Christopher Bell absolved teammate Denny Hamlin of blame for a wreck that took out both Bell and Chris Buescher in Sunday’s Jack Link’s 500 at Talladega Superspeedway. Heading into Lap 52, Bell was in the lead and Buescher was alongside as the field got up to speed after a caution.
Advertisement
Hamlin kept bumping Bell to keep him in the lead, but ultimately Hamlin wound up pushing a bit too hard, sending Bell sideways and into Buescher before Bell hit the inside retaining wall head-on.
“Denny’s a very experienced driver and knows what’s going on,” Bell told Frontstretch.com. “You have to push, I can’t say that enough, you have to push to be successful. It’s like Russian Roulette every time you get on the racetrack here. If you’re the lead car, you better hope that the guy behind you takes care of you,” Bell added.
Neither Bell nor Buescher were injured and Hamlin was able to continue on but still finished a disappointing 23rd in the 39-car field.
“It definitely was a brutal shot,” Bell told Frontstretch.com. Thankfully my seat and HANS, everything worked really well, so I feel pretty good right now. Yeah, I’m healthy.
“We were just trying to gain momentum, and it’s speedway racing. It’s Daytona, Talladega – here, you have to push, and I don’t blame Denny at all. You have to be pushed and push and I got turned.”
Bell was disappointed that his race came to an end so early, particularly when he was in the lead, negating what was a near-perfect race car at the time.
“My car was fine,” Bell said. “You don’t have any balance complaints at here and Daytona. Your car drives completely fine until you get turned around. I had no balance complaints and it was doing what I wanted it to do.”
Bell credits safety efforts and equipment
Christopher Bell attributed the fact neither he nor Buescher were injured to the fastidious safety effort put in.
“It was certainly better than backing (into the wall),” Bell said. “The wrecks I’ve backed into the wall, I felt way worse.
“We put a lot of effort – NASCAR, Joe Gibbs Racing and my 20 team – have put a lot of effort to make sure my HANS Device, my belts, my headrest, my HANS tethers are all the correct link, and we certainly tested that out today.”
