When drivers stepped out of their cars after completing 68 laps in COTA on Sunday, Kyle Busch marched across the pit road to exchange some heated words with Christopher Bell. As he delivered what seemed like not-so-polite statements, Bell stood silently trying not to instigate his former Joe Gibbs Racing teammate further. The incident that led to these tense scenes on the pit road was a slight nudge from Bell to Busch on the race’s 40th lap.
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As Bell was battling Busch for fifth position off Turn 1, he poked the #8 Richard Childress Racing car from behind and caused it to spin. Busch, rather miraculously, managed to keep the car in contention and finished his day in 9th place. But little did that stop him from giving a piece of his mind to Bell after the checkered flag.
Bell told Fox Sports’ Bob Pockrass after the confrontation that he didn’t intend to spin him out and that he would look at the replays to make sure whose fault it was.
He added to NASCAR, “Kyle Busch, he opened his entryway up into Turn 1 because they were side-by-side, and I ran my normal line on the bottom and wasn’t planning on passing him. He tried to do the crossover and I was underneath him. Obviously, I didn’t mean to spin him out at all. I will reach out to him and talk to him whenever we’re a little bit cooled off.”
Sunday’s race was Busch’s chance to set things right after three consecutive finishes outside the top 20. Had it not been for the contact from Bell, he could’ve potentially finished in the top five.
Busch’s #8 Chevy Camaro wasn’t the only car that Bell spun out on Sunday
On Lap 21, Bell was battling Kyle Larson for a position in the top five when he spun his #5 Camaro out. However, unlike the Busch incident, he admitted that the mistake was his and even apologized for it. “The Larson deal, that was totally on me and I had no intentions of spinning Kyle out,” he said. Larson managed to recover from the damage and finished in 18th place.
Bell’s strategy in the race was to pit only twice, instead of the usual thrice, so that he could gain spots on the leaders and collect stage points. This way, he could also make his second pitstop in the final stage and sprint to the end on fresh tires. The plan almost worked as he won the first stage and sped to the checkered flag in the final stage faster than any other driver. He gained over 9 seconds to reach race-winner William Byron’s tail but ultimately finished 0.692 seconds behind.
