LONG POND, Pa. — 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 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 OK.
“Obviously, I asked him if he was OK 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.”
