Latest / Kenny Wallace Media / Christopher Bell Feels Cheated, Accuses Chevrolet of Race Fixing & Manipulation at Martinsville

Transcript

Christopher Bell Feels Cheated, Accuses Chevrolet of Race Fixing & Manipulation at Martinsville · Kenny Wallace Media

• 0:00
  I feel cheated. I feel cheated out of a champ or
• 0:03
  out of a chance to compete for a championship.
• 0:08
  Yeah, I mean it. It all stems from what happened.
• 0:11
  Or, you know, 1520 to go whenever the race got fixed and
• 0:18
  manipulated by Chevrolet. That forced our hands to do what
• 0:24
  we did. And ultimately it forced me into
• 0:27
  a mistake on the last lap to get into the wall and I feel like I
• 0:30
  should never have been in that position.
• 0:33
  Had the race been ran fairly the the the 24 car would have lost
• 0:37
  enough spots to get me into the final race.
• 0:40
  Bob Parker's Fox Sports. Do you feel like you should have
• 0:43
  been put into the Champ 4? Do you feel like that the
• 0:46
  Chevrolet in addition to Chevrolet is that Byron should
• 0:49
  have been penalized? I, I feel like I should be in
• 0:54
  the Championship 4 yes, you know, after the race, so in, in,
• 1:04
  in the race when the manipulation happened, it was
• 1:09
  clear that I needed a position and you know, with the 23
• 1:14
  dropping back, we got that position and, and whenever we
• 1:17
  cross the finish line, the 20 car was in.
• 1:20
  So, you know, with the cards that were dealt, the 20 car was
• 1:24
  in position to make the the championship event and we're not
• 1:28
  in it. Dustin Long, NBC Sports.
• 1:31
  If you win on Sunday, would this be the most conflicted or worst
• 1:36
  feeling after a win for you? Yeah, it's definitely it's going
• 1:42
  to be tough. I mean, no matter, no matter how
• 1:44
  it goes, you know, you you want to do well and we're going to
• 1:48
  put our best foot forward to do well.
• 1:49
  But if we do well and have a successful weekend, then it's
• 1:52
  going to be, you know, even more of a, of a, you know, a bummer
• 1:57
  and a disappointment. So, yeah, it's, it's a, it's a
• 2:01
  very perplexing feeling going into this weekend and one that I
• 2:04
  hope that I never have again. So what, what is the motivation
• 2:08
  at this point because of the conflicted feelings of winning,
• 2:12
  if that happens? I mean, the motivation is, is
• 2:15
  simple. You know, there's, there's still
• 2:17
  a lot of a lot on the line, a lot of, you know, money on the
• 2:20
  line for sure. And, and we have partners that
• 2:24
  have paid to be on the 20 car for this race.
• 2:26
  So not, I mean, it just the list goes on and on, right?
• 2:30
  And then you, we have whatever it is, 600 employees at Joe
• 2:34
  Gibbs Racing that put effort into this race car.
• 2:37
  And, and so it is, it's unfair if I and my team don't put our
• 2:42
  best foot forward to, you know, try and do as well as we can.
• 2:45
  There's a, there's, there's a lot on the line and there should
• 2:49
  be more on the line. Lee Spencer, SiriusXM, NASCO
• 2:52
  Radio and Catch pants.com. I don't want to point the
• 2:54
  fingers to anybody. I just want clarification on
• 2:56
  this. At what point did you know what
• 2:59
  the point situation was? And did you make that move on
• 3:03
  your own or were you just that desperate that you thought you
• 3:07
  needed the positions? I I was not aware of the point
• 3:12
  situation until the closing lapse and I was informed with
• 3:18
  probably 20 or 25 to go that the 24 was bleeding positions and it
• 3:24
  appeared at that point that we are going to be fine and make it
• 3:27
  on points and that was under the assumption.
• 3:30
  And then as the run continued, I actually got visuals on, on the
• 3:35
  24 car and saw him backing the field up.
• 3:38
  And then it was probably 10 to go when I realized what was
• 3:41
  going on and that the 24 was indeed done bleeding positions.
• 3:47
  So I, I thought at that point that my race was over and I, I
• 3:51
  didn't know that the 23 car was a point for me until the last
• 3:56
  lap. And I knew that I, I had to pass
• 3:59
  him. And, you know, I, I, I, yeah, I
• 4:03
  knew that I had to pass him. And I got by him, you know,
• 4:05
  going into turn 3. And unfortunately, I slid into
• 4:07
  the wall. Could you see the manipulation
• 4:11
  that was going on? I could very clearly see the
• 4:13
  race manipulation and race fixing that was going on.
• 4:16
  I know you well enough to know you're choosing your words very
• 4:19
  correctly because you don't speak out of school.
• 4:22
  But to, to say you felt cheated. I've, I've got to think that
• 4:26
  this is going to hang on you for a long time.
