NASCAR star admits he 'doesn't understand' why people dislike him

NASCAR Cup Series star Christopher Bell has admitted that he's baffled by the people in the sport's community who dislike him.

The general popularity (or otherwise) of Cup Series drivers tends to stay fairly stable for each personality who comes into the series, at least in the medium-short term.

That is reasonably clear in the sport's Most Popular Driver award, which has been award to just two drivers since Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s first in 2003.

That award started a run over well over a decade for the now-TV analyst, which saw him him sweep the voting in that category up to and including his final Cup Series year in 2017.

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Bell baffled by fans not liking him

Chase Elliott took up the 'most popular driver' mantle from that year forward, a run or exclusivity for that award which has baffled Bell in recent years.

"I remember whenever I first got started in professional motorsports," he told the Athletic. "Through my teenage years, people loved me and I didn’t have enemies. Nobody disliked me.

Then you get into NASCAR, and I don’t know if it’s because people don’t know the individuals, or maybe I have changed and I’m just an a**hole, but I’ve definitely got people who don’t like me now.

"I’m like, 'I don’t understand how anybody could not like me'. I never had people dislike me as a kid growing up, and now I do."

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