Christopher Bell nearly pulled off the rally to win Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas. However, after climbing from more than nine seconds behind eventual race winner William Byron, Bell finished 0.692 sec. shy of the race win.
However, on his path to his runner-up finish, the driver of the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota Camry ruffled the feathers of a couple of NASCAR Cup Series champions — Kyle Larson and Kyle Busch — along the way.
On Lap 22, Bell spun Larson, while battling for a top-five position on the track. Nearly 20 laps later, Bell would do the same to Kyle Busch while battling for the fifth position.
Busch, who miraculously still found a way to finish ninth on the day, despite being turned in the final Stage which ran fully green, took exception to the incident with Bell. Busch confronted Bell on pit road after the race and voiced his displeasure with the move.
A better angle of the Busch/Bell beef with great audio from the talk: pic.twitter.com/gDCEkzHcdY
— Toby Christie (@Toby_Christie) March 24, 2024
In the video shared on social by NASCAR’s account on X, Busch is heard saying to Bell, “I have a way cleaner record with you. Have I ever wrecked you?”
To which Bell responded, “No.”
Busch then stated, “Okay, shit’s coming.”
After the meeting with Busch on pit road, Bell was apologetic about his incidents with both drivers and said that his intention was not to turn either of them. Bell feels he will have a conversation before next weekend’s race at Richmond Raceway to get on the same page with Busch.
“I mean, yeah, obviously he’s very upset,” Bell said of Busch. “Which, you know, he ended up turned around. First off, I’m sorry to Larson and the 5 car, I got him early in the race by no intention at all. I didn’t mean to do that. [Busch] is so frustrated by what happened in Turn 1, and I don’t know. They were two-wide going in there. I haven’t obviously seen a replay yet, I had no intentions of turning him. I’m sure we’ll talk it out before the next race.”
Sunday’s race at COTA served as a get-right race for Busch and the No. 8 Richard Childress Racing team, as they had struggled with three-consecutive finishes of 22nd-or-worse heading into this weekend. Had it not been for the contact from Bell, Busch very well could have finished inside the top-five in the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix.
You have to be aggressive to win in the NASCAR Cup Series, but there is a line, and it seems like Bell perhaps tip-toed over the line on Sunday at COTA, and in doing so he poked the bear (Busch). Heading into a short track next weekend, it’ll be interesting to see how things play out between the driver of the No. 8 and No. 20 cars.
One Response
Gee Kyle never did anything like that has he?