Like his fellow veteran teammate, Denny Hamlin, Christopher Bell also was generally tight-lipped about the competition meetings this week following what ultimately happened at New Hampshire when Ty Gibbs got crashed after hard racing between them.
“I thought it was productive and hopefully we can do better moving forward,” Bell told a group of on-site reporters that included The Athletic, FOX Sports and NBC Sports at Kansas Speedway on Saturday.
Every driver involved had the opportunity to speak during the Monday competition meeting. Does Bell feel like everyone found the conversations equally productive?
“Yeah, I think so.”
But like Hamlin, who said he wasn’t going to spill the guts of that conversation, Bell also wasn’t going to share the contents of the meeting.
“I can’t do that.”
Hamlin conceded that he got ‘hot under the collar’ and that he wishes he would have done some things differently since Gibbs crashed off his bumper. Bell more or less echoed that sentiment.
“I definitely think it is fair to say that a line was crossed,” Bell said. “That was bad. We don’t need to have teammates get crashed. Hopefully we can do better moving forward and that was the goal – race each other better moving forward.”
Even though Bell wasn’t directly involved in the same way that Hamlin and Gibbs were, he was raced similarly hard and then contact between his teammates nearly collected him in the crash as well.
It could have been a playoff disaster for Bell, but he isn’t aware of how close it was.
"I don't know because I couldn't see it," Bell said. "I watched it unfold and I kind of expected that Ty was going to get the bumper but you don't know if he is going to get the bumper and slide up or spin ... so I kind of rolled out of it easy and from that point, there was so much tire smoke that I hope he stays up.
"If he would have ricocheted off the wall, I would have been caught up in it. Thankfully he stayed up, but I don't know, because I was blind. I was trying to slow down and turn as far left as I could."
Photos from Kansas - Race
Kansas - Saturday, in photos
Kansas - Saturday, in photos
Kansas - Saturday, in photos
Kansas - Saturday, in photos
Kansas - Saturday, in photos
Kansas - Saturday, in photos
Kansas - Saturday, in photos
Kansas - Saturday, in photos
Kansas - Saturday, in photos
Kansas - Saturday, in photos
Kansas - Saturday, in photos
Kansas - Saturday, in photos
Kansas - Saturday, in photos
Kansas - Saturday, in photos
Kansas - Saturday, in photos
Kansas - Saturday, in photos
Kansas - Saturday, in photos
Kansas - Saturday, in photos
Kansas - Saturday, in photos
Kansas - Saturday, in photos
Kansas - Saturday, in photos
Kansas - Saturday, in photos
Kansas - Saturday, in photos
Kansas - Saturday, in photos
Kansas - Saturday, in photos
Kansas - Saturday, in photos
Kansas - Saturday, in photos
Kansas - Saturday, in photos
Kansas - Saturday, in photos
Kansas - Saturday, in photos
Kansas - Saturday, in photos
Kansas - Saturday, in photos
Kansas - Saturday, in photos
Kansas - Saturday, in photos
Kansas - Saturday, in photos
Kansas - Saturday, in photos
Kansas - Saturday, in photos
Kansas - Saturday, in photos
