Christopher Bell nearly caught William Byron in the final 10 laps but came up just short during Sunday’s EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix at the Circuit of The Americas (COTA).
After the race, Bell argued that if he had one more lap, he could’ve passed Byron.
“It seems another lap I would’ve got there for sure,” Bell said. “Passing was gonna be difficult. I needed him to make a mistake and he didn’t.”
Denny Hamlin agrees, saying on his “Actions Detrimental” podcast that Bell simply “ran out of time.”
Denny Hamlin explains Christopher Bell’s late-race strategy at COTA
“It would have been a very, very, very hard pass to execute and pull off,” Hamlin said. “But it kept you wondering, right, like is he gonna get there? TV did a good job of also making you think ah, he could catch him. And he was reeling down pretty quick, but yeah, it’s just a different — you had like four to five guys that were up front the entire day that you knew it was going to be between them and then how they decide to play their strategy. By him staying out a little longer, he had to re-pass more cars. And so, say he was fourth when they started this cycle, by him staying out five extra laps, maybe then he cycled back to let’s say eighth. These are inaccurate numbers but just for argument’s sake here.
“So, when he comes back out, he’s lost four positions, but he’s gained a five-lap newer advantage on tires. Now, he’s hoping that the advantage of the tires overcomes the dirty air so he’s able to make those passes more efficiently because he’s not on equal tires. Passing is very hard when you’re on the same tires. … He’s really good on road courses, I think his car got better throughout the day and he picked his way through the pack, but he just flat out ran out of time.”
Christopher Bell explains pit road confrontation with Kyle Busch
Bell had a problem on his hands after the race — a Kyle Busch problem. Busch marched over to Bell on pit road, still fuming from when Bell made contact and spun him around during the final stage of the race. Busch ripped a new one into Bell, asking him if he had ever wrecked him before. Bell answered no, to which Busch responded, “OK, it’s f—— coming.”
Bell later addressed their pit road confrontation.
“Kyle was heated. That was heated KB for sure,” Bell said. “You know, driving for him those years, I’ve seen it before. But I think that might be the first time that he’s ever been heated directly at me. So obviously, I didn’t have any intention to spin them out. So, I’ll be reaching out to him, and hopefully he’ll talk to me later this week.”