Christopher Bell is widely considered to be one of the cleanest drivers in the NASCAR Cup Series garage. He is well respected by both the veterans and the newcomers in the field. But his tryst with the two-time champion Kyle Busch is one with quite a few ups and downs. A good starting point for this aspect of their story would be 2023.
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Speaking on Freak Nation, Bell said that he had a good relationship with most of the veterans. He mentioned Kyle Busch’s name when asked which fellow competitor he trusted the most to race side-by-side. In his words, “Kyle Busch is one that comes to mind. He was my teammate last year and now he’s not. So, I guess I can use that answer but Kyle has always been great to me.”
Fast forward a year to the Cup Series race at the Circuit of the Americas and this love was almost broken. Bell overcame a time gap of over nine seconds against race leader William Byron to nearly win the event. But he fell short by a narrow 0.692-second margin. During this climb, he spun Busch and Kyle Larson.
Busch had been battling for fifth-place during the incident and still managed to finish in ninth-place. But salvaging a top-10 result wasn’t enough to stop him from approaching Bell after the race and exchanging some heated words. Bell had been deeply apologetic at angering the iconic driver and even promised that he would have a longer chat with him.
How Bell handled Busch at COTA this year
Bell told the press, “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.”
They did talk about it in the aftermath and sort things out. But Bell was highly self-aware this year. He did not want to repeat himself and make contact with Busch. He kept his distance from ‘Rowdy’ while battling him hard and ultimately emerged as the winner.
When asked if he had changed his approach to racing Busch, he answered, “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.”
Busch, too, had been pleased with how Bell raced him and gave him credit for the tough battle he put up.
