Christopher Bell has earned an image as a respectful and clean racer in the Cup Series garage. Even with this reputation and his noble intentions, it has not always been possible to be in everyone’s good books. Last year, he got on the bad side of Kyle Busch for spinning him in COTA. The friction made him rethink his choices this time around.
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The NASCAR Cup Series raced in COTA on Sunday. Bell won the race, becoming the season’s first consecutive winner. Talking to the press after the race, he was asked about his approach in battling against Busch. While he said his approach did not change, he admitted that he had also wanted not to recreate last year’s scenes.
He said, “I didn’t want to do that again, and I wasn’t going to put myself in jeopardy to make contact and ruin his race, but I don’t think it affected how I raced him or anything. I just was trying to put the pressure on him.” He continued to note that he took great pride in being considered a clean racer.
Busch finished the race in eighth place after Bell overtook him with six laps left. He could not reach victory lane despite leading 43 laps throughout the afternoon. His winless streak extended to 60 races beginning in 2023.
At the end of it all, even he was pleased with Bell for not wrecking him despite having multiple chances to do so. He said, “I’ll give Christopher credit. He ran me really hard.”
What was the issue between Busch and Bell in COTA last season?
Bell nearly won last year’s race at COTA, overcoming a time gap of over nine seconds behind the race winner, William Byron. He fell short by 0.692 seconds and finished as runner-up.
On his way to the top, he damaged the chances of Kyle Larson and Kyle Busch. On Lap 22, he spun Larson while battling for a position in the top 5.
Twenty laps later, he did the same to Busch while battling for fifth position. Busch still managed to finish the race in ninth place but had some heated words reserved for Bell afterward.
The Joe Gibbs Racing race driver was deeply apologetic that Busch was angry at him. He expressed the same to the media and confirmed that he would have a longer conversation with him.
He said, “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.” Fortunately, all is well between the two skilled drivers after the latest showing.
