By: Zach Catanzareti, Staff Writer

Six days ago, Christopher Bell suffered a reported 63g impact when his No. 20 Toyota rammed the outside wall at Michigan International Speedway.

The dramatic crash left the Joe Gibbs Racing driver with a fractured left wrist and plenty of blessings to be had.

“The car did absolutely perfect, and all of my safety gear did absolutely perfect,” Bell said. “I was really, really grateful, Sunday whenever I hit the wall that all of that R&D, all of that effort had gone into making sure that I had the perfect containment system and it worked. Everything worked perfectly.”

Despite the speed of the wreck, Bell remembers every moment having not lost consciousness.

“I remember staring at that Michigan USA sign,” Bell said before the impact. “Once I hit the wall, my earpiece popped out, so I scared the crap out of my wife and probably everyone else listening because I didn’t respond to Tab (Boyd, spotter) whenever he was checking on me.

“Then I saw the car was on fire. I was trying to get out as quick as I could. I knew my wrist was broke right away, because I couldn’t disconnect my shirt. I reached down, tried to disconnect my shirt, and I couldn’t squeeze the button, so I had to use my right hand to do that.

“Then, my foot hurt really, really bad too. We got x-rays on my foot. It just ended up being bruised. Beside my foot and my wrist, I was good to go. I knew right away, or I thought I knew right away, that my head was okay because I didn’t have any sort of headache, didn’t black out.

“So just super, super blessed that I didn’t hit my noggin and yeah, glad I can continue on.”

The support shown from the garage has been overwhelming for Bell, who said his phone ‘has been literally on fire’ ever since Sunday.

“It’s been it’s been incredible, the amount of people that have reached out to me,” he said. “It’s been eye-opening how much love I have received from everybody, all of my competitors throughout the NASCAR garage, all of my peers and coworkers throughout the NASCAR garage, friends and family members. Even drivers and competitors that I raced against on the dirt side that have reached out to me.

“I can’t speak highly enough of Chase (Elliott) as well. The moment that he saw me out of the car, he was visibly shaken up and concerned about me. I appreciate so much his demeanor and his thoughts of me and he’s reached out several times throughout the week to make sure I’m okay.”

The 31-year-old enters Pocono Raceway in a cast and ready to put the accident behind him.

“The plan is absolutely for me to complete all 400 miles,” Bell said of Sunday’s race. “We do have a backup plan in place for tomorrow if I am not able to do it. Brandon Jones, he came and sat through all of our SIM sessions this week to make sure that he was up to speed. I’m going to commit to the race and I’m going to do it, or I’m going be out and just start and ride around until the first yellow. But, as of right now, I’m full commit planning on running 400 miles.”

Bell’s next hurdle following Sunday will be next week at San Diego, where the series enters the street circuit of Naval Base Coronado for the first time. 

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

“I have done a couple SIM sessions at San Diego. I feel like I was able to get through an hour or two in the simulator and do OK. So, I’m thankful that it’s another seven days away. I think certainly it’s going to be a week-to-week thing.”