“Oh my God, that looked massive, whoever that was. Let me know if they’re both OK,” Ryan Blaney asked on the radio after he witnessed the terrifying crash involving Christopher Bell and Chase Elliott. It was a relieving sight to see both drivers get out of the racecars, but Bell refused to speak with media after being released from the care center.

It wasn’t until Tuesday that JGR confirmed a fractured left wrist and an injured ankle, after Bell went through X-rays upon returning home to North Carolina. Then, on Saturday at Pocono, Bell finally explained what happened inside the cockpit.

“Knew my wrist was broke right away because I couldn’t disconnect my shirt,” Christopher Bell told the media. “I was still hands on the wheel, hands turned left, and then my left hand, which was on the bottom, my wrist was bent over like that on the underside of the wheel, and then just the force into the steering wheel.”

On Lap 148 of the FireKeepers Casino 400, Chase Elliott’s No. 9 Chevrolet got loose on a restart and drifted up into Bell’s No. 20 Toyota entering Turn 3. Both cars hit the outside SAFER Barrier at nearly 200 mph. Bell’s Toyota caught fire on impact, and the SAFER Barrier itself was damaged badly enough that NASCAR red-flagged the race for repairs. Bell was evaluated at the infield care center and left Michigan without saying a word publicly.

Bell kept both hands planted on the wheel through impact, which loaded the force directly into his lower left wrist. Because once a stock car is headed into the wall at those speeds, steering inputs simply absorb impact. The force travels back through the tires and steering column, violently loading whatever is gripping the wheel. That’s why Denny Hamlin, who won the race Bell was taken out of, later weighed in on the seriousness of such crashes, further defending Danica Patrick’s decision to pull her hands off the wheel before a Daytona impact years ago – calling it “the smartest thing you can do.”

Thankfully, the fracture resulted in no displaced bones and required no surgery, hence why Bell was cleared to race at all. He does have a cast, not a brace, on his left hand. And by Friday at Pocono, he had already completed simulator sessions in San Diego and logged one to two hours without major difficulty.”I’m pretty much driving the car one-handed,” he gave his assessment of how he’s feeling overall.

That said, while Brandon Jones has been named the standby driver if Bell cannot continue, Bell’s intent is clear.

“It’s certainly going to be hard. I’m just going to play it week by week and see how I feel today at practice at Pocono,” he said.

Bell’s Michigan Crash in the Context of Next Gen Safety

Per NASCAR.com, Bell’s crash had the highest Delta-V reading ever recorded on a Next Gen car, which is a metric for measuring the change in velocity during impact, and is used to assess crash severity. So, the fact that Bell walked away from such a wreck and acquired a race clearance four days later is also a statement about safety development, as it is about his toughness.

The Next Gen car, introduced in 2022, was designed to improve safety through enhanced energy absorption, updated roof flaps, and a reinforced roll cage. Bell expressed gratitude for the same, saying:

“It was a big one, but I’m just so, so incredibly fortunate and thankful and blessed that my head was OK. To get out of there with just a fractured wrist is pretty immaculate, and I owe all of the credit to NASCAR and my team for building safe cars.

“I know I said it in my statement earlier, but all of the previous drivers who have paid somewhat of a price to make these cars as safe as they are today, NASCAR for learning from every experience that they’ve had and every moment, every crash – It all paid off last Sunday.”

Bell further said that his car and his safety gear did things in an “absolutely perfect” manner to allow him to be back on the track this Sunday, as he pointed to the head foam and containment system as aspects that stood out.

Now, Bell’s streak of not missing a single race since he became a Cup driver in 2021 stays intact. Still, he isn’t thinking long-term right now. He’s thinking seven days at a time and hoping each one feels a little better than the last.