• 4:29
  Yeah, it's, it's tough. I mean, this has been one of
• 4:31
  the, you know, the hardest things that I've had to go
• 4:33
  through as a, as a race car driver.
• 4:36
  And yeah, I mean, it's just, I believe cheated is the right
• 4:40
  word. And, you know, we go through
• 4:42
  sessions at the beginning of the year to make sure that we don't
• 4:47
  do this. And that, unfortunately, is what
• 4:50
  happened. And I was on the losing side of
• 4:53
  it. Go to Kelly and Jenna, then
• 4:58
  Jerry. Kelly Crandall, racer.com
• 5:02
  Playing off of what Lee just asked, is it fair to say you
• 5:05
  have a chip on your shoulder and how long is it going to be
• 5:08
  there? I mean, yeah, I, I am, I'm
• 5:15
  bummed and disappointed. So I, I guess I have a little
• 5:17
  bit of a chip on my shoulder. But you know, once it's just for
• 5:21
  this weekend and that's that's one thing that I'm grateful of
• 5:23
  is it's not the round of eight, it's not the round of 12.
• 5:26
  So I don't have to go weeks after this.
• 5:29
  And, you know, as soon as Sunday's over, I can close the
• 5:32
  book and we can focus on 20/25 and trying to, you know, be in a
• 5:37
  better position going into that that championship race or the
• 5:40
  cut off race at Martinsville. Yeah.
• 5:43
  I mean, I just, I'm, I'm incredibly bummed that it it
• 5:46
  came down to that. And yeah.
• 5:51
  They're they're supposed to be, I believe the meeting between
• 5:53
  the drivers in NASCAR today where they want to deliver the
• 5:55
  message about what is and isn't acceptable going forward after
• 5:59
  what happened last weekend. Is there anything they can say
• 6:03
  that that you want to hear or is there anything you want to say
• 6:06
  to them? Or is that just going to be more
• 6:07
  of a an uncomfortable feeling of having to sit there and listen
• 6:12
  to what they're going to say? Yeah, I mean, it's, it's, it's
• 6:16
  definitely I, I, I don't know, I don't know how to answer that
• 6:19
  question. But we all know, we all, we all
• 6:21
  know how, how and if we are putting, you know, 100% effort
• 6:26
  into a race. And, you know, so if I, I, I
• 6:31
  don't know what the answer is, but something has to change to
• 6:34
  get us out of this, you know, box that we're in of, of
• 6:37
  manufacturer help and, and, you know, manipulating races to help
• 6:41
  guys who are in certain positions.
• 6:43
  It's just it's, it's not racing and it's, it's not fair.
• 6:47
  Jenna. Jenna Fryer AP Christopher, do
• 6:50
  you think then that that will have an effect on the way that
• 6:54
  you guys raised at Daytona and Talladega I.
• 6:57
  I don't envy the situation that we're in because you know the
• 7:01
  talking about team racing, if that's been a staple of Speedway
• 7:06
  racing for a long time. And I don't know what the answer
• 7:10
  is, especially whenever it comes to the speed to the
• 7:12
  superspeedway races, but that I don't have the answer for that.
• 7:16
  But it definitely happens a lot in those races as well.
• 7:19
  We saw the same thing at Talladega with the five car in a
• 7:22
  lifting coming into the triol. So yeah, there's, there's,
• 7:27
  there's a lot of it that goes behind the scenes.
• 7:30
  And NASCAR acknowledged that they considered suspending the
• 7:33
  drivers. Do you think that the driver
• 7:36
  should have been suspended? I don't think it's my place to
• 7:41
  speak on what should or or shouldn't have happened in the
• 7:44
  penalties, but the the penalties did not make right by me who
• 7:50
  lost out on the actions that happened on the track.
• 7:58
  Jerry Jordan, kingofthetires.net, Christopher
• 8:00
  In most cases, in a penalty situation or, you know, there's
• 8:03
  an appeal process, this was ruled as a safety issue, so
• 8:07
  there was no appeal. Do you feel like that's
• 8:09
  something that should be reviewed going forward?
• 8:12
  I think that the, the rule language needs to be, you know,
• 8:15
  a little bit more clearly defined and, and less Gray area.
• 8:21
  And, and yeah, I mean they, they, yeah, I think it needs to
• 8:26
  be more clearly defined in less Gray area.
• 8:30
  We'll go to Davey and then Jeff. Davey Siegel with SiriusXM
• 8:35
  NASCAR Radio. I just want to make sure I heard
• 8:37
  you right. You said that you go through
• 8:38
  sessions at the beginning of the year to kind of make sure that
• 8:41
  stuff like this doesn't happen as much as you can or are
• 8:44
  willing to. What do those sessions really
• 8:46
  entail and what what did those conversations kind of look like?
• 8:49
  It's just about keeping the sports integrity intact and and
• 8:53
  not manipulating races to, you know, change the outcome of the
• 8:57
  race. No, that that's a NASCAR.
• 9:01
  That's a NASCAR thing. It's not an OEM thing.
