AVONDALE, Ariz. (AP) — Christopher Bell made it clear Saturday that he believes NASCAR cheated him out of a shot at the Cup Series title when he was punished for reacting to race manipulation in the final playoff qualifying race.
Bell moved out of fellow Toyota driver Bubba Wallace’s way last Sunday because Wallace had an allegedly flat tire. That caused him to hit the wall on the final lap at Martinsville Speedway and he rode it a bit for momentum — a move that had been banned after Ross Chastain did it in 2022 to claim the final spot in NASCAR’s winner-take-all championship finale.
“My intentions were never to ride the wall; I didn’t gain an advantage riding the wall,” Bell said. “I don’t believe I broke a rule. I feel cheated. I feel cheated out of the chance to compete for a championship and it all started whenever the race got fixed and manipulated by Chevrolet.
“I feel like I should have never been in that situation had the race been ran fairly, (William Byron) would have lost enough spots to get me into the final race.”
It took NASCAR nearly 30 minutes after the race at Martinsville to decide if Bell had committed a safety violation and if he or Byron was going to receive the final spot in the finale. Both drivers waited by their cars, with NASCAR finally giving Byron the spot.
That denied Bell a third consecutive trip to the championship four.
“I understood his comments and I understand how he feels,” team owner Joe Gibbs said. “I think what happened could have been handled much differently.”
Bell insisted Saturday he was forced into hitting the wall because Chevrolet drivers Ross Chastain and Austin Dillon were blatantly blocking cars from passing Byron, whom Bell was fighting for the final position in the championship race.
“I could very clearly see the race manipulation and the race fixing that was going on,” Bell said.
NASCAR issued $600,000 in fines and suspended nine team members from Chastain's, Dillon's and Wallace’s crews for Sunday’s season finale. In Friday’s annual state of the sport address, chief operating officer Steve O’Donnell said the racing at Martinsville “pissed me off, and it pissed everyone off at NASCAR because we all know better.”
NASCAR has had a call with Chevrolet, Ford and Toyota and assured them there will “1,000%” be a rule next year prohibiting race manipulation, and a private driver meeting was held early Saturday at Phoenix with NASCAR executives to discuss the issue.
“I feel like I should be in the championship four, yes,” Bell said. “So, in the race, when the manipulation happened — it was clear that I needed a position. With (Wallace) falling back, we got that position and whenever we crossed the finish line, (I) was in. So, with the cards that were dealt, (I) was in position to make the championship event, and we are not in it.”
NASCAR said it strongly considered suspending the drivers involved in the race manipulation — a penalty Bell wasn’t sure he agreed with. But he noted that manufacturers traditionally have worked together at Daytona and Talladega in the draft when pitting and in deciding who to push in traffic.
Bell pointed out that Kyle Larson did not push Ford driver Brad Keselowski to the win in the closing laps at Talladega Superspeedway and that win went to fellow Chevrolet driver Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
“I don’t envy the situation that we are in because talking about team racing, that has been a staple of speedway racing for a long time, and I don’t know what the answer is, especially when it comes to the superspeedway races,” Bell said. “There is a lot of it that goes behind the scenes.”
Denny Hamlin, meanwhile, said that Wallace’s tire was “completely bald” when inspected postrace. Hamlin owns Wallace’s car at 23XI Racing but is Bell’s teammate at Joe Gibbs Racing.
Wallace — one of the three drivers whose teams were penalized by NASCAR in the aftermath of the Martinsville fiasco — made it clear that he doesn't believe he did anything wrong on the racetrack.
“We can all agree to disagree,” Wallace said. “It is what it is, but we're here in Phoenix.”
Wallace said that he was disappointed that the 23XI team didn't appeal his team's penalty, but also understands the decision since his teammate Tyler Reddick is racing for a championship on Sunday.
“We have to have all of our eggs in the same basket, and the time invested in the right things,” Wallace said.
Wallace added that he was upset crew chief Robert “Bootie” Barker would be suspended for their final race together. 23XI made the announcement that Barker was moving into an executive role in 2025.
Brad Keselowski said he understands all the dynamics involved in the Martinsville finish make it a complicated situation, but ultimately, behavior won't change until drivers are suspended for rules violations.
“The message never seems to get across until it gets across,” Keselowski said. “We're no different than children in that regard. Until you ground them, they're just going to continue pushing the envelope.”
RFK Racing made an announcement earlier this week that Matt McCall won't return as Keselowski's crew chief in 2025.
Keselowski said it was a mutual decision to make a change, but praised McCall's leadership over the past three years.
“He helped turn our company around,” Keselowski said. “He's been a big part of that. Probably doesn't get enough credit for it. Everything hasn't gone perfect and I think he'd be the first to tell you that, but I'm really proud of what he helped us achieve.”
Keselowski said there hasn’t been a decision on McCall's replacement, though he said he expected “a lot of things will come together in the next two or three weeks.”
AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing
Christopher Bell drives on track during the NASCAR Cup Series auto race at Homestead-Miami Speedway in Homestead, Fla., Sunday, Oct. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Terry Renna)
LAS VEGAS (AP) — The highly decorated Army soldier inside the Tesla Cybertruck that burst into flames outside President-elect Donald Trump’s Las Vegas hotel shot himself in the head before the explosion and likely planned to cause more damage but the steel-sided vehicle absorbed much of the force from the rudimentary explosive, officials said Thursday.
