The situation majorly changed in a matter of moments for Christopher Bell. He went from leading laps at Texas Motor Speedway on Sunday afternoon to suddenly slamming into the wall.
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The stunning incident occurred with 13 laps left in stage 1 at the intermediate track. Bell raced in the middle lane while trying to hold off teammate Denny Hamlin. Todd Gilliland then suddenly spun in Turn 4 right in front of the leaders.
Bell moved down the track in an attempt to avoid the No. 34, but the Front Row Motorsports car clipped the rear of his No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. This sent Bell's car hard into the outside wall.
Terrible luck for Christopher Bell in Texas as Todd Gilliland goes around right in front of him. https://t.co/YOhS9lqYWK pic.twitter.com/p4Luizl5w7
— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) May 3, 2026
The 13-time Cup Series winner took his car to the DVP area in the garage as the team aimed to address the damage to the right side of the car. Yet, they could not continue in the race. The No. 20 team went from leading laps to finishing last in the 38-car field.
"It was another one of those 50-50 calls. Me and Denny (Hamlin) were side by side and I saw him (Todd Gilliland) spinning and Denny lifted and I thought that I could shoot the gap on the bottom," Bell told Fox Sports after exiting the infield care center.
"And I thought I did shoot the gap on the bottom but I got clipped."
The 2026 season has tested the No. 20 team, a group that won four races in 2025. Bell crashed in the Daytona 500 and finished 35th, and then he finished 21st at EchoPark Speedway the following week.
The season began to turn around as he finished third, second, and fourth at Circuit of the Americas, Phoenix Raceway, and Las Vegas Motor Speedway. It has since gone off the rails as bad luck has significantly hurt this team.
Bell only has one finish better than 17th in the last six races, and he has gone from running in the top five to being involved in incidents. Sunday certainly continued this trend.
"I was a couple of feet," he added. "Couple of feet away from having a great day. It's going to turn around at some point."
