Here is a replay of Bell as the tire came apart on his No. 20 machine to bring out the first caution of the race. pic.twitter.com/BEEerwkC3Z
— Toby Christie (@Toby_Christie) March 3, 2024
It was not a great start to the day in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway for Christopher Bell and the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing team.
Bell, who qualified in the 10th position, had dropped outside of the top-15 by lap 9, and on lap 9, while battling Daniel Suarez and Kyle Busch three-wide in Turns 3 and 4, it appeared that his car hit a bump, and a puff of smoke came from underneath his car.
As Bell came off of Turn 4, the right rear tire on his No. 20 Interstate Batteries Toyota Camry shredded to pieces, and NASCAR called the caution flag.
The caution would save Bell, who almost certainly would have lost a lap or more had there not been a caution for the flat tire.
Goodyear brought a new right-side tire for this weekend’s Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas, which immediately raises a concern as to whether Bell was running with too low of tire pressures for his tire to hold up, or if we will potentially have a tire issue in Sunday’s race.
