Christopher Bell feels confident about having a future in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series.

He’s just not sure when and he’s not sure where.

Most in the sport believe Bell is ready for the highest level of the discipline, but there is currently no room for him at Joe Gibbs Racing or another comparable Toyota Racing Development affiliated team, who are both keen to keep the 24-year-old in its respective stables.

And Bell hasn’t yet started to unravel where he will race next season.

"It’s still early in the year," Bell said on Friday during media availabilities at Bristol Motor Speedway. "Normally I don’t figure out where I land until August-ish. We’re definitely way early in the year to know where I’m going to be."

Erik Jones has begun negotiating a contract extension with Gibbs to remain in the No. 20 car and the other three cars appear locked down by Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr.

But Bell didn’t necessarily see his path to Cup depending on Jones’ future.

"I never really pictured Erik being my hole," Bell said. "If you look at the Gibbs camp right now, I can’t really picture anyone being my hole because all four of their Camrys are running exceptional right now. If you watch any of the races, all four of them are right in the top five. I don’t know. I don’t know where I’m going to land. I’m just enjoying the ride right now."

And Hamlin expressed confidence on Friday that he wasn't on the figurative hot seat, especially having won two of the first seven races of the season.

Bell said last summer that he didn’t want to "waste another year" in Xfinity but later said his stance was somewhat misconstrued.

Even now, Bell feels confident that his future will take care of itself as long as he continues to perform behind the wheel, something he has done through the first six races of the season.

"Who says I’m on a hot seat? What do they know that I don’t? That’s what I don’t understand," Hamlin said. "You all don’t know my relationship with my sponsor, the team or anything. It’s just someone looking to say something. That’s about it."

Bell enters the weekend at Bristol with a victory and is second in the Xfinity Series championship standings.

"Let me think about how I want to say this," Bell said. "Obviously I want to go to Cup. I never meant that phrase (last year) of being I don’t want to be in (the) Xfinity (Series) because I love the Xfinity Series. Like I just said, I love the Xfinity cars. I feel like they race really well. Ultimately, I get to drive race cars for a living, so that’s really cool."

And Bell even wears the interest in his future as a badge of honor.

"It’s cool, right? I’m honored that people want to know where I’m going to go," Bell said. "That’s better than people not caring. That’s really cool. I don’t know. I wouldn’t say it’s a distraction just because it kind of goes in one ear and out the other. It’s not anything that I have any input in or it’s not like I can control that. The only thing that I can control is finishing races and hopefully winning races."

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