Clark County Sheriff Kevin McMahill said at a news conference that a handgun was found at the feet of the man in the driver's seat, who officials believe is Matthew Livelsberger, 37, of Colorado. The shot appeared to be self-inflicted, officials said.
Damage from the blast was mostly limited to the interior of the truck. The explosion “vented out and up” and didn’t hit the Trump hotel doors just a few feet away, the sheriff said.
“The level of sophistication is not what we would expect from an individual with this type of military experience,” said Kenny Cooper, a special agent in charge for the the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Among other charred items found inside the truck were a second firearm, a number of fireworks, a passport, a military ID, credit cards, an iPhone and a smartwatch, McMahill said. Authorities said both guns were purchased legally.
Investigators have not definitively identified the remains as Livelsberger, but the IDs and tattoos on the body “give a strong indication that it’s him,” the sheriff said.
Livelsberger served in the Green Berets, highly trained special forces who work to counter terrorism abroad and train partners, the Army said in a statement. He had served in the Army since 2006, rising through the ranks with a long career of overseas assignments, deploying twice to Afghanistan and serving in Ukraine, Tajikistan, Georgia and Congo, the Army said.
He was awarded two Bronze Stars, including one with a valor device for courage under fire, a combat infantry badge and an Army Commendation Medal with valor. Livelsberger was on approved leave when he died, according to the statement.
McMahill said Livelsberger rented the Tesla electric vehicle in Denver on Saturday and the sheriff displayed a map showing that it was charged in the Colorado town of Monument near Colorado Springs on Monday. On New Year’s Eve, it was charged in Trinidad, Colorado, and the towns of Las Vegas, Albuquerque and Gallup in New Mexico, along the Interstate 40 corridor.
Then on Wednesday, the day of the explosion, it was charged in the Arizona towns of Holbrook, Flagstaff and Kingman before video showed it on the Las Vegas Strip about 7:30 a.m.
The FBI said Thursday in a post on X that it was “conducting law enforcement activity” at a home in Colorado Springs related to Wednesday's explosion but provided no other details.
The explosion of the truck, packed with firework mortars and camp fuel canisters, came hours after 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar rammed a truck into a crowd in New Orleans’ famed French Quarter early on New Year’s Day, killing at least 15 people before being shot to death by police. That crash was being investigated as a terrorist attack. The FBI said Thursday that they believe Jabbar acted alone, reversing its position from a day earlier that he likely worked with others.
Both Livelsberger and Jabbar spent time at the base formerly known as Fort Bragg, a massive Army base in North Carolina that is home to multiple Army special operations units. However, one of the officials who spoke to the AP said there is no overlap in their assignments at the base, now called Fort Liberty.
Chris Raia, FBI deputy assistant director, said Thursday that officials have found ‘no definitive link’ between the New Orleans attack and the truck explosion in Las Vegas.
Seven people nearby suffered minor injuries when the Tesla truck exploded. Video showed a tumble of charred fireworks mortars, canisters and other explosive devices crowded into the back of the pickup. The truck bed walls were still intact because the blast shot straight up rather than to the sides.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk said Wednesday afternoon on X that “we have now confirmed that the explosion was caused by very large fireworks and/or a bomb carried in the bed of the rented Cybertruck and is unrelated to the vehicle itself."
"All vehicle telemetry was positive at the time of the explosion,” Musk wrote.
Musk has recently become a member of Trump’s inner circle. Neither Trump nor Musk was in Las Vegas early Wednesday. Both had attended Trump’s New Year’s Eve party at his South Florida estate.
Copp, Richer and Long contributed from Washington. Associated Press writers Rio Yamat and Ken Ritter in Las Vegas and Christopher Weber in Los Angeles contributed.
Investigators search a townhouse in northeastern Colorado Springs, Colo., Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025, as the investigation connected to the explosion of a Tesla Cybertruck outside President-elect Donald Trump's Las Vegas hotel continues. (Parker Seibold /The Gazette via AP)
Investigators search a townhouse in northeastern Colorado Springs, Colo., Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025, as the investigation connected to the explosion of a Tesla Cybertruck outside President-elect Donald Trump's Las Vegas hotel continues. (Parker Seibold /The Gazette via AP)
Investigators search the garbage outside of a townhouse in northeastern Colorado Springs, Colo., Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025, as the investigation connected to the explosion of a Tesla Cybertruck outside President-elect Donald Trump's Las Vegas hotel continues. (Parker Seibold /The Gazette via AP)
Investigators enter a townhouse in northeastern Colorado Springs, Colo., Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025, as the investigation connected to the explosion of a Tesla Cybertruck outside President-elect Donald Trump's Las Vegas hotel continues. (Christian Murdock/The Gazette via AP)
Investigators stand outside a townhouse complex in northeastern Colorado Springs, Colo., Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025, as the investigation connected to the explosion of a Tesla Cybertruck outside President-elect Donald Trump's Las Vegas hotel continues. (Christian Murdock/The Gazette via AP)
Police block the area after a vehicle caught fire and exploded outside the lobby of President-elect Donald Trump's hotel Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Ty ONeil)
Police block the area after a vehicle caught fire and exploded outside the lobby of President-elect Donald Trump's hotel Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Ty ONeil)
Police block the area after a vehicle caught fire and exploded outside the lobby of President-elect Donald Trump's hotel Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Ty ONeil)
Police block the area after a vehicle caught fire and exploded outside the lobby of President-elect Donald Trump's hotel Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Ty ONeil)
