By David Morgan, Associate Editor
SAN DIEGO – Two weeks removed from his harrowing crash at Michigan, Christopher Bell is still nursing a fractured left wrist and coming to this weekend’s treacherous race at Naval Base Coronado, will have a replacement driver on standby if the need arises during Sunday’s race.
Brent Crews, who drives in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series for Joe Gibbs Racing, climbed behind the wheel of Bell’s No. 20 Toyota in the late stages of practice on Friday as he made some laps in case he is called into action on race day.
But whether Crews will be needed at all is still up in the air, with Bell explaining that it will be a decision made on race day as to whether the road racing standout takes over for Bell to finish out the Anduril 250.
“I don’t know. That’s going to be a decision that we weigh out as it unfolds, so we haven’t made the decision yet. And yeah, I think it’s going to be a game time decision,” said Bell.
Asked whether it will be a pain issue or what threshold might trigger the need for Crews, Bell said it’s not a pain management issue, but more of not being able to be as quick on the wheel as he would like with a cast in place on the injured wrist.
“No, it’s not a pain threshold. I still, and it’s not going to be any different until I get my cast off, but the same thing as Pocono where I just can’t be as quick and aggressive on the steering wheel as I normally am,” said Bell.
“…I did have little tinges of pain at Pocono and I can tell that I’m another week healed because I didn’t have any pain at all. It’s just the physical limitation of not being able to turn the wheel quick enough. And if everything goes perfect and I don’t get loose and I don’t miss an apex and I hit my downshifts perfect, I am fine.
“But it’s just those extracurriculars that come up today off of the last chicane, I am in the middle of trying to shift and then the moment that it gets loose, it becomes very difficult to catch it. So yeah, it’s just need to get the cast off.”
Currently, Bell explained that he is in a pattern of switching to a new cast every week until the injury is healed and the cast is no longer needed. For this weekend at San Diego, it’s his second cast since the crash.
“The cast got a little bit deformed and lost a little bit of strength after the race last week in a Pocono. So we kind of knew that that was going to happen. So the goal was to get a new cast every week. And so this is cast number two,” he noted.
Bell added that the biggest thing this weekend and as long as he is in the cast is to not have any setbacks. With the treacherous nature of the racing on street courses, the odds of something happening to hamper his healing process is certainly a lot higher.
“Myself and Adam are really going to have to sit down and talk about what our goals are. I will say that it is a very high risk racetrack and I can’t afford any setbacks,” said Bell. “I’m already two weeks into this healing process now. So the goal certainly is to get back to 100% as quick as possible and then, yeah, we’ll see what happens.”
Should Crews get the call up on Sunday, Bell remains adamant that the young phenom will do just fine in his first Cup Series race, given his road racing background.
“I think this is the perfect scenario for Brent,” said Bell. “I really think that this is the perfect scenario for Brent coming to a racetrack where it’s an equal playing field for everybody. He’s obviously an amazing road course racer. He did great in the simulator.
“And then yeah, practice. We’re really struggling with our car right now, but he certainly was doing a great job and was on a pretty respectable lap before he made a mistake late on the lap.
“So yeah, all things considered, I know that he will do really well and I don’t think if we race or if he races we’re not going to be limited by driver.”
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