By Jerry Jordan, Editor
PHOENIX, Ariz. – A usually subdued Christopher Bell was more charged up than the Interstate Battery powering his NASCAR Cup Series Toyota as he spoke to media on Saturday at Phoenix Raceway, saying, “I feel cheated.
“I feel cheated out of a chance to compete for a championship. It all stems from what happened earlier – 15, 20 to go, whenever the race got fixed and manipulated by Chevrolet, that forced our hands to do what we did and ultimately, it forced me into a mistake on the last lap to get into the wall. I feel like I should have never been in that situation had the race been ran fairly, the 24 (William Bryon) would have lost enough spots to get me into the final race.”
Bell was referring to the situation that occurred last week at Martinsville Speedway where Austin Dillon and Ross Chastain effectively played linebackers to protect their Chevrolet teammate, Byron, to ensure a Bowtie was competing for a Cup Series title in this week’s Championship 4.
“I was not aware of the points situation until the closing laps,” Bell said. “I was informed with probably 20-25 to go that the 24 was bleeding positions and it appeared at that point that we were going to be fine and be good on points. As the run continued, I actually got visuals on the 24 car and saw him backing the field up, and it was probably 10 to go when I realized what was going on, and that the 24 was indeed done bleeding positions. So I thought at that point that my race was over – I didn’t know that the 23 (Bubba Wallace) car was a spot for me until the last lap. I knew that I had to pass him and I got by him into turn three and unfortunately, I slid into wall.”
NASCAR ruled that when Bell got into the wall it was a violation of the “Hail Melon” rule made famous two years ago by Ross Chastain to make the Championship 4. Bell said it was no such thing and he was just trying to hang onto his car after overdriving the corner trying to pass Wallace.
The single point he gained from passing Wallace meant that he would be moving on to the final round of the playoffs but because he appeared to run on the wall, NASCAR penalized him.
It took 27 minutes after the race, with Byron and Bell both standing on pit road waiting for a ruling on who would be in the finale. When the dust cleared, NASCAR ruled Bell’s move was illegal, something that left him angry. Plus, it was clear that the No. 1 of Ross Chastain and the No. 3 of Austin Dillon were playing games and trying to help Byron advance – manipulating the race. He felt angry and cheated out of a title shot.
“Yeah, I think that,” Bell told media members on Saturday. “I hate calling the last lap a move because it was not a move. My intentions were never to ride the wall. I didn’t gain an advantage riding the wall, so it was not a move. I don’t believe that I broke the rule.”
A week ago at Martinsville, Bell told Kickin’ the Tires he overdrove the corner and slammed into the wall. It wasn’t intentional.
“You can look at my hands in the replay and see it wasn’t intentional,” he said.
Because NASCAR felt like Bell violated a safety rule during the race, he had no right to appeal – something else that he believes is unjust and needs review.
“I think that the rule language needs to be a little bit more clearly defined, and less gray area. I think it needs to be more clearly defined and less gray area,” he said. “We all know how and if we are putting 100 percent effort into a race, and I don’t know what the answer is, but something has to change to get us out of this box that we are in of manufacturer help and manipulating races to help guys get certain positions. It is not right racing, and it is not fair.
“If the race had been run fairly, there would not have been any manipulation on either side. Our hands were forced by the hands of our other competitors.”
As for racing on Sunday, Bell said he still has a job to do, even if it means he isn’t running for a championship.
“The motivation is simple,” Bell said. “There is still a lot on the line, there is a lot of money on the line, and we have partners that have paid to be on the 20 car for this race. The list just goes on and on, right? We have – whatever it is – 600 employees at Joe Gibbs Racing that put effort into this race car, and so, it is unfair if I, and my team, don’t put our best foot forward to try and do the best that we can. There is a lot on the line and there should be more on the line.”
Bell is dead on. Hendrick cars very seldom fail to get the break from NASCAR. The rich get richer
I agree with C Bell. That race was manipulated and the 24, 1 and 3 should have been disqualified from the final race for their actions. The fines were not high enough. This action affected the finishing position of many other cars. The cars that could have passed were denied higher positions and lost money.
I also wonder what it may have cost those that were betting on the outcome of this race.
I’m not a Bell fan, but would have liked to see him win the final race.
I was a NASCAR fan but after watching what happened in the race at Martinsville and the all out cheating by those teams was a disgrace to racing.
Blame anybody you want, but in actual fact, you have no one else to blame but yourself. You are the one that ran the wall. Had you lifted the gas and pulled off of the wall instead of hitting the gas and riding the wall you might have been justified in your blaming of others. But you didn’t do that and all of the video’s prove that. We could clearly see and hear you accelerate on the gas and move along the wall at a greater speed then when you first hit the wall. We could see and hear this from different video’s from different car cameras. You knew that that was illegal move but chose to do it anyhow. Regardless of what the others did, you are responsible for your own actions and you choose to break the rules.
As far as this goes, I find that your response to this infraction, is far more upsetting then the actual incident. You want to blame others for your own stupidity. That was the most unmanly thing I have seen in some time now. I would expect that kind of a response from a ten year old that had his hand in the cookie jar stealing cookies .
As for Nascar, the penalties were far far to lenient in regards to the drivers involved in this. The fines where a good start, but the drivers on the other hand deserved more. The three drives that disrespected the rules of racing in such a disrespectful fashion should have received no less then three races suspensions. Given at the officiating bodies discretion. These races could be given at any time in the race season. So the drivers don’t know when this would happen or in what race it would happen. So now they have all year to think about what they have done, and what race they will be sitting out.
What you didn’t like what I had to say so you removed it That a little one sided isn’t it