AVONDALE, Ariz. — Christopher Bell believes he was “cheated” out of a spot in NASCAR’s championship race due to what he termed “race-fixing” by Chevrolet during last week’s semifinal race at Martinsville Speedway.
Late in the Martinsville race, two Chevrolet drivers formed a blockade for another Chevrolet driver, William Byron, and refused to pass him. Had Byron lost one more position, he would have been eliminated from the playoffs.
When that didn’t happen, Toyota driver Bell made a desperate pass to gain one point on Byron when another Toyota driver moved over on the last lap, which involved hitting the wall en route to the finish line. But after a 27-minute deliberation by NASCAR officials, Bell was ruled to have done an illegal move (wall rides are viewed as safety violations).
“I feel cheated out of a chance to compete for a championship,” Bell said Saturday at Phoenix Raceway, the site of Sunday’s championship race. “It all stems from what happened earlier … whenever the race got fixed and manipulated by Chevrolet. That forced our hands to do what we did and ultimately, it forced me into a mistake on the last lap to get into the wall.
“I should have never been in that situation had the race been ran fairly, and (Byron) would have lost enough spots to get me into the final race.”
Bell said NASCAR should have put him into the championship event after an investigation found the two Chevrolet drivers — Ross Chastain and Austin Dillon — intentionally did not pass Byron. Chastain and Dillon were each fined $100,000, lost 50 points and saw their teams lose three key members for the Phoenix race (along with a separate $100,000 fine).
Bubba Wallace, the Toyota driver who aided Bell on the last lap, was assessed the same penalty.
But Bell said his wall ride was not intentional, nor did he pass any drivers in the process, and therefore should not have been penalized — thus putting him into the championship.
“I hate calling the last lap a ‘move,’ because it was not a move,” Bell said. “My intentions were never to ride the wall. I didn’t gain an advantage riding the wall, so it was not a move. I don’t believe I broke the rule.”
Bell said he was particularly upset since all NASCAR drivers must go through a Sportradar online training in the preseason, which focuses on integrity of competition in an increasingly betting-focused sports world.
The Joe Gibbs Racing driver said running the race fairly would have sent him to his third straight championship race (where he likely would have been the favorite based on his dominant victory at Phoenix earlier this season).
“This has been one of the hardest things I have had to go through as a race car driver,” Bell said. “I believe cheated is the right word. We go through sessions at the beginning of the year to make sure that we don’t do this, and that unfortunately is what happened. And I was on the losing side of it.”
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(Photo: James Gilbert / Getty Images)
