NASCAR News: Christopher Bell Throws Shade at Chevy After Martinsville

It was almost history repeating itself. NASCAR fans and pundits thought they had seen another “Hail Melon” when Christopher Bell made a late pass on Bubba Wallace during the third turn of the last lap during Sunday’s race at Martinsville and clipped the wall numerous times to finish in 18^th place with enough points to advance to the Championship 4. Bell’s move broke the points tie breaker with William Byron but his version of the Hail Melon was shut down by NASCAR 27-minutes after the white flag dropped.

“You go back two years ago when we had the situation with Ross here,” said Elton Sawyer, NASCAR senior vice president of competition, in a press release sent to Newsweek. “We went to Phoenix. There was a lot of dialogue with the drivers that that’s not a move that we want to have to make on the last lap. We were able to get through Phoenix and had a great championship race that year.

“In the off-season meeting with the industry, meeting with our drivers, and to a man that was not a move that they want to have to make. There was language in the rule back. When you look at it today, clearly got up against the fence there in three and four, and rode the fans all the way off four there. Strictly it’s to protect our drivers as well as our fans. So yeah, it was pretty straightforward.”

NASCAR penalized Bell and Byron moves on to the Championship 4. Game, set, match. Joe Gibbs Racing cannot protest the ruling and on Monday morning Christopher Bell threw some shade on social media with a passive aggressive dig that Chevys were in cahoots to advance their own drivers.

NASCAR was quick on Sunday to shoot down any conspiracy theories with Chevy to get their driver to the Championship 4 and acknowledged the same for Bubba Wallace’s No. 23 Toyota Camry. There were no shenanigans, just Bell riding the wall and trying to advance in the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs.

“No, if you look at the other situations that were going, 23, the cars behind the 24, really no bearing at this time,” Sawyer said. “We’ll look at those at a later time. When you really just dissect exactly what happened, look at the situation with the 20 getting up against the fence, then riding the fence, which we clearly stated in our statement after Ross did that, that that would not be accepted.”

Bell broke the rules on Sunday and should not advance to the Championship 4 at Phoenix Raceway on November 10. It’s pretty cut and dry, as Sawyer readily acknowledges, and to imply with a social media post that Chevy was in cahoots is simply sour grapes.