Christopher Bell takes accountability for incident with Zane Smith at Indy

Yahoo

2 days ago

NEWTON, Iowa — Christopher Bell steeled himself as he headed toward Zane Smith's crew after last weekend's race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Bell went to apologize for wrecking Smith in overtime — the third consecutive weekend Smith has lost several positions in the final laps.
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'I thought I could sweep underneath of him and clearly you wanted to be on the inside at Indy,' Bell said of his move on Smith. 'I tried to sweep underneath him, and I tried to make it as last minute as possible so that he couldn't counter my move, and I misjudged my run, ran into the back of him and turned him to the right.'
Bell would reach out to Smith but also wanted to speak to Smith's crew at Front Row Motorsports.
So what was it like to approach people larger than him and angry at him?
'I'm not going to lie,' Bell said Saturday at Iowa Speedway in response to a question from NBC Sports. 'I was nervous, but I knew I deserved what was coming, so I'm like I'm going to own it. If I want to walk up there (into the team's hauler) and they want to (yell at me with expletives) and tell me to get out, I deserved that in that moment.
'I felt like I owed them the respect. … I tried to show them accountability and tell them it was on me.'
Apologies don't bring back results. Smith has lost about 50 combined positions in the final laps of the last three races.
'The past two weeks, nothing has been in our control,' Smith said of the issues in those late laps. 'Last week was for sure going to be a top-10, top-five day. Unfortunately, it was taken from us. Same thing at Dover.'
The woes started at Sonoma.
'Sonoma was on me,' Smith said.
The team opted to stay out on older tires late and restarted eighth with 13 laps to go. A pair of cautions allowed those behind with fresher tires to close on Smith.
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'When that happens and you get closer to the end, you're just so vulnerable,' Smith told NBC Sports.
Those with fresher tires pounced. Smith dropped from seventh to 27th in the final four laps.
At Dover, Smith was running 14th before an incident in overtime. Ryan Preece had contact and came down on Smith's car, turning it. Smith finished 22nd.
'I could hear (Preece) trying to gather it up,' Smith said. 'He just had a huge moment … nothing I could do there.'
Then at Indy, Smith was running 13th when the contact from Bell wrecked him and Smith finished 31st.
That's 46 positions lost in the final laps of the last three races for Smith.
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Despite the misfortune, Smith said the focus is on the positives in those races.
'My whole team, they aren't stupid, they see that we're running good and have speed when this happens,' he said. 'Now, if we were running 30th and get hooked, the guys are going to be pretty upset and just over it. It's far from that situation. My team has done an incredible job of grinding away.'
Smith qualified 14th for Sunday's Cup race at Iowa (coverage begins at 3 p.m. ET on USA).
'I feel like what we've unloaded some of these weekends, we just have a really good car,' Smith said.
Now, it's just a matter of getting the finish that is deserved.