Christopher Bell appeared to have a really strong No. 20 Toyota in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series playoff opener at Darlington Raceway. However, a pit road incident with Carson Hocevar ruined his night.
Bell made contact with Hocevar leaving his pit stall on the Lap 154 pit stop. Hocevar went around and ended up backwards in his pit stall. Bell sustained significant damage to his splitter and from there, he struggled to make much of an impact. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver was frustrated with both Hocevar and Spire Motorsports after the race.
“The 77 just didn’t yield,” Bell said, via Tim Moore of Motorsports Today. “He didn’t give way, and I would say that it’s our responsibility to not run into him if he’s racing for position, but the fact that he was the one who brought the yellow out, the only reason that we had contact was because he was so far behind the field catching up. You know, that’s very frustrating.
“Honestly, I don’t really give blame to Carson. I think it’s more on his team to not let him know the circumstances that he’s pitted on an island with all the playoff cars. He just spun, brought out the yellow. He’s not going to gain a spot on pit road. And he didn’t give way and ruined my night. So, it’s a bummer.”
Christopher Bell slides down playoff standings after Darlington
Bell finished 29th and two laps down at Darlington, continuing what has been a rocky stretch since his All-Star Race victory in May. Just one race into the postseason, and Bell has dropped to 10th in the standings, just 11 points clear of the cutline.
You can pinpoint that moment on pit road of where things went wrong for Bell. He had a car capable of competing for the win. Instead, Darlington wound up being a “night that could have been.”
“These cars are just so finicky, like, in some areas, they’re super robust, and you can obviously hit the wall, and if you don’t bend a toe link, you’re gonna be fine,” Bell told John Newby of AltDriver. “Or you can have pit road contact and damage the splitter, it’s game over.
“So, just disappointing, because clearly a lot of people had bad days, and that was a great opportunity to separate yourself in points. Looking at the positives, we’re still in the hunt, and we’re not out of it, so that’s really good. Just a night that could have been.”
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