The NASCAR Cup Series heads to rural Pennsylvania for race 16 of the 2026 season at Pocono Raceway, while the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series returns to action after its first off weekend of the year at the “Tricky Triangle.” Bookmark this page for everything you need throughout race weekend, including qualifying orders, practice speeds, race results and more.
LONG POND, Pa. — Sam Mayer lined up on the front row with his teammate Sheldon Creed on his back bumper set for a green-white-checkered restart to end Saturday’s NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race at Pocono Raceway.
But a split-second decision by Creed to jump to Mayer’s left allowed Justin Allgaier to storm ahead, leaving the Haas Factory Team duo in the dust as Allgaier rolled to his fifth win of the season.
In fourth and fifth, respectively, Mayer and Creed were left to wonder what could have been.
“I’m glad I have sunglasses on right now because I’m ready to bawl my eyes out,” Mayer said.
Mayer and Creed lined up as the first two cars on the inside lane in a restart at Lap 98 of 100. One restart earlier, the duo leaned left and stayed together for a strong push into Turn 1. Creed anticipated Mayer would do the same on the final re-fire. Mayer opted against so he could have a better arch into the corner.
“I was hoping we’re gonna do the same thing again,” Creed said. “Sam did a really good job the prior restart, and just as soon as we got to the line, he started leaning left, just to keep both of us from kind of getting put three (wide), and then that made it a lot easier for me just to commit to him. Whoever was behind me, they can get to my right all they want, but I just didn’t want to be three, and he did a really good job that time. And then we got to the line there on that last restart, and the 19 (Brent Crews) was already pushing me, so I felt like I kind of had to turn left because I didn’t want to be three-wide.
“And unfortunately I kind of took his (Mayer’s) opportunity away, and I was trying to get myself on, and then just landed super loose down there into 1 and slid up the race track. You kind of hate to do that when you’re around your teammates on restarts, but at the same time, trying to give myself an opportunity as well.”
Even if it doesn’t ease the pain of defeat, that logic helped Mayer reconcile any blame or criticism he may have wanted to place on Creed, who was going for the victory just like he was.
“Door numbers aside, you’ve gotta put yourself in a spot to try to win the race, and the 00 was even for first going into Turn 1, so I can’t fault him at all for it,” Mayer said. “I mean I probably wouldn’t have done it just because I know that the cars don’t handle very good on the bottom when you have that sort of an entry, and it happened to me on the second to last restart. That’s why the 7 (Allgaier) beat me is because I was shallow, so I knew that going down there is just shooting yourself in the foot. But I mean when you’re in the second lane, you have to do that, so it’s just kind of one of those deals.
“If I would have had a little bit of help, my lane would have won. He had help, his lane won, so it’s kind of just part of the racing at this race track. It’s so much fun, but just absolutely brutal sometimes.”
An eight-time winner in O’Reilly Auto Parts Series competition, Mayer is still seeking his first win of 2026 but now has top fives in three of his last four races, including consecutive fourth-place finishes at Nashville Superspeedway and Pocono.
Those stats are good, particularly as he leaves Pocono ninth in points, up two from where he entered. But it does little to make Saturday’s near-miss feel better in the immediate aftermath.
“It’s just part of it. It’s so hard,” Mayer said. “You look at the Cup Series and you see 30 guys that can go out there and win. Well, I mean, you’ve got 15 guys that can win each week in this series, so the intensity level is just as high as the Cup Series. I mean, you see the 88, William (Byron), he obviously is a very talented race-car driver, really good on Sundays, and he comes to Saturdays, and he runs second, third as well.
“So I mean, the intensity level is just as high, and that’s what makes racing special and winning special because you know that no matter what series you’re in, it’s rewarding to win. And I want to do that really, really badly. So it’s hard to balance that, but at the end of the day, you’ve just got to go execute and be better and make the right choices, and have the cards fall your way, to be honest with you, but that’s the love of racing.”
