Almost an entire week following the fiasco that was the closing laps of the NASCAR Cup Series event at Martinsville Speedway, Christopher Bell isn’t happy with the end result.
The Norman, Oklahoma native was bounced from his position in the Championship 4, after a 27-minute post-race deliberation by NASCAR, where the sanctioning body determined that Bell rode the outside wall in Turn 4.
“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’ and I don’t believe that I broke the rule.”
With the rules put in place following Ross Chastain’s ‘Hail Melon’ move on the final lap of the 2022 Playoff Race at Martinsville, Bell was given a safety violation, which dropped him four spots and eliminated him from the post-season.
It’s been six days, and in the meantime, NASCAR has handed out $600,000 in fines and suspended nine crew members, as part of major race manipulation penalties handed down to the No. 1, No. 3, and No. 23 teams.
“I feel cheated. I feel cheated out of the chance to compete for a championship,” Bell said Saturday at Phoenix Raceway. “It all stems from what happened with 15-20 to go, whenever the race got fixed and manipulated by Chevrolet. That forced our hands to do what we did and forced me into a mistake on the lap lap to get in the wall, and I feel like I should have never been put in that position, had the race been run fairly.”
“I feel like I should be in the Championship 4, yes,” Bell said when asked if he should be the one racing for a championship on Sunday.
The nine-time NASCAR Cup Series winner went on to further explain his point-of-view in the closing laps of last weekend’s XFINITY 500 from Martinsville Speedway, explaining the sudden change in mindset when he realized what was happening ahead of him, inside the race’s final 10 laps.
“I was not aware of the points situation until the closing laps and I was informed with probably 20 or 25 to go that the No. 24 [William Byron] was bleeding positions,” Bell said.”It appeared at that point, that we were going to be fine and make it on points. Then, as the run continued and I actually got visuals on [Byron] and saw him backing up the field, and then it was probably with 10 to go that I realized what was going on and that the No. 24 was done bleeding positions.”
“So, I thought at that point that my race was over, and I didn’t know that the No. 23 was a point for me until the last lap, and I knew that I had to pass him. I got by him entering Turn 3 and unfortunately, I slid into the wall.”
“I could very clearly see the race manipulation and fixing going on.”
The 29-year-old driver was attempting to reach the Championship 4 for a third consecutive season, and potentially back up his March victory at the one-mile oval with another victory, and what would end up being a NASCAR Cup Series championship.
But now, knowing what went on last weekend at Martinsville and just how close he was to being a part of the final round of the playoffs, any moderate level of success in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race is going to make things so much harder.
“It’s gonna be tough. No matter how it goes you want to do well and we’re going to put our best foot forward to do well, but if we do well and have a successful weekend, then it’s going to be even more a bummer and disappointing. It’s a very perplexing feeling going into this weekend, and one that I hope I never have again.”
Emotionally, Bell called this entire situation “one of the hardest things [he’s] been through as a racecar driver” and that he believes “cheated” is indeed the proper vocabulary for what transpired.
However, when the green flag drops for Sunday’s 312-lap contest at Phoenix Raceway, the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series champion will be competing angrily, and with the fast cars that Joe Gibbs Racing typically brings to the one-mile oval, that could be dangerous.
“I’m bummed and disappointed, so I guess I have a little chip on my shoulder, but it’s just for this weekend — and that’s one thing I’m grateful for, it’s not the Round of 8 or Round of 12, so I don’t have to go for the weekend after this, as soon as Sunday is over I can close the book and focus on 2025.”
In the closing moments of his media availability on Saturday, Bell called for NASCAR to enact changes to its officiating process — which the sanctioning body mentioned it would evaluate in the off-season — especially when it comes to manufacturer manipulation.
Bell will take his No. 20 DeWalt / Interstate Batteries Toyota Camry XSE on-track this weekend at Phoenix, first in Saturday’s qualifying session, and then in Sunday’s 312-lap contest. Sunday’s race will take place at 3:00 PM ET on NBC, Peacock, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, and MRN.
