinch Bell a spot in the Championship 4 and make him eligible to race for the title at the season finale in Phoenix on Nov. 5.

He enters the Round of 8 in sixth place out of eight drivers in the playoff standings, eight points below the cutoff line for the top four. Bell wasn’t shy about the importance of turning his qualifying speed into wins with a championship in sight.

“If you’re going to make the Final 4, you’re going to have to be racing for wins and winning races,” Bell said. “That ‘take your points day or whatever’ is kind of gone at this point. (Sunday) we need to go out there and try and win the race.

“…Running eighth or 10th, whatever, your good points day isn’t going to get you (to the Championship 4).”

Bell knows well the importance of what a win can do in this round. In last year’s South Point 400, also the Round of 8 opener, he wrecked and finished 34th and was 11th the following week at Homestead-Miami. But a win in the final race in the round at Martinsville clinched Bell a spot in the Championship 4 to make him eligible to race for the title.

William Byron, who led the most laps and won the Pennzoil 400 at LVMS in March, leads the points with a 20-point advantage above the cutline. Martin Truex Jr. is second with a 15-point cushion. Byron qualified third (29.004), Truex Jr. fourth (29.070) and Chris Buescher, the first driver below the playoff cutline at -3, was fifth (29.084).

In addition to being a previous winner at Las Vegas, Byron has won at the other two tracks in this round. With temperatures expected to be in the 80s by race time Sunday, Byron said having a baseline of success at the upcoming tracks is helpful.

“The blueprint is there for success, but the thing I always caution is that things change and evolve, and teams and drivers improve,” Byron said. “We have to take that next step at all these racetracks coming up. It’s nice to have a blueprint knowing we’ve been here before and we’ve been fast.”

Denny Hamlin, one of four Toyotas in the Round of 8, is 11 points above the cutline, and Larson has a three-point advantage. Tyler Reddick is eight points below the cutline and Ryan Blaney is at -10.

Blaney finished 28th in last year’s South Point 400, which hurt his chances of racing for the title. He was eliminated after the Round of 8. He said finding the balance of capitalizing on the opportunity to win and not putting yourself in a bad situation is critical in this round.

“You have to seize the opportunity, but you have to also understand your limitations,” Blaney said. “… You can get caught up in the moment easily in these playoffs and not focus on the end of these races. If you run second, you’re still in a good spot. You never know what can happen, you’d hate to have a win slip away, but wrecking is a lot worse than being second. Managing your mindset in those situations is super important.”

Contact Alex Wright at awright@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AlexWright1028 on X.