Dale Earnhardt Jr. reacts to Christopher Bell’s heated comments about Martinsville controversy
Last week in Phoenix, Christopher Bell was more than upset with how the previous race went. Dale Earnhardt Jr. thinks he went a bit far. Bell took a hardline stance against the race manipulation that happened at Martinsville.
The NASCAR Championship 4 did not include Christopher Bell this season. He had previously made the last two finales. However, he came up short this season after being penalized for a wall ride amid multiple accusations of manipulation.
On the Dale Jr. Download, Earnhardt talked about Bell’s comments. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver said the race was manipulated and went as far as to say it was fixed.
“Christopher Bell’s Championship 4 comments, a lot of people have been talking about this. He called, I guess talking bout Martinsville he called it, ‘Race manipulation,’ and ‘Race fixing.’ That’s a little strong,” Earnhardt said.
“Saying, ‘It’s one of the hardest things I’ve had to go through as a race car driver.’ Again, I look back to, I will tell him he should probably go watch Martinsville from several years ago when the car he was driving was sort of doing the same thing for Denny at the end of the race. This is nothing new. I get it he’s frustrated and he has every right to say whatever he wants to say but I don’t think, I don’t think there’s anyone [that] is entirely innocent of some ‘manipulation.’”
Did Bell go too far?
Dale Earnhardt Jr. is right about manipulation
Race manipulation, team orders, “helping” a teammate. A lot of that has happened in the past. There’s the famous incident at Richmond with Michael Waltrip Racing. Go back to Bristol in 2021 when Kevin Harvick lost it when Chase Elliott blocked him to help Kyle Larson.
While this is something that has happened in the past and will likely happen in the future, it has to be addressed. It was. Those were rather harsh penalties against Austin Dillon, Ross Chastain, and Bubba Wallace and their teams. At least on some level.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. has been around NASCAR for decades and he’s a historian of the sport. He knows how things work in racing. It isn’t just NASCAR, either.
Christopher Bell had harsh comments about it. That is understandable. He was the main victim of it and his partial wall ride gave officials a way out of the awkward situation that unfolded at Martinsville.
The post Dale Earnhardt Jr. reacts to Christopher Bell’s heated comments about Martinsville controversy appeared first on On3.
