After the curtains fell at Bristol, NASCAR resumed its Cup Series actions with Sunday’s race at the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix. Despite the high-speed thrills during the race, JC Racing’s Christopher Bell and RCR’s Kyle Busch delivered the piping-hot moment of the day in the aftermath of the race.
Regarding this incident, it is only natural that the question “What happened between Christopher Bell and Kyle Busch after the COTA race?” arises.
Why did Kyle Busch confront Christopher Bell after COTA race?
After COTA race flagged off with its ‘high-octane’ actions, RCR’s Kyle Busch was far from leaving the scene just yet, as he directly confronted JG Racing’s Christopher Bell, who sent him spinning during the EchoPark Automotive GP.
During the heated confrontation, a frustrated Kyle Busch was seen showing two fingers to Christopher Bell, his former teammate at Joe Gibbs Racing. With this ‘two-fingered’ gesture, he was showing that Bell bumped not one, but two of his seniors during the race.
On Lap 40 of the race, Bell, driving his No. 20 Toyota Camry XSE, collided with Busch in Turn 1 of the Circuit of the Americas, causing the RCR’s No. 8 Chevrolet to spin. As a result of this incident, Busch, who was inside the top-10, lost several positions in the running order.
In a clip of their confrontation, Kyle Busch was heard threatening Christopher Bell with a “bump-for-bump” reaction in their next encounter. “This stuff is happening,” he said, concluding the heated moment. This verbal exchange from Kyle Busch occurred just before Bell was seen expressing his personal opinion on their heated confrontation at the Circuit of the Americas.
What does Christopher Bell make of the confrontation?
In the post-race interview of the COTA race, Christopher Bell, who also bumped into Kyle Larson on Lap 21, revealed his personal insights on both of his crashes with his fellow senior competitors, and planned on clearing things out with them before the next race.
Talking about his crash with Larson, he started by saying, “The Larson deal, that was totally on me and I had no intentions of spinning Kyle out.”
Bringing his bump with Busch into the mix, he explained the prior moments leading up to the crash, and added, “Kyle Busch, he opened his entry way up into Turn 1 because they were side-by-side, and I ran my normal line on the bottom and wasn’t planning on passing him.”
“He tried to do the crossover and I was underneath him. Obviously, I didn’t mean to spin him out at all,” Bell further added.
Before moving onto the next topic, he revealed that he would approach Busch with their ‘bumping’ matter, and try to make peace with the Richard Childress Racer.
“I will reach out to him and talk to him, whenever we’re a little bit cooled off,” he concluded, talking about this.
After the race finished, the 29-year-old Bell crossed the chequered flag as the runner-up while the two Kyles–Kyle Busch and Kyle Larson–finished at the P9 and P17 spots, respectively.
Christopher Bell and Kyle Busch will again go head-to-head against each other on 1st April at the 2024 Toyota Owners 400 race at Richmond.
Can Bell outplay Kyle Busch again in their next race at the Richmond Raceway? Or will Busch really hit him back in the upcoming event? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
