Getty Image
NASCAR Cup Series star Christopher Bell is not at all pleased with the way the series handled blatant race manipulation involving several teams during last Sunday’s playoff race at Martinsville.
The manipulated finish ultimately cost Bell a spot in this Sunday’s Championship Four at Phoenix Raceway. NASCAR penalized Bell shortly after the race for an illegal “wall ride” that initially got him into the final four.
But the series later handed down additional penalties to three teams and drivers who were found to have manipulated the race result in order to aid fellow drivers who race for the same manufacturer.
Now Bell claims that he was “cheated” out of a spot in the Championship Four, which instead went to Hendrick Motorsports driver William Byron.
Christopher Bell Believes NASCAR Cheated Him Out Of Championship Opportunity
Bell says that his “wall ride” pass was not intentional and didn’t violate the spirit of the rule.
“I hate calling the last lap ‘a move’ because it was not a move. My intentions were never to ride the wall,” he claims, according to TobyChristie.com. “I didn’t gain an advantage riding the wall, so it was not ‘a move’ and I don’t believe that I broke the rule.”
He also noted that he would not have had to make the move at all if not for race manipulation by Chevy drivers Austin Dillon and Ross Chastain.
“I feel cheated. I feel cheated out of the chance to compete for a championship,” Bell said Saturday in Phoenix. “It all stems from what happened with 15-20 to go, whenever the race got fixed and manipulated by Chevrolet. That forced our hands to do what we did and forced me into a mistake on the last lap to get in the wall, and I feel like I should have never been put in that position, had the race been run fairly.”
Bell said that he feels the entire sequence of events stemmed from Chevy’s tactics.
“I was not aware of the points situation until the closing laps and I was informed with probably 20 or 25 to go that the No. 24 [William Byron] was bleeding positions,” he said.”It appeared at that point, that we were going to be fine and make it on points. Then, as the run continued and I actually got visuals on [Byron] and saw him backing up the field, and then it was probably with 10 to go that I realized what was going on and that the No. 24 was done bleeding positions.
“So, I thought at that point that my race was over. And I didn’t know that the No. 23 was a point for me until the last lap, and I knew that I had to pass him. I got by him entering Turn 3 and unfortunately, I slid into the wall.
“I could very clearly see the race manipulation and fixing going on.”
Dillon, Chastain and Wallace each received financial and points penalties. As did their respective teams.
But many believe NASCAR did not go far enough with the penalties.
NASCAR claims that it has no rule in place to punish engine manufacturers for widescale race fixing. But it also stated that it intends to implement new rules to prevent such a thing in the future.