Christopher Bell racing toward streak last set by Jimmie Johnson in 2007

Bob Pockrass

FOX Motorsports Insider

Jimmie Johnson won four consecutive races back in 2007. And although he achieved that feat 18 years ago, it feels more like fifty.

Back then, it was a NASCAR world in which teams controlled nearly every part and piece on the car, building them all to the NASCAR specifications but with the ability to tailor the pieces and the car to a driver. Now, teams don’t fabricate most of the parts and pieces in the car.

It was a NASCAR world where teams could test at the tracks that they would race at later in the year. Now, teams rarely get to test.

It was a NASCAR world with fewer superspeedways and fewer road courses. Where the intermediate (mile-and-a-half or two-mile) tracks made up the bulk of the schedule. Now drivers must navigate a much more diverse season.

Johnson won back-to-back-to-back-to-back races amid a 2007 championship run, as he won the sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth races of the 10-race playoffs. He won at Martinsville (0.526-mile flat oval track), Atlanta (1.54-mile intermediate), Texas (mile-and-a-half intermediate) and Phoenix (one-mile flat).

No driver has won four consecutive races since then.

Christopher Bell has the opportunity on Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, a mile-and-a-half oval. He has clicked off wins at Atlanta (now a 1.54-mile drafting track), Circuit of the Americas (road course) and Phoenix (one-mile flat).

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“It’s hard to do,” Bell said about trying to match Johnson’s feat. “I acknowledge that. I’m just kind of in disbelief that I have that opportunity, but I’m looking forward to it.”

Much like Johnson during that stretch, Bell has taken advantage of his opportunities.

Johnson got on a roll at a time when the pressure was intense late in the season, but those four races mostly fell into his wheelhouse. Still, at Atlanta, he led only the final nine laps. And at Texas, he led only nine laps overall, including the final three.

Bell might not have the pressure that Johnson had at the time of the streak, but Bell has never won a title. During that stretch, Johnson was on his way to winning his second consecutive crown. Also, Bell was riding a 19-race winless streak into Atlanta this year. Johnson had previously won 29 Cup races when he started his streak; Bell, only nine.

The 30-year-old Bell (Johnson was 32 when during his streak) won at Atlanta by leading only one lap — the last lap. He then triumphed at COTA in a race where he led eight laps, including the final six of the 95-lap event. The Phoenix race was the only one where it could be said Bell dominated, as he led 105 laps. And even in that race, he had a side-by-side battle with teammate Denny Hamlin for the win.

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“I’ve worked really hard to become good at all of the styles of tracks in the Cup Series,” Bell said. “I think that’s what it takes to be the best. Ever since I was growing up, I tried to just run everything and be strong at everything, whether it was dirt cars, asphalt cars, wing cars, non-wing cars.

“I’ve always believed that the best race car drivers can win at everything. It means the world to me that my team has gotten to be successful everywhere.”

Now, Bell heads to Vegas, where he led 155 laps last October but fell one spot short when Joey Logano won on fuel mileage. A couple of more laps, and Bell likely would have won that race.

He crashed early at Vegas a year ago, but in October 2023, he led 61 laps and also finished second.

“That is incredibly special to hear that and know that I have that opportunity ahead of me. We’re going to a darn good place for it,” Bell said about the quest. “This sport has become so incredibly tough with the parity that we have.

“The teams are so tight. The cars are really tight. The drivers are tight. Everybody performs at a high level.”

The introduction of the Next Gen car in 2022 has increased parity. Teams buy most of the same parts and pieces from single-source suppliers. Ultimately, they don’t have as much latitude in how they assemble the car as they did when building them from scratch and no driver has won more than two consecutive Cup races.

Bell’s crew chief, Adam Stevens, recognizes that and knows that the quest for a fourth consecutive win could also start a streak he doesn’t want to see. And that’s a streak like his Joe Gibbs Racing team was on before Atlanta, where it had not won in 19 races since New Hampshire (Loudon) in June 2024.

“You have to put yourself in position,” Stevens said. “You can replay any one of those wins, change one or two things. It’s not you that day.

“We were just on the bottom side of that a lot last year after that Loudon win. This year, we’re on the other side of it. It feels good, but what feels better is being in contention and putting yourself in contention and being a factor every week. If you can do that, it’s all about the process, and the wins will come.”

Someone who knows about accomplishing great sporting feats is the team owner, Joe Gibbs, a member of both the Pro Football Hall of Fame (as a coach) and the NASCAR Hall of Fame (as an owner).

“I know they’ll be going there with excitement and thinking that they have a chance,” Gibbs said. “I think that’s all you can ask in pro sports is a chance to do something great.

“They’ll have a chance to do that [at Vegas]. I told them that on pit road [at Phoenix]. Right now, they’re kind of in a rare field of people that have accomplished things. It’s out there for them, and we’ll see what happens.”

Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR and INDYCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including over 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass.