Kyle Busch wasn’t happy with Christopher Bell during this past Sunday’s EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix at the Circuit of The Americas (COTA) and made sure to let him know after the race.
Busch marched over to Bell on pit road, still fuming from when Bell made contact and spun him around during the final stage of the race. During their confrontation, Busch asked Bell if he had ever wrecked him before. Bell answered no, to which Busch responded, “OK, it’s f—— coming.”
Speaking on his “Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour” podcast this week, FOX Sports analyst Kevin Harvick said he felt Busch’s reaction had more to do with his frustrating start to the season boiling over. Busch, the two-time Cup Series champion, has finished P22 or worse in 3-of-6 races this season.
“I think Bell had committed to fill in that hole and Kyle with that late move, but I don’t know the spotter conversation,” Harvick said. “But Bell had definitely decided that he was going to fill the hole and Kyle probably looked in the mirror and didn’t think that that was going to happen. You can see right there what was going to happen and Christopher was at a point of no return right there. So, I look at that as just one of those racing deals perfectly. I think Kyle’s frustrated with the way that they’ve run. He still wound up having a decent day, but I think in general, Kyle’s just frustrated with the way that the start of the year has gone, and I think you’re starting to see more of those situations boil over.”
Christopher Bell reacts to heated incident with Kyle Busch on pit road at COTA
Bell, once teammates with Busch at Joe Gibbs Racing, has seen the fiery side of Busch come out before — but never directed at him. Bell said he didn’t intend to spin Busch out and would be reaching out to him this week.
“Kyle was heated. That was heated KB for sure,” Bell said. “You know, driving for him those years, I’ve seen it before. But I think that might be the first time that he’s ever been heated directly at me. So obviously, I didn’t have any intention to spin them out. So, I’ll be reaching out to him, and hopefully he’ll talk to me later this week.”
Harvick now wonders if the incidents with Busch and Kyle Larson at COTA will give Bell pause at future races moving forward.
“It makes me think now, like, how is Christopher Bell going to react?” Harvick said. “Because he also spun Kyle Larson out too. We had the Ross Chastain stuff over the past couple of years and you look at those scenarios and when you got to a certain point, I thought it affected the way that he drove and the decisions that he made.
“And sometimes, a guy like Kyle, that’s why he’s going to do that. Because he’s like, ‘Well, I need to get this situated.’ … You always wonder how it affects somebody in those types of situations and what’s going to happen moving forward when they’re racing around Kyle Busch or Kyle Larson. Do they push it, like he did on this particular day? Or does he have to think about that twice and not stuff it in there like he should?”
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