When I head down to pit road with my fellow reporters after every race for post-race interviews, I’m always uncertain of what to expect. You just don’t know what kind of mood the drivers are going to be in when you arrive. And to me, personally, that’s one of my favorite things about covering this sport – the access to drivers a few short minutes after they have taken the checkered flag.
As Ricky Bobby so poignantly declared – if you ain’t first, you’re last. So there can be a frustrated driver or two who’s not really in the mood to talk about his day when he exits his car. We ask anyway. That’s our job. In this heat-of-the-moment scenario, emotions can be and often are raw.
I spoke with William Byron at Texas in 2022 after he spun Denny Hamlin under caution and he candidly admitted to intentionally hitting the No. 11 but didn’t mean for him to spin. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver was understandably unhappy about it and heated in his response, directing much of his frustration at NASCAR’s lack of action on enforcing a penalty. It was intense.
Kyle Busch Confronts Christopher Bell
What happened on Sunday after the race at Circuit of the Americas was next level. Everyone’s seen the video, by now. In fact, more than 900,000 have watched it on NASCAR’s X account, as Kyle Busch walked at an accelerated and very deliberate pace down pit road from his No. 8 car to talk with his former JGR teammate, Christopher Bell.
The NASCAR video and another angle show the confrontation between Busch and Bell from the driver side door of the car. Hilariously, I’m easily seen in both videos. That’s because my view of everything started from the other side, in front of Bell’s car.
I think what will always stand out to me is how I initially “diagnosed” the situation. I saw Busch walking in my general direction about 30 yards away. He was in that hurried pace and all I could think was Joey Logano, Las Vegas, 2017. Rowdy, like he was in Sin City, appeared to be on a mission.
He walked directly in front of me and then turned right toward Bell, who was standing near the front of his car. At that point, no one knew what was going to happen next. My initial thoughts were Kyle had punched before, but he and Bell have a history together in the past as owner-driver at KBM and teammates at JGR. I didn’t get the vibe he was going to swing.
Bell sat there, and as someone described on the SiriusXM NASCAR Radio call-in show after the race, listened like a son getting scolded by his father. The exchange lasted for 10 seconds. It was over just like that. Bell appeared shellshocked. But, to his credit, just seconds later, was talking about it in what turned out to be the first of many interviews.
Kyle Busch Talks About Conflict and Rivalries 24 Hours Earlier
While the confrontational moment was headline-worthy, for me, it took on an even more significant meaning due to a question. That’s right, a question.
On Saturday, the two-time Cup champion visited with reporters. I questioned multiple drivers, including Busch, to get their thoughts on the remarks of NASCAR President Steve Phelps, suggesting on multiple occasions early in the 2024 campaign that he’d love for drivers to lean into conflict and rivalries because it adds more entertainment value to the overall product. Rivalries have been part of the sport since the beginning.
I wanted to know, what two drivers did they think should be the marquee rivalry because it would have fans talking about the sport, like Dale Earnhardt and Jeff Gordon.
“Everybody’s scared of sponsors, so I am too, but, you know, sign us to a guarantee that we don’t lose our sponsors, we’ll do whatever the hell needs to happen for TV ratings,” Busch said. “All in all, I don’t know, there’s definitely some guys out there that have some good comebacks and some good personas that could definitely play into that very well. I’m not sure I’m one of those guys.”
KFB was one of those guys. Did KFB return on Sunday at COTA? If so, was it a temporary appearance or can we expect more of the same in the future? Christopher Bell would especially like to know.
Meanwhile, somewhere Steve Phelps is smiling.