Track: Pocono Raceway Location: Long Pond, Pa. Track length: 2.5 miles When: 1 p.m. ET Where to tune in: Prime Video, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Race purse: $11,233,037 Race distance: 160 laps | 400 miles Segments: 30 | 95 | 160 Sunday’s starting lineup| Cup Series pit stall assignments
Points battle tightening up with tricky tests ahead
Pocono Raceway’s three unique corners offer one of the biggest annual tests on the Cup Series schedule. This season, Pocono begins a lengthy stretch of asymmetry for the field with the “Tricky Triangle” preceding next week’s debut at Naval Base Coronado, a trip to the windy Sonoma Raceway, a return to Chicagoland Speedway for the first time since 2019, the always-treacherous EchoPark Speedway, the first points-paying race at North Wilkesboro Speedway since 1996, and finally, the crown jewel Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Safe to say, the points entering Sunday versus what they will look like during the final week of July will likely be dramatically different.
And it all begins as Denny Hamlin, who’s won two races in a row, is chasing down Tyler Reddick for the top spot in the standings.
Reddick, who held a 129-point advantage over his 23XI Racing co-owner Hamlin just one month ago, has now seen it shrink to just 51.
“Honestly, it’s crazy when you’re at the top, you think, ‘OK, we’re good. We’re happy.’ You’re able to just solely focus on setting yourself up to win races and so we’ll have to be a little bit more mindful of points for a bit here unless we’re able to pull back away again,” Reddick said. “I would say we’ve just been able to just focus solely on bringing really fast race cars and not really worrying about trying anything else, which has been nice. A little bit more pressure now, but hopefully I can handle it.”
Toyota has been the dominant manufacturer on track so far in 2026, and Hamlin is now blooming as the main beneficiary with triumphs at Nashville and Michigan — where he’s had to come all the way from the rear of the field both times.
The win streak hasn’t been easy for the 45-year-old Joe Gibbs Racing driver, but the confidence may be at an all-time high for Hamlin even if he’s not dominating these races.
“This is certainly the peak of that,” Hamlin said of the No. 11 team’s strength. “There’s been other times where we’ve had a lot of success over a stretch like you’re talking about, but not as dominating. I don’t know that we really dominated the last few weeks. When we needed to, we could, and that’s been the difference this time around versus previous. I feel very confident in the way that I’m approaching each race track, the way that I need to get speed out of the cars, what I need out of them in traffic, all those things. I feel pretty dialed in with that right now.”
With the variation in the coming weeks, Hamlin discussed his week-to-week process and how his experience has allowed the transitions to different tracks not really affect how he approaches certain race weekends.
“The process starts a little bit sooner,” Hamlin said. “You need more laps, more reps at a track like San Diego versus somewhere like here at Pocono. So, I don’t really treat it any differently. My advantage right now is just simply that the laps that I’ve got at all these tracks. Any of these tracks that I’ve been successful at, or had wins, or run really strong, I know what that feel is, and so I just go in there and I try to replicate that feel over and over and over.
“It’s truthfully been easy when we’re coming to these race tracks where I’ve had success or had wins. It’s tracks like San Diego where I don’t know what the right feel is. I don’t know where I’m at on the race track. That’s where the challenge really comes in, but all the other tracks is pretty easy at this point knowing what I need out of the car. Not easy to get the result. The process is not easy, but it’s certainly easy to know what I need.”
James Gilbert | Getty Images
In the details …
After Pocono, just 10 races remain until the start of The Chase, and as the regular season continues to sail along, every point and result has a significant effect on the standings toward the cutline.
Here’s a look at four drivers who are making a climb up the standings in the last month of action:
DRIVER
MOST RECENT LOW
AFTER MICHIGAN
GAINED TO CUT
Daniel Suárez
+18 after Watkins Glen
+89 to cut
71 points in three races
Chase Briscoe
-6 after Watkins Glen
+41 to cut
47 points in three races
Joey Logano
-38 after Watkins Glen
-3 to cut
35 points in three races
Erik Jones
-69 after Watkins Glen
-18 to cut
51 points in three races
Speed reads
Race-day essentials:
• Pocono hub: Key information, pit stalls, additional results | Read more
• Sunday Setup: What the crew chiefs are saying | Read more • Paint Scheme Preview: New colors set for Pocono | View gallery • Hauler Talk: Bell’s Michigan crash was the hardest in Next Gen era | Listen now • Power Rankings: New No. 1 going into Pocono race | This week’s ranks • NASCAR Classics: Inside the video vault from Pocono | Watch now
Paul Wolfe, three-time champion crew chief of the No. 22 Team Penske Ford and driver Joey Logano, emphasized Saturday that strategy will be at the forefront of his and every other crew chief’s mind in Sunday’s race at Pocono (1 p.m. ET, Prime Video, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). But in order to capitalize when opportunity presents itself, their drivers also need a good race car.
