Kevin Harvick sounds off on Christopher Bell winning Bristol, pushing 'hot button'

Kevin Harvick had an interesting conversation with Christopher Bell, who won the NASCAR Cup Series Playoff race at Bristol on Saturday night. On Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour, Harvick detailed his conversation with Bell and how he pushed a “hot button.”

“It was pretty interesting because I asked him about last week’s blowup and how he handled that with Adam [Stevens],” Kevin Harvick said. “He referenced a conversation with Adam about, ‘It seems like we’re way off, but we’re really not that far off of being where we need to be to get back on that hot streak and win races.’ I thought that was interesting.

“I didn’t mean to push a hot button, but I did push a hot button with the Next Gen car and some of the things that are out of your control that cause you to have some bad finishes or something that is out of your control. Much more than what it used to be with the other cars, so there’s less things to be able to control that consistency. Obviously, they’ve made some mistakes and had some things go wrong and haven’t capitalized on the things that they have.”

Christopher Bell says he needs to ‘win more’

Harvick then talked about how his Joe Gibbs Racing teammates (Denny Hamlin and Chase Briscoe) are running well while he hasn’t been lately . But when the Bristol race was all said and done, Christopher Bell “held on to it,” despite getting bumped by second-place finisher Brad Keselowski.

Bell’s win at Bristol gives him a lot of momentum heading into the second round of the playoffs. The 30-year-old is looking to win his first Cup Series title after finishing in the top five in the standings the last three seasons.

During the post-race press conference, Bell was asked how important winning was at this point in the season. “Winning, that’s what makes your career. That’s what makes your status in the industry. That’s literally everything,” he said.

“In order to make it in this sport, you have to win. Yeah, frankly, I haven’t won enough. That’s what, win 12 or 13 in my career? That’s not enough, and I need to win more. But it starts with — every win gets it up a tick, so I’m glad we got this one tonight. But winning is literally everything. That’s what it’s all about.”