“Cheated is the right word”: Christopher Bell berates Martinsville ‘race fixing’ scandal as he falls on the ‘losing side’
Christopher Bell blasted 'cheaters' at the preceding Martinsville Speedway race. The XFINITY 500 garnered limelight, not because Ryan Blaney aced the must-win situation but because of the controversies that followed shortly after.
The 500-lap event finalized Ryan Blaney and William Byron as the remaining Championship 4 drivers after Joey Logano and Tyler Reddick secured their spot by triumphing in the Round of 8 races. It's worth mentioning that the Joe Gibbs Racing driver initially punched his playoff ticket after overtaking Bubba Wallace on the penultimate lap.
Nonetheless, as Bell rode the wall, a move deemed illegal by NASCAR, he was stripped from the playoff and Byron reinstated in the title fight. Following the race, allegations about Chevrolet and Toyota's race manipulation did rounds in the community, and two days later, NASCAR issued strict penalties.
Ross Chastain and Austin Dillon were fined $100,000 each, and 50 driver points for roadblocking the track to prevent Byron's Chevy from bleeding track positions. NASCAR slammed Toyota's Bubba Wallace with the same penalty as the 23XI Racing driver slowed during the closing laps to benefit Bell's #20 Toyota. Though Wallace denied any wrongdoing, NASCAR was firm in its stance.
As a result, ahead of the season finale at Phoenix, Christopher Bell berated the race manipulators amid falling on the 'losing side' of the controversy. He said (via Fronstretch).
"I could very clearly see the race manipulation, race fixing that was going on...It's tough I mean, this has been one of the hardest things that I've had to go through as a racecar driver. I believe cheated is the right word and 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," Christopher Bell said (5:20).
Bell denied deliberately riding the wall after overtaking Wallace and refrained from calling his final lap incident a 'move.'
"Forced me into a mistake on the last lap": Christopher Bell blames Chevrolet for his playoff disappointment
Christopher Bell entered the Martinsville race as the highest-placed winless playoff driver above the cutline in third, followed by William Byron in second. Moreover, the JGR driver's crew chief Adam Stevens pointed out that Bell needed 34 points to safeguard his Championship 4 spot.
The nine-time Cup Series race winner had a slow start but gained momentum, climbing to a P6 finish in Stage 2 and settling in P18 in the final stage, sufficient to propel him into the season finale. However, NASCAR didn't let that happen by their wall ride ruling.
Bell said he felt cheated by the decision and blamed Chevrolet's race manipulation as a catalyst for his 'forced' final lap mistake. Elaborating on the same, the disappointed driver said (via Frontstretch).
"I feel cheated we're out of a chance to compete for a championship. It all stems from what happened 15 to 20 to go 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 to the wall. I feel like I should never have been in that position, had their race been run fairly," Bell said (0:45).
Christopher Bell also said the Martinsville bitterness will hang on with him until the upcoming Phoenix race.