“Obviously, you’ve gotta have a car that handles well and has decent speed, but these races are so much about strategy and how to play that,” Wolfe told NASCAR.com. “A lot of it just really depends on if you get cautions or not. That’s really when it starts changing.
“So yeah, having a game plan, knowing what you can maximize from a fuel strategy standpoint as far as what you feel like you can save depending on your driver.”
Teams will also traverse the “Tricky Triangle” with a new right-side tire from Goodyear. Wolfe said feedback from Logano indicates no significant change in feel behind the wheel, but an improvement from previous tires at other intermediate tracks on the circuit.
“Based off of practice, I don’t think we’re going to have the issues we’ve had at some other places with this construction and seeing the cords after a fuel run,” Wolfe said, “So I think knowing that’s not a concern, I think it’ll be more of a Pocono-type strategy setup.”
Hannah Tallant | For NASCAR Digital Media
Another unique wrinkle at Pocono is its pit road, the longest and widest on the NASCAR circuit but one which features new timing lines to measure competitors’ rolling speed. Officials permitted teams to measure and roll at pit-road speed during Saturday’s practice, a unique addition to the session.
“Typically, they don’t like guys to practice pit-road speeds right during practice sessions,” Wolfe said. “We’ll look at that, just to kind of see where we were at the game there, but yeah, just remeasured, replaced some timing lines, basically, which I don’t know that it’s going to have a huge impact on pit road (Sunday), but just something new, something for us to pay attention to.”
Brakes have also come into focus after some rotors failed two weeks ago at Nashville Superspeedway. Pocono is no stranger to brake failures itself, with multiple drivers experiencing issues over the years.
“I think what’s unique about Pocono is you do use a lot of brake rub for the biggest track as this is,” Wolfe said. “We have those long straightaways where you get the big heat swings in the rotors, and guys are trying to tune cars with different brake pads or packages, I guess you’d say that work on the car balance rather than not just using the brakes to slow the car down, but using brakes to make the car handle differently. So when you start doing that, you start stressing certain rotors more than others, and then we have options as far as what we call a light-duty rotor versus a heavy-duty rotor. Pretty basic is what the meaning of them: one’s lighter and one’s heavier.
“Typically, you think running a lighter one’s not a problem here, but if you get yourself in some weird brake-pad combinations, I think that’s where you can get yourself in trouble. Obviously, I don’t know where the field is, but I’m sure there’s different brake rotors and pad combinations throughout the field tomorrow. We talked about it coming here. It’s definitely something on our radar as we like to use that as a tuning tool, but you’re weighing out risk and reward.”
Saturday’s NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series MillerTech Battery 250 at Pocono Raceway featured a race-record 18 lead changes and a race-record 10 cautions — including a seven-minute red flag period — but in the end, it was a very familiar scene in Victory Lane: championship leader Justin Allgaier and the No. 7 JR Motorsports team celebrating an inspired drive.
Allgaier led a race-best 35 of the 100 laps, ultimately taking the lead for good on a restart with two laps remaining. Haas Factory Team teammates Sam Mayer — who was Allgaier’s greatest challenge on the day — and Sheldon Creed created a three-wide push for the lead on the final restart, but ultimately slid backward as Allgaier’s JRM teammate William Byron was able to push Allgaier’s No. 7 Chevrolet forward and help him create a gap on the field.
The advantage was all Allgaier needed to race off to a 0.607-second win over Joe Gibbs Racing’s Brent Crews, who passed Byron on the last corner of the final lap for second place.
The victory was the 2024 series champion’s first at the historic 2.5-mile, triangle-shaped track, giving him wins now at 21 different venues. And it marked the fifth win of the year for Allgaier, tying his previous season-high win total.
“First of all, I’ve got to say thank you to William Byron because without his shove at the end of the race, it was probably game over,” Allgaier said before thanking the fans for filling the grandstands.
“This season has been special with [crew chief] Andrew Overstreet and this whole No. 7 team and this pit crew right here,” he said, adding with a grin, “We’re going to go celebrate this one for sure.”
