Kevin Harvick weighs in on Christopher Bell incident that sparked big Atlanta crash

Christopher Bell won the NASCAR Cup Series’ first trip to Atlanta earlier this season. He couldn’t come close to sweeping the season at the track though, as disaster struck during his attempt this past weekend. 

The Joe Gibbs Racing star got loose with only a couple of laps remaining in Stage 1. That caused a multi-car wreck that put a damper on the evening for many of the sports’ top stars, like Ryan Blaney, Bubba Wallace and Bell himself. 

Blaney, who ended up finishing dead-last due to the incident, wasn’t happy with Bell: “It’s the story of our year,” said Blaney, via the TNT broadcast. “Getting caught up in other people’s garbage.

“Just when we seem to get things going and have some momentum. Things never seem to go our way.”

After the dust settled on the event and cooler heads began to prevail, Kevin Harvick tried to make sense regarding how a driver of Bell’s caliber caused a race-changing wreck. Evidently, the former Cup Series champion isn’t being too hard on Bell, as there was a myriad of factors that led to him spinning. 

“Super easy to do right there,” Harvick stated regarding Bell’s moment of weakness, via Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour. “As you go off into turn three, it’s kind of flat and the car kind of unloads, and there’s some bumps right there. You know, you get in the wrong spot, and it’s still light outside, so it’s not like the track is super gripped up. You see, I mean, he just lost the back of the car. You see the mess that it causes.

“We saw Kyle Larson do it last year, in turns one and two, with that massive hit that he had. I did it a few years ago, in the middle of one and two. So, that’s just the edge that you live on in Atlanta. But just — (Bell) just lost it.”

Alas, Bell can afford a stinker like Atlanta, due to his three wins on the season. However, he hasn’t won a race since March, outside of the All-Star Race. He wants to get back to Victory Lane in a race that’ll count towards his playoff potential.

Can he do it this weekend? The JGR star will be one of the favorites in Chicago, and then once again in Sonoma. Bell’s proven he can win on any and every type of track. A victory in the next couple of weeks isn’t out of the realm of possibility.

Regardless, Christopher Bell is one of the best drivers in the Cup Series, and even NASCAR’s best make mistakes every now and then. Kevin Harvick recognizes that, and he’ll be keeping tabs on the No. 20 Toyota team to see how they bounce back in the Windy City.