At the Chicago race, we saw many drivers frustrated. Whether it was Chase Elliott, Bubba Wallace, or Daniel Suarez. But there was another driver who was furious so much so that he didn’t even want to comment about the race – Christopher Bell– and he left the place as soon as he took the firesuit.

Some tracks don’t work out for some drivers and for Christopher Bell, it just might be Chicago. Because he came close to winning not once but twice on the track and both times he missed. C. Bell was more than furious over the déjà vu encounter he had again. This time, another strategy issue.

Christopher Bell relives a déjà vu moment in Chicago!

Last year, the rain badly marred the first race in Chicago. Christopher Bell came close to winning it, but in the end, he came up empty-handed. Crew chief Adam Stevens had made a strategy to get to the end of the race. But then NASCAR shortened it abruptly without giving the teams the chance to factor in their decisions. 

And this time yet again, a similar fate. He was leading the race, and he had a fast car too. At the end of the second stage on a damp track, taking slicks, he lost the race. Bowman was out on the wet tires and he won. Bell was caught up in a crash trying to make his way through the top 10. It’s a double setback for him and he didn’t take it well. He stormed out of the place without having said anything. But recently he shared his thoughts with Bob Pockrass. He said, “It was a little bit deja vu” highlighting how almost like a flashback of an incident it was a year back.

However, whilst last year he openly called out NASCAR about their decision to cut short the race and being unfair, this time he admitted it was a fair race but yet he didn’t win—underlying double the disappointment for him. The new rule to race against the clock is also called the “Christopher Bell” rule! He said, “Last year when they shortened the race after the final pit top had happened, I felt like that was extremely unfair. But the way NASCAR handled the new rules I thought was awesome and it worked really well. It’s just unfortunate circumstances that the strategy didn’t work out for us.”

He seems disappointed but also admits he doesn’t know how he could have got a different outcome because he replayed the scenario repeatedly and couldn’t find a way. But while two nil in the Chicago race after coming super close is quite a setback, hopefully, he can find the errors, correct the strategy scenes, and maybe ace it next year. 

Meanwhile, Kevin Harvick put Bell as the reason people failed in Chicago!

Kevin Harvick criticizes “follow-the-leader” mentality in Chicago race tire strategies

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NASCAR once again got the wet tires back into action, and this time it was Chicago. And well, given that the race winner was in wet tires—it’s proof that it did work well for them. NASCAR earlier didn’t give autonomy over when to put on the wet weather tires, but this time in Chicago they did allow teams to make that call. And while teams did want this, mostly failed to make optimum use of it. It was the deciding factor of who won the race.

And in this race, the slick tires are the group that lost. Kevin Harvick in his podcast highlighted that and also bought C.Bell to the mix. He said, “I think the slick tires strategy was obviously the losing strategy. And that was the end of it. I think Christopher Bell probably had a faster car on slick tires at the end, but ultimately there was one line. And the way that all those guys just followed Bell in putting those slick tires on ultimately got themselves buried.”

According to him, everyone kind of followed Bell, and that’s the way most lost out of contention from the race. And indeed Bell was leading the pack before charging to the pit road before stage 2 and as he switched to the slick tires, so did many more drivers. Ultimately, it was a terrible choice for them. Now, whether they choose to follow Bell or voluntarily according to strategy, no one knows. But those who didn’t go for slicks, for example, Alex Bowman—ended up winning and that says a lot.

While those on slicks surely had a rough day, NASCAR authorities might be on fire—because the tires work! 

What do you think was it a follow-the-sheep mentality that Harvick suggested that ruined everyone’s races? Let us know!