The NASCAR Cup Series Cracker Barrel 400 at Nashville brought out similar memories from just a few weeks ago, with the same drivers at it again. Remember when, two weeks back, Christopher Bell, who won the All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro Speedway, was criticized by the Team Penske driver Joey Logano for his moves. In an eventful night that set a record for lead changes, Bell beat Logano by 0.829 seconds to earn his first All-Star Race victory. Bell took the lead with 10 laps remaining, passing Logano, whose plans had been frustrated due to the “Promoter’s Caution,” costing him the race and leading Bell to the Victory Lane. But this time, the tables have turned.

Fast forward to Nashville Superspeedway, where the drivers found themselves in close quarters, this time under similar circumstances. After a chaotic restart, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver was struggling hard to maintain position as the action moved closer to the final stages. Logano had said in the All-Star post-race interview, “I’ll just race him the same way,” and lived up to the promise.

In the post-race interview after securing a 10th position, Bell initially shouldered the blame for being checked by Erik Jones, but his comments hint at a more complicated picture.

Another tangled moment adds fire to the fuel in the Bell-Logano rivalry

After a chaotic restart that left Christopher Bell squeezed between Logano’s #22 Ford and Erik Jones’ #43 car and was sent spinning across the latter’s nose, a moment that effectively ended his chances of a strong finish. NBC Sports reporter, Dustin Long, posted a video of Bell’s post-race interview on X, writing, “#NASCAR … Christopher Bell on his race at Nashville and his contact with the 43,” where Bell is seen describing the entire context of his clash. 

In the interview, Bell explained his miscalculations and the clash with the other two drivers on the track. “I mean, he was inside of me, and I just got spun off of his nose. So I clearly didn’t leave him enough room. I need to go back and look at it,” recalled Bell. “I felt like I kind of got boxed out by the 22, which the 43 didn’t do anything wrong. He was inside of me, but, ultimately, there wasn’t enough room, and I spun across his nose. So he had the position, and I should have done better.” 

Erik Jones triggered the 4th caution flag of the night, following a pivotal restart after the 3rd caution. Battling for the position, Jones made an aggressive move to the inside of Christopher Bell and slid up into the #20 Toyota, sending Bell spinning into the outside wall on Lap 119 of Stage 2. At the time, Bell was running 5th with Jones close behind in 7th. Despite the contact, Bell’s car sustained only minor damage and was able to rejoin the field and claw its way back to a 13th-place finish.

While Erik Jones was the first leader to pit on Lap 243, he slipped a couple of spots after the initial restart but worked to re-pass William Byron for the 4th position and Joey Logano for the 3rd. Reflecting on how the restart unfolded, Bell pointed out how the #22 Logano boxed him in just before his contact with Jones, making it nearly impossible to avoid a collision. In doing so, Bell may have admitted to a costly miscalculation.

Jones also talked about the incident post-race, stating, “I obviously want to talk to him because not my intention to go on and wreck him, I got three wide and he kinda got in me the straightaway a couple of times and I was pretty far up on him so then he gets into the corner and really just chopped off me again, and I was trying to get off of him and couldn’t so I hate it happened, he’s a fellow Toyota, which is not great. I don’t race like that.”

It was another good result for the Legacy Motor Club organization as a whole, and Jones didn’t want his run to be impeded by reckless moves. He simply was looking out for himself, which isn’t a bad tactic at a track like Nashville, where restarts are wild and chaotic.

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Bell’s 2024 Nashville redemption arc comes to an abrupt end in 2025

With an end to the Cracker Barrel 400 this weekend, Bell did not get the results that he promised after last year’s misfortune on the same track. With 73 laps to go in last year’s Ally 400 at Nashville Superspeedway, Christopher Bell’s dominant streak came to an end, even after leading 131 laps in his #20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. Bell got loose going into Turn 1 while running 3-wide with Kyle Larson and Austin Dillon. His car lost air and snapped into the wall, leaving him with a broken toe-link, a dead engine, and a heartbreaking 36th-place finish.

Bell took full ownership of his mistake. “I just carried too much speed in there and put myself in a really bad aero spot and spun it out,” Bell said. “Great car. Great effort by this 20 group, and I let them down today.”

The rest of the 2024 season saw Bell knocking on the door of victory but never stepping through. Though he tallied six top-5 finishes in the playoffs, including back-to-back 2nd-place finishes at Charlotte Roval and Las Vegas, a win continues to elude him. Bell made it clear that last year’s mistakes gave him perspective.

“Yeah, I definitely think I grew from it, and I talked about it a couple of weeks ago, just the difference of how our season has gone this year and really the end of last year,” Bell spoke to NASCAR’s Stephen Taranto. Yet, he couldn’t escape the wild restarts after not being able to run up top in clean air. The good news for him is that he doesn’t need to worry about the playoffs after bagging three wins already this season. But he needs to stay consistent if he is eyeing that regular-season title, which comes with extra playoff points.