After qualifying 13th for the Pennzoil 400 race, Christopher Bell immediately swept up problems. It felt like 2024’s second-to-last race at Martinsville was taking shape again. Yes, you remember it right! It was the race where Bell had qualified for the championship 4 shortly before being kicked out of the podium because of his ‘alleged’ illegal wall run. That race also saw a whopping $600,000 fine being imposed on three racers and their teams. Seeing what Bubba Wallace, Austin Dillon, and Ross Chastain went through, Bell must have gotten terrible flash-forwards to the situation that Joe Gibbs Racing could face for his mistakes.
“Left front! Left front!” The frantic emotions in these words may not be visible to you now, but they will be clear once you know the story. Christopher Bell completed a three-peat Cup Series race-winning streak at Phoenix Raceway, aiming to join Jimmie Johnson’s four-peat. However, that fourth win eluded his grasp at Las Vegas – which is when Bell grew desperate and broke a NASCAR rule. However, Dale Earnhardt Jr. does not mind that at all.
Dale Jr. ignores the rule-breaking factor
Well, NASCAR’s visit to Las Vegas was anyway strewn with pit road penalties. Kyle Busch and Chase Briscoe bore the brunt of these mishaps. A lost right rear tire and a subsequent scrape with the backstretch wall on lap 113 started off the No. 8 Chevrolet’s day. Then Busch faced a pit road speeding penalty and another scrape with the wall off Turn 2. For Chase Briscoe, the No. 19 Toyota was slammed with a penalty as well. During the first green flag pit stops of the day, his car lost a loose wheel which rolled off on the racetrack. When it comes to Christopher Bell’s penalty – it was relatively less. Moreover, Dale Earnhardt Jr. tipped his hat in respect.
After Christopher Bell rose to 2nd place by stage 2, he had to stop at pit road during a caution period. However, his No. 20 team left his left front tire loose. So upon frantic instructions from his crew chief Adam Stevens, he stopped at his teammate Briscoe’s pit stall. In a recent Dale Jr Download episode, Dale Earnhardt Jr recalled this sequence of events: “There’s this conversation around Christopher Bell. Pulled out of his pit box with a loose wheel, goes down pit road, pulls into the #19 team’s pit box to get it tightened. And he served a penalty for pitting outside his box.”
Answer this: should another team be able to service your car on pit road? @DaleJr | @Tjmajors pic.twitter.com/r7K4hcoyBs
— Dirty Mo Media (@DirtyMoMedia) March 18, 2025
Yet while incurring NASCAR’s penalty, Christopher Bell avoided a heftier penalty in case his wheel rolled off like Briscoe’s. If that happened then two of his pit crew members would have been suspended. So Dale Earnhardt Jr. acknowledged this: “Well, he saved the left rear tire from coming off which would have been a bigger penalty.” Veteran spotter T.J. Majors also agreed with him: “It’s better than a tire coming off at any point…very genius decision to do that.”
Indeed, the No. 20 crew chief, Adam Stevens, executed his job very well at that point. His quick thinking saved Christopher Bell from an embarrassing dismal finish as the latter could wash up in 12th place. So Dale Earnhardt Jr. lauded Stevens: “Should you be allowed to have another pit crew service your car? I don’t think is a big deal. Absolutely smart, quick reaction by Adam Stevens.” Even Majors concurred with a short salute: “Smart play.”
What is more, Adam Stevens’ counterpart in Joe Gibbs Racing expected it. Such an emergency situation had been in the team discussion.
Anticipating the problem beforehand
When Christopher Bell stopped at his teammate’s No. 19 pit stall, stunned reactions flooded the internet. Never has this situation happened in the history of NASCAR. But what dominated people’s minds was the beautiful display of unity inside the JGR fold. James Small, the crew chief for the No. 19 Toyota, did not need any prior warning for this situation. As soon as he saw Bell avoiding the pit traffic cleanly and slowing down before his stall, he knew. Small recalled the experience: “I could see Bell trying to get to our box and I’m like he must have a loose wheel. He came in and he was pointing and I got on our in-car radio and started yelling, ‘Left front! Left front!’”
This forewarning was because Joe Gibbs Racing’s teams had discussed this emergency situation for years. Having a teammate pull into another’s pit stall had been in conversation and Small said, “That’s just the first time it’s happened.” Small continued, “If you’re down on that end of pit road (close to pit exit), we just, for years, we’ve had an agreement that if somebody rolls up to your pit box, you know what you need to do.”
More importantly, Dale Earnhardt Jr. was not the only one to laud the JGR team. William Byron also appreciated their quick thinking: “It was kind of weird because I was like ‘All right, I’ll feel like I’m going to be racing him off pit road and then he started slowing down. When we talked about it under caution about what happened I was like that’s pretty heads up for them to anticipate that and obviously they’ve talked about that in the past.”
Clearly, nobody is paying attention to Christopher Bell’s rule infraction. The No. 20 team saved themselves from a worse fate, so all brownie points go to them.
The post Christopher Bell’s Ingenious Tactic Garners Praise From Dale Earnhardt Jr. Despite Questionable Move appeared first on EssentiallySports.