Slowed by all the caution flags — four in the opening 25-lap stage alone — the early part of the race never allowed one driver to establish a rhythm and set the pace among all the starting and stopping.
Polesitter Taylor Gray led 24 laps and won the opening stage, and Crews claimed the Stage 2 win. But the final half of the race became a duel between Allgaier and Mayer, who led 14 laps and exchanged the lead with Allgaier frequently in the closing laps — sometimes on the same lap. They started side-by-side out front on the three final restarts, and Mayer looked like his No. 41 HFT Chevrolet would at least keep Allgaier honest. In the end, Mayer and Creed finished fourth and fifth.
“It was either the double zero [Creed] was trying to make a block, or just a push gone wrong a little bit,” Mayer said of the unsuccessful three-wide move on that last restart. “Just really unfortunate circumstance. We actually had a really good launch.
“At the end of these races, you’re not going to not take a run, so I don’t blame my teammate for pulling out of line like that, but obviously it put me in a bad spot,” Mayer continued. “The middle [lane] was OK if I had people with me. … Obviously today we executed really, really well, so lots to be proud about, but obviously I’m very devastated right now because I just want a shot at it and don’t feel like I’ve gotten a really true shot at it when the white flag flew.
“We were close today, executed really good and I’m really proud of everybody. One day it’s going to be my turn, and I can’t wait.”
Incredibly, Allgaier’s effort — the 33rd victory of his career — now puts him 250 points ahead of second place, Richard Childress Racing driver Jesse Love, in the series championship standings with seven regular-season races remaining. Love only completed a single lap after being collected in the first of 10 yellow-flag incidents on the day.
“Just frustrated, obviously. Thought our Camaro was going to be good today,” Love said, adding, “Only got one lap to feel it out, but I was happy with that one corner. Wish we had gotten a few more.”
Anthony Alfredo, Rajah Caruth, Brandon Jones, the defending Pocono race winner Connor Zilisch and Carson Kvapil rounded out the top 10.
Jeremy Clements led a lap and finished 16th on a historic day for his career and the series. The 41-year-old South Carolinian tied Kenny Wallace for the most starts in O’Reilly Auto Parts Series history at 547. Wallace set the record in 2011 and last raced in 2015. Clements will claim the mark for himself when he takes next week’s green flag at San Diego.
The series heads to Southern California for next Saturday’s inaugural United Rentals Driven to Serve 250 (5 p.m. ET, The CW, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at Naval Base Coronado in San Diego.
Note: Inspection was completed in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series garage with no issues, confirming Allgaier as the winner.
With 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick dominating the early part of the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season, his car owner, Joe Gibbs Racing driver, Denny Hamlin, is trending upward as the summer stretch heats up and looks to put the No. 11 Toyota atop the standings in the coming weeks.
After taking his 51st career pole Saturday afternoon and seeking a third straight Cup Series win for the first time in his career, other drivers will seek Hamlin-like momentum in Sunday’s Great American Getaway 400 presented by VISITPA at Pocono Raceway (1 p.m. ET, Prime Video, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Who can navigate the “Tricky Triangle” and put their team in the best position to go on a summer heater? Here’s a look at other drivers to keep an eye on and the full projected results for Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race.
DRIVERS TO WATCH:
CHRIS BUESCHER: In 16 career Cup Series starts at Pocono, Buescher has two top fives, with one of those coming last year in a fourth-place finish. But Saturday’s sixth-place qualifying effort and coming off a ninth-place run last week at Michigan give some optimism that the No. 17 RFK Racing Ford can be competitive on Sunday at the “Tricky Triangle.”
JOHN HUNTER NEMECHEK: Watching Legacy Motor Club teammate Erik Jones wheel his way to a runner-up finish last weekend at Michigan showed how much this organization has improved its Cup Series program. Nemechek had a good performance in the Irish Hills after finishing 14th. Looking ahead to Pocono, the driver of the No. 42 Toyota finished sixth in this race a year ago. If Nemechek can get a similar result and capitalize on his eighth-place starting position on Sunday, he will start to trend upward from 28th in the standings.