• 9:03
  It is a NASCAR thing. We'll go Jeff and Zach.
• 9:07
  No worries if you haven't put any thought into this this week,
• 9:09
  but format wise, do you see any changes that could be made that
• 9:15
  would lessen the chances of this type of gamesmanship happening?
• 9:20
  Yeah, I think that there are a lot of changes that could happen
• 9:24
  format wise to help the, you know, the the way that the races
• 9:28
  play out. And I think that all of them
• 9:30
  need to be looked at and changes need to be made.
• 9:33
  Any any specific suggestions you want to offer?
• 9:38
  You know, I, I think that there needs to be a lot of thought
• 9:41
  that it gets put into what happens.
• 9:43
  But, you know, certainly I, I feel like the wins are, I don't
• 9:49
  know. I mean, the fact that we had
• 9:51
  three bottom tier winners in the in the round of eight that led
• 9:55
  to, you know, that the championship for that we have
• 9:58
  today. It, it's just I don't know what
• 10:01
  the answer is. And I think a lot of thought
• 10:03
  needs to be put into it, but I do feel like changes need to be
• 10:07
  made. Thank you.
• 10:09
  What is that? External on nascar.com.
• 10:12
  Christopher, how did how will you reflect on this 2024 season
• 10:16
  where you as a driver and the team around you just seem to
• 10:19
  really click, especially the second-half of the season,
• 10:22
  Certainly last week is AI don't know if the stain is the right
• 10:26
  word for it from your perspective, but how will you
• 10:28
  reflect on this season? Yeah, finally a a positive
• 10:32
  question. And it's, you know that that
• 10:35
  this 2024 season has been the best in my career across all
• 10:39
  forms of the statistics, more tops, 10s, more top fives, more
• 10:43
  laps LED. And that's something that we
• 10:45
  tried to, you know, emphasis going into 2024, you know,
• 10:49
  coming off of our 2022-2023 being in the championship race,
• 10:54
  but feeling like we haven't performed at our at our highest.
• 10:57
  And even leaving 2024, I feel like it's, it's more of the same
• 11:00
  where we left a lot on the table.
• 11:03
  So yeah, I'm, I'm happy and I'm pleased that I have set career
• 11:07
  highs for myself. And I, I am hopeful and
• 11:11
  optimistic that I can keep breaking, breaking those
• 11:14
  barriers and, you know, winning more races, leading more laps,
• 11:17
  winning more stages, more top 10s, more for the top fives.
• 11:22
  Go to Holly here. Ollie Kane with the NASCAR wire
• 11:27
  service kind of following along with that.
• 11:29
  How do you guys handle this weekend?
• 11:31
  Do you and Adam talk to the team?
• 11:32
  How do you shift it from the disappointment to the we have a
• 11:36
  great season going on, we still have this that we can accomplish
• 11:40
  yeah. I mean, I, I, at least from my
• 11:42
  standpoint, I'm not going to speak on the team, but for me
• 11:45
  it's, it's really easy and it doesn't matter what my mental
• 11:48
  state is. Whenever I put the helmet on and
• 11:50
  get in the car, I have been able to, you know, turn off
• 11:54
  everything that's going on around me and focus on the task
• 11:56
  at hand. And frankly, I look forward to
• 11:59
  that. You know, practice is very, or,
• 12:02
  or was fun. Practice was fun.
• 12:04
  I got to, you know, get into my zone and drive a race car.
• 12:07
  Qualifying will be fun and then the race will be fun.
• 12:09
  It's all of the stuff outside of the car where you're not in race
• 12:12
  car driver mode. That's, that's not fun and is
• 12:16
  is, you know, heartbreaking and disappointment.
• 12:18
  So I look forward to putting my helmet on and and getting out of
• 12:22
  the getting out of the world, getting into my race car.
• 12:27
  Go over here to Toby. Christopher, you talk about how
• 12:35
  you feel like you were robbed of a championship for birth spot by
• 12:38
  race manipulation. In addition to your wall ride
• 12:41
  penalty, which is a safety infraction, the 23 was also
• 12:44
  flagged for race manipulation. So if there were extended
• 12:46
  penalties for the 2014 by benefiting, would they've not
• 12:50
  have also extended to you guys? Yeah, absolutely.
• 12:54
  But it, it should, we should never have been in that spot in
• 12:56
  the 1st place. And that's what I, that's what I
• 12:58
  go back to. If the race had been run fairly,
• 13:00
  there would have been no manipulation by either side.
• 13:02
  And you know that our our hands were forced by hands of our
• 13:08
  other competitors. And, and yeah, wow, Christopher
• 13:13
  Bell not mincing his words there, saying he feels cheated
• 13:17
  and accusing the Chevrolets of race fixing and race
• 13:21
  manipulation. This championship race at
• 13:24
  Phoenix is already wild. For the Kenny Wallace YouTube
• 13:27
  channel, I'm Charlie Marlowe.