Christopher Bell praises NASCAR’s safety advancements
Less than a week after being involved in a crash at Michigan International Speedway, Joe Gibbs Racing driver Christopher Bell met with reporters Saturday at Pocono Raceway – site of Sunday’s Great American Getaway 400 presented by VISIT PA (1 p.m. ET on Prime Video, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) with a cast on his broken left wrist and a smile on his face.
The 31-year-old praised NASCAR for the sanctioning body’s always-evolving safety efforts that Bell said prevented any worse injury after his Toyota collided with Chase Elliott’s Chevrolet and careened hard and awkwardly into a wall at the Michigan track. Bell said he was never given an exact number of the G-forces he sustained in the incident, but said it was around 63 Gs.
And yet, days later – he’s planning to strap into his No. 20 Toyota and compete Sunday on the famous Pocono “Tricky Triangle.”
“The car did absolutely perfect and all the safety gear did absolutely perfect,” Bell said of his accident. “That’s why I’m back in the car a week later.”
“I owe all of the credit to NASCAR and my team for building safe cars,” he added. “All of the previous drivers who have paid somewhat of a price to make these cars as safe as they are today, NASCAR from learning from every experience that they’ve had in every moment, every crash; it all paid off last Sunday. So, super grateful and I’m looking forward to putting it behind me for sure.”
Bell revealed that he remembers everything about the incident and that unfortunately his ear piece popped out after the impact so he couldn’t communicate with his team in the immediate aftermath, which, he noted, understandably scared his wife.
He said he knew immediately his wrist was likely broken because of the pain and that he couldn’t use his left hand properly in unstrapping and disconnecting gear to get out of the car. Interestingly, however, while Bell realized the wrist was obviously injured and his ankle was sore, he said never even got a headache afterward.
What Bell has gotten afterward is a whole lot of phone calls and text messages of concern checking on him, “more than I’ve ever gotten in my life,” he shared. “I’m thankful for all of the love.”
Elliott, who immediately walked over to Bell on track to check on him in the accident’s aftermath, has been among those following up with the popular driver – checking in often.
“I can’t speak highly enough about Chase,”’ Bell said of Elliott. “He was visibly shaken up and yet very concerned about me. I appreciate so much his demeanor and his thoughts of me and he’s reached out several times throughout the week to make sure I’m okay.
“Obviously, I asked him if he was okay too. He had a big hit as well, but just thankful for all of the love from everybody. Everyone in the community, everyone outside of the community, my phone has been the busiest this week it’s been in my entire life.”
Bell said he’ll have a slightly modified steering wheel this weekend to better allow his casted left hand to grip the wheel. And similarly, the team has set up the cockpit to have his drinking bottle, radio and helmet connection swapped from the left side to the right side. And to alleviate the hassle of getting in and out of the car – tightening belts etc. .. he opted to just sit in his car between practice and qualifying Saturday.
He has already been on the SIM this week preparing for next week’s inaugural Anduril 250 at the Naval Base Coronado in San Diego. He conceded he’s more concerned with the upcoming road course races – at San Diego then Sonoma, Calif. – than he is about Pocono because of the constant and increased shifting necessary to drive those events.
Although his JGR team will have its fulltime NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series driver Brandon Jones on standby at Pocono should Bell need relief in Sunday’s race, the perennial championship contender insists he’s good to go.
“We’re as ready as we can get,” Bell said, adding with a smile, “As of right now, I’m full commit and planning to run 400 miles.”
Chase Briscoe is ready to repeat at Pocono
Chase Briscoe has particularly fond memories of Pocono Raceway. It’s where he celebrated his first victory as a member of the championship Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota organization last summer – that win kickstarting a three-trophy season – the most trophies he’s ever won in a single year in the NASCAR Cup Series.
To do it, Briscoe had to beat the best – literally, Pocono’s very best – his teammate, Denny Hamlin. But Briscoe held off the seven-time Pocono winner by more than half a second and led a race best 72 laps – including the final 34.
He’d love for Pocono to kickstart another strong title run this weekend. The 31-year-old is ranked 13th in the championship standings with seven top-10 finishes. However, the last month and a half has been a challenge for Briscoe. He’s had top-10 finishes in the last two races, but prior to that endured a streak of three sub-20th-place showings in a four-race span (at Talladega, Ala., Texas and Charlotte) that cost him some points.
Briscoe said he feels the good vibes as the defending Pocono winner, however, and is optimistic about his chances this weekend. He’s hoping to become the first back-to-back winner since Kyle Busch (2018-19).
“I feel like our prep work is dialed in,” Briscoe said of his No. 19 team’s situation. “I would say that the pressure, honestly, kind of, it’s a little bit different because last year I felt like I had to perform to maintain my job, which I still need to do that, right? But the pressure now is more in a sense of like, man, I haven’t went to Victory Lane this year and last year I was able to win three races and just from a point standpoint.
“Now the expectation is there, where when I came into this weekend last year, I felt like I could win, but I’d never done it at JGR (Joe Gibbs Racing). It wasn’t necessarily the expectation. So, it’s just, it’s different from that mindset. But the pressure, I feel like, is very similar.
“I obviously want to race for a championship and as a team, we feel like we need to be top five in points at the end of the regular season to really do that, and so I’m 100 points out right now. So, the pressure from that standpoint is very similar. Just knowing that I have to have a good weekend and just knowing that a win could really be the difference maker in getting to that point.”
Legacy Motor Club on positive Summer trajectory
Legacy Motor Club driver Erik Jones, 30, is coming off his first top-five finish of the season – a strong runner-up showing Sunday at Michigan International Speedway – a close drive from his Michigan hometown.
It’s not just the sentimental aspect of the effort that’s encouraging, however. It’s part of the best three-race swing his No. 43 Legacy Motor Club Toyota has put together in 2026. He finished 13th at Charlotte three weeks ago, answered with an 11th-place run at Nashville and then earned this strong second place. His 16 laps led through the opening 15 races is modest – but it’s greater than his totals in both the previous two years.
He’s optimistic it’s a good sign for him and for the greater team in general. And Pocono has been a legitimately positive venue on his resume. He has eight top-10 finishes in 14 starts – five of those are top-five showings. His best day at the track was a runner-up in 2019. He has a pair of third-place finishes (2019 and 2020) and was 13th here last year. He was third fastest in 10-lap averages during practice Saturday.
“With the 43 group, I mean, obviously we’re feeling really good,” Jones said Saturday. “The 42 group [teammate John Hunter Nemechek], I think, is on the up and up too. I know the results haven’t shown for them, but their speed’s been there.
“So yeah, everybody’s really confident,” he continued. “I think at the end of the day, the message for me is that there’s still a lot of work to do. I think as well as we’re running is awesome, but there’s so many little things I think we can still do better and optimize and improve on. There’s still room for growth. We want to make sure that we’re continuing down this path.
This isn’t just a quick flash in the pan here, this last month, or going forward as long as this lasts, that the speed is continued and we can keep this rolling for a long period.”
— NASCAR News Wire —