WILLIAM BYRON: The No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports driver is seeking a strong result at the “Tricky Triangle.” In the last six Cup Series races, Byron has only finished better than 18th twice. Last weekend at Michigan, Byron led seven laps, which were his first laps led since Martinsville in March. If the No. 24 team wants to be serious contenders when The Chase rolls around, they will need to click off stronger results on a more consistent basis. While only one top 10 in the last five Pocono races does not sound promising, Byron was fastest in 15- and 20-lap averages in practice, and will roll off the grid ninth in Sunday’s 400-miler at the 2.5-mile Pennsylvania track.
Chase Briscoe has particularly fond memories of Pocono Raceway. It’s where he celebrated his first victory as a member of the championship Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota organization last summer, that win kickstarting a three-trophy season – the most he’s won in a single NASCAR Cup Series season.
To do it, Briscoe had to beat the best – literally, Pocono’s very best – his teammate, Denny Hamlin. But Briscoe held off the seven-time Pocono winner by more than half a second and led a race-best 72 laps – including the final 34.
He’d love for Pocono to kickstart another strong title run this weekend. The 31-year-old is ranked 13th in the championship standings with seven top-10 finishes. However, the last month and a half has been a challenge for Briscoe. He’s had top-10 finishes in the last two races, but before that endured a streak of three sub-20th-place showings in a four-race span (at Talladega, Texas and Charlotte), costing him points.
Briscoe said he feels the good vibes as the defending Pocono winner, however, and is optimistic about his chances this weekend. He’s hoping to become the first back-to-back winner since Kyle Busch (2018-19).
“I feel like our prep work is dialed in,” Briscoe said of his No. 19 team’s situation. “I would say that the pressure, honestly, kind of, it’s a little bit different because last year I felt like I had to perform to maintain my job, which I still need to do that, right? But the pressure now is more in a sense of like, man, I haven’t went to Victory Lane this year, and last year I was able to win three races and just from a point standpoint.
“Now the expectation is there, where when I came into this weekend last year, I felt like I could win, but I’d never done it at JGR. It wasn’t necessarily the expectation. So, it’s just, it’s different from that mindset. But the pressure, I feel like, is very similar.
“I obviously want to race for a championship, and as a team, we feel like we need to be top five in points at the end of the regular season to really do that, and so I’m 100 points out right now. So, the pressure from that standpoint is very similar. Just knowing that I have to have a good weekend and just knowing that a win could really be the difference-maker in getting to that point.”
It’s been a recurring theme in the NASCAR Cup Series in recent weeks. Denny Hamlin is out front.
The veteran driver of the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota claimed his fourth Busch Light Pole Award of the 2026 season Saturday afternoon at Pocono Raceway and will lead the field to green in Sunday’s Great American Getaway 400 presented by VISITPA (1 p.m. ET, Prime Video, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Of note, with poor weather expected later Sunday afternoon, the green flag start time was moved up by two hours to 1 p.m. ET.
This marks the 51st pole position of Hamlin’s career and comes as the popular veteran is attempting to win three consecutive races for the first time in his celebrated career after victories the last two weeks in Nashville and Michigan.
He was the last driver to take to the track in Saturday’s qualifying session and just nudged Hendrick Motorsports’ driver Kyle Larson from the top position in the final minutes — Hamlin’s lap of 173.250 mph around the 2.5-mile triangular-shaped Pocono track was 0.057 seconds quicker than Larson’s best.
“Certainly had the grip, this whole team just did a great job with adjustments, making it a little better from practice, I didn’t execute a very good lap there in Turn 2, but overall I thought I hit [turns] three and one pretty decent — just good enough,” Hamlin said.
He acknowledged he and the team are certainly on a hot streak at the moment, with wins in the non-points-paying All-Star Race four weeks ago, plus the two victories in the last two weeks. The effort has helped Hamlin cut 23XI Racing driver Tyler Reddick’s 100-plus point advantage over him atop the standings to only 51 points heading into Pocono, a place Hamlin has won a record seven times.
“It’s certainly going well and confidence is up with these guys [on the team] that every time I enter a corner at about 200, I know they’ve built me a car that’s going to stick,” Hamlin said, acknowledging his three-in-a-row opportunity.
“This is the best shot for sure, we’ve got a little work to do on the car overnight to get it to be a race winner, but I feel like we’re in that box where we need to be and we’ll fine-tune it from here.”
Starting behind Hamlin and Larson are Daniel Suárez in the No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet and Hamlin’s JGR teammates Ty Gibbs (No. 54 Toyota) and defending race winner Chase Briscoe (No. 19 Toyota).
