{"id":222392,"date":"2025-09-13T02:08:17","date_gmt":"2025-09-13T02:08:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/222392\/"},"modified":"2025-09-13T02:08:17","modified_gmt":"2025-09-13T02:08:17","slug":"christopher-bell-explains-frustration-that-led-to-radio-outburst-at-gateway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/222392\/","title":{"rendered":"Christopher Bell explains frustration that led to radio outburst at Gateway"},"content":{"rendered":"

BRISTOL, Tenn. \u2014 A season that hasn\u2019t met all expectations frustrates Christopher Bell and contributed to his outburst on the team\u2019s radio after last weekend\u2019s playoff race at World Wide Technology Raceway.<\/p>\n

Bell enters Saturday night\u2019s playoff elimination race at Bristol Motor Speedway 32 points above the cutline. He starts ninth.<\/p>\n

After Bell\u2019s seventh-place finish last weekend, crew chief Adam Stevens said on the team\u2019s radio: \u201cThat\u2019s what we needed today. Take the pressure off next week. Good job guys.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bell responded by shouting: \u201cWe just (expletive) ran seventh with the best car on the track! Every (expletive) week it\u2019s the same (expletive)! We\u2019re the last car to pit road! I\u2019m over it!\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"NASCAR:<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

The first-round finale will cut the playoff field from 16 drivers to 12.<\/p>\n

Bell has three wins this season \u2014 and he also won the All-Star Race in May \u2014 but has gone winless in the last 24 points races. Teammates Denny Hamlin and Chase Briscoe have combined to win seven races in that time, including the first two races of the playoffs.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s about winning races,\u201d Bell said Friday about his frustration. \u201cCertainly that is an important part of it. If I was consistently leading laps and in position to win, then I would never have been frustrated.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the fact of the matter is I haven\u2019t been in position to win races, I haven\u2019t led laps. My teammates are leading it seems like almost every lap and they\u2019re getting the results out of it. It\u2019s less about winning races and more about being in position to do well and we haven\u2019t had that.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"NASCAR<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

AJ Allmendinger earns his fifth career Cup pole and first since August 2015 at Watkins Glen.<\/p>\n

Bell ranks fifth in the series in overall speed this season. Hamlin is his only Joe Gibbs Racing teammate who ranks above him at fourth. Bell ranks above Hamlin, Briscoe and Ty Gibbs in passing this season.<\/p>\n

Even so, Bell hasn\u2019t collected the victories like he did early in the season when he won three in a row.<\/p>\n

Only twice since his he won at Phoenix in March has Bell led more than 25 laps race in a points race. Sixteen times \u2014 including last weekend at World Wide Technology Raceway \u2014 he has not led a lap in a points race.<\/p>\n

Even with that frustration, Bell admits he remains hopeful of better results in the playoffs.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that goes back to the teammates having the success that they have,\u201d Bell said. \u201cIt just shows that the capability is there, the equipment\u2019s there and it makes me optimistic.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was frustrated last week, but, aside from that, I know that every time we go to the racetrack we have a great opportunity to lead laps and, hopefully, contend for wins.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BRISTOL, Tenn. \u2014 A season that hasn\u2019t met all expectations frustrates Christopher Bell and contributed to his outburst…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":222393,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[1406,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-222392","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nascar","8":"tag-nascar","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115194554559157066","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=222392"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222392\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/222393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}