Christopher Bell provides health update after hard impact in Iowa practice

Christopher Bell is still feeling the aftereffects of his crash during practice on Friday, ahead of this weekend’s Iowa Corn 350 Powered by Ethanol.

It’s an important race, one where the NASCAR Cup Series is headed to Iowa Speedway for their debut at the track. Bell is actually the betting favorite, due to his experience at Iowa and his ability on short-tracks throughout his racing career.

However, the accident that befell the No. 20 car on Friday has put a little bit of a damper on the weekend as a whole, and Bell is still looking to get his wits about him at the moment.

#NASCAR … Christopher Bell on his crash in practice and how hard an impact it was pic.twitter.com/WvnTsFjNxz

— Dustin Long (@dustinlong) June 14, 2024

“I mean, I felt it in my shoulder, in my body, in my head,” Bell told NBC Sports’ Dustin Long, regarding his health after the hard impact. “I don’t know. It was so slow. Like, the speeds are obviously down here, and then I was on the very bottom of the race track whenever it blew.

“So like, I turned the wheel left, and I saw it coming, and I had time to think about it, and I think that might be why it hurt a little bit worse, was because you just, you know it’s coming, where most crashes, it happens so instantaneous, that you don’t know it’s coming. But this one, I saw it happen, for the entire time.”

At the least, Bell seems well enough where he can get back behind the wheel and be effective this weekend, but the crash obviously is weighing heavy on his mind. Additionally, Bell and fellow Cup Series playoff driver Austin Cindric will now have to move to a backup car for this weekend, and there’s a myriad of challenges that come with that development.

“Update: Both Bell and Cindric to a backup car,” FOX’s Bob Pockrass posted on X, formerly known as Twitter. “Cindric had said they were going to try to repair it but they are going to backup. So both will drop to the rear no matter where they qualify (they have to qualify for pit selection & b/c teams carry over qualifying tires as scuffs).”

As Pockrass noted, Bell and Cindric will still attempt to qualify, even though they’ll be moved to the rear of the field regardless. It’s a strategy play, and a smart one at that, as it has more to do with pit selection and other variables for Sunday’s race.

Still, it’s never fun having to go to a backup car, but at least Bell and Cindric know what they’re up against this weekend. This isn’t some last minute decision, and being locked into the playoffs already, they can plan accordingly for Sunday.

As you can tell, there’s a litany of challenges Christopher Bell is facing at the moment, but all of those will go away if he can find a way to win on Sunday. We’ll see how the Joe Gibbs Racing wheelman can do when the time comes.