Chris Buescher, who won his first career Cup Series race at Pocono in 2016, qualified sixth — his No. 17 RFK Racing Ford was the first Ford on the grid. Legacy Motor Club teammates Erik Jones and John Hunter Nemechek will start their Toyotas seventh and eighth, respectively.
Hendrick Motorsports’ William Byron (No. 24 Chevrolet) and Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney (No. 12 Ford) — who also earned his first career series win at Pocono in 2017 — round out the top 10 on the grid.
Of note, 23XI Racing’s Reddick will roll off 15th and his teammate, Bubba Wallace, will start from the rear of the field after a qualifying session accident. RFK owner-driver Brad Keselowski had engine trouble in the session and will start alongside Wallace on the last row.
Larson fastest in practice
Hendrick Motorsports’ Kyle Larson topped the leaderboard in practice, as his No. 5 Chevrolet posted a speed of 170.707 mph.
Denny Hamlin (170.245 mph), Daniel Suárez (170.168 mph), Carson Hocevar (169.994 mph) and Chris Buescher (169.847 mph) rounded out the top five.
Riley Herbst (169.728 mph), Ty Gibbs (169.622 mph), William Byron (169.610 mph), Ross Chastain (169.307 mph) and Chase Briscoe (169.144 mph) completed the top 10.
The only caution during practice occurred in Group 1 when Hyak Motorsports driver Ricky Stenhouse Jr. spun his No. 47 Chevrolet in Turn 3 and did not hit anything. In his first in-track session since suffering a left-wrist fracture last Sunday at Michigan, Christopher Bell (167.570 mph) was 25th fastest.
NASCAR officials have penalized the Nos. 5 and 78 Chevrolets in the Cup Series for failing pre-race inspection twice at Pocono Raceway, the sanctioning body announced Saturday.
As a result, both teams will lose pit selection for Sunday’s Great American Getaway 400 presented by VISITPA (1 p.m. ET, Prime Video, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Additionally, a crew member from each team has been ejected for the remainder of the race weekend.
The ejected are:
Jesse Saunders, car chief for the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
Chris Stanley, engineer for the No. 78 Live Fast Motorsports Chevrolet
Additionally, the Nos. 6, 23 and 60 cars of Brad Keselowski, Bubba Wallace and Ryan Preece, respectively, will drop to the rear for the start of Sunday’s race because of unapproved adjustments.
Kyle Larson, driver of the No. 5, sits sixth in the Cup Series standings. Daniel Dye, driver of the No. 78, is slated for his second career premier-series start.
LONG POND, Pa. — The slick, black cast on Christopher Bell’s left wrist is the only visible sign he carries after last weekend’s massive impact in a crash at Michigan International Speedway.
Six days removed from the hardest-recorded crash in the Next Gen era, Bell was all smiles in his Saturday morning media availability at Pocono Raceway, where he will race Sunday despite fracturing his left wrist in the Lap 148 incident.
Bell crushed the SAFER barrier between Turns 3 and 4 at Michigan last weekend in a hit he says registered 63 Gs after Chase Elliott lost control of his No. 9 Chevrolet to Bell’s left. The crash deformed the steel barriers as intended, helping to absorb the energy away from Bell in the cockpit, while his vehicle withstood the tremendous force. Bell exited the vehicle under his own power with pain in his wrist and foot, but without a head injury.
“It was a big one, but I’m just so, so incredibly fortunate and thankful and blessed that my head was OK,” Bell said. “To get out of there with just a fractured wrist is pretty immaculate. I owe all of the credit to NASCAR and my team for building safe cars. I know I said it in my statement earlier, but all of the previous drivers who have paid somewhat of a price to make these cars as safe as they are today, NASCAR from learning from every experience that they’ve had and every moment, every crash, it all paid off last Sunday.”
Bell specifically pointed to the foam that surrounds his helmet when he is behind the wheel as a key protector after last week’s impact, as well as in the crush zones of the Next Gen chassis.
“The car did absolutely perfect, and all of my safety gear did absolutely perfect, and that’s why I’m back in the car this week,” Bell said. “I think John Patalak (Vice President, Safety Engineering at NASCAR) is the guy who has really scienced out the head-foam surround and stuff like that, and I was really, really grateful Sunday whenever I hit the wall that all of that R&D, all of that effort had gone into making sure that I had the perfect containment system, and it worked. Everything worked perfectly.”
