NASCAR’s Inconsistency Shines Through With Christopher Bell’s Weekend Going From Bad to Worse

The days of debris caution may have ended a long time ago from NASCAR racing, but it seems like the officials still like to make use of it from time to time. But now, they have multiple reasons or excuses to throw them out. There have been a few questionable caution calls by NASCAR already this season, and it looks like they are back at Iowa Speedway.

The race officials flagged the fifth caution of the race when Daniel Hemric’s No. 31 car made contact with the wall. Again, nothing major as Hemric was able to get control over his race, it certainly did warrant caution, but officials disagreed and were quick on the trigger. This decision left Christopher Bell and his #20 camp fuming, as they were banking on a long cycle run and decided to pit after the majority of the race leaders.

This call was rather fishy by NASCAR because they kept the race for the entirety of the stage 2 run, despite multiple cars busting up tires. And this is exactly what Christopher Bell’s crew chief pointed out while throwing an angry rant on the radio.

He said, “That was the most ridiculous bullsh*t caution I’ve ever seen in my life.” Apart from losing crucial track positions, Bell also missed out on collecting crucial stage points.

Christopher Bell stages a comeback run in the final stage

While the likes of Denny Hamlin and Kyle Larson have managed to grab the attention of the fans and community as title contenders, C. Bell is silently potting his moves. It hasn’t been a perfect season so far for the #20 team, but they certainly are taking strides in the right direction. Even after being in a disadvantageous position with untimely caution, the JGR driver managed to finish the race strong in the P4 position.

This was his fourth consecutive top-10 finish since his second win at Charlotte. Slowly but steadily, the #20 team is now building steam with their consistent run. However, despite a respectable finish to the race today, the driver and his team felt disappointed in not being able to run up front and compete for the win.

When asked whether it was a good thing to be disappointed with a 4th place run, the driver replied, “It’s a great thing; it’s absolutely a great thing, and it just goes to show the ceiling of this team. I’m very disappointed with a fourth-place run but that is a very, very good thing.” C. Bell was quoted saying this via Frontstretch.

One of the big concerns for Christopher Bell in today’s race was that there was not enough room to make the pass. But despite being skeptical about the repaving job, he felt that passing wasn’t tough for race cars that were running well. He added, “I mean, if your car was good, you could pass, and there was a time when I got stuck behind cars and couldn’t move forward, but it was times in the race where I wasn’t very good. At the end my car was really fast, middle of the race my car was really fast and I was able to pass very easily.”

With the NASCAR Cup Series headed to New Hampshire next week, it will be interesting to see if C. Bell and his team can maintain this consistent streak.