Bell said his fracture is expected to take roughly six weeks to heal, but added he did not need surgery because he didn’t displace any bones. The 31-year-old anticipates being comfortable enough to compete at Pocono, but questions linger for his longevity at road courses with Naval Base Coronado on June 21 and Sonoma Raceway on June 28 ahead.
“Obviously, I’ll be wanting to get out of the cast as quickly as I can, and I think my group of doctors are all along the same lines to make sure that I’m healed up as much as possible, but obviously, as quick as possible as well,” Bell said. “So right now, I’m pretty much driving the car one-handed. I can kind of hold the wheel a little bit, and I think enough to shift. Shifting on the straightaways here at Pocono, I think it’s going to be doable. The road courses, specifically San Diego, like there’s a couple corners that you have to shift in. I think Turn 1 at Sonoma is going to be difficult. So yeah, I hope for more healing before we get to those tracks, for sure.”
Bell insists he has no intentions of stepping out of the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota in The Great American Getaway 400 at Pocono on Sunday (1 p.m. ET, Prime Video, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). But if he does need to step out of the vehicle, NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series veteran Brandon Jones is on standby for Bell.
“He came and sat through all of our sim sessions this week to make sure that he was up to speed,” Bell said of Jones. “He did a great job driving the simulator as well. So yeah, I think that it’s either going to be like I’m going to commit to the race and I’m going to do it, or I’m going to be out and just start and ride around until the first yellow. But as of right now, I’m full commit planning on running 400 miles.”
The incident itself was extreme and sudden, but Bell recalls every detail – from Elliott losing stability on corner entry to staring down the “MICHIGAN USA” wall art before bending the steel it was painted upon. His earpiece came out upon impact and did not hear spotter Tab Boyd asking if Bell was OK. He also saw fire from his car upon coming to a stop, expediting his exit.
Rachel Horton | NASCAR Digital Media
“I just was trying to get out as quick as I could, but yeah, I knew my wrist was broke right away because I couldn’t disconnect my shirt,” he said. “So I reached down, tried to disconnect my shirt and I couldn’t squeeze the button, so I had to use my right hand to do that. And then my foot hurt really, really bad too, but we got X-rays on my foot; it just ended up being bruised.
“So yeah, beside my foot and my wrist, I was good to go. And I knew right away, or I thought I knew right away, that my head was OK because I didn’t have any sort of headache, didn’t black out. I remembered everything, and obviously in the infield care center they did tests on me, so just super, super blessed that I didn’t hit my noggin.”
The NASCAR community at large quickly connected with Bell and expressed well wishes, an outpouring of support that took the driver by pleasant surprise.
“It’s been incredible the amount of people that have reached out to me this past week,” he said. “My phone has literally been on fire, and it’s been eye-opening how much love I have received from everybody, all of my competitors throughout the NASCAR garage, all of my peers and coworkers throughout the NASCAR garage, friends and family members – even previous drivers and competitors that I raced against on the dirt side that have reached out to me. It’s been surreal to see that.”
Part of that contingent – from the moments in the immediate aftermath to midweek check-ins – has been Chase Elliott, who still takes ownership of causing the incident. The care Elliott showed for Bell has been mutually appreciated.
“I can’t say how I can’t speak highly enough of Chase, as well,” Bell said. “Like, the moment that he saw me out of the car, he was visibly shaken up and concerned about me. I appreciate so much his demeanor and his thoughts of me, and he’s reached out several times throughout the week to make sure I’m OK. And I obviously asked him if he was OK too; he had a big hit as well. But just thankful for all of the love from everybody, you know, everyone in the community, everyone outside of the community. My phone has been the busiest this week it’s been in my entire life.”
Elliott shared he has always gotten along well with Bell, and he carried the weight of the incident in the days since.
“I felt really bad about that, and I just knew in the moment it was massive,” Elliott said. “I watched it happen and was just really concerned about him, and like I said, I couldn’t see him when I got stopped. But when I got stopped, I was very relieved to see him out of the car and standing there immediately following us getting stopped.”
Bell participated in practice and qualifying Saturday without issue and will start 22nd for Sunday’s race.
