NASCAR Rivals Poke Fun at Christopher Bell for Leaking the Huge Joe Gibbs Racing News

Chase Briscoe was headed to a Sprint Car race Friday evening when a puzzling text from longtime friend and fellow Christopher Bell appeared on his phone.

It read: “Hey. I messed up.”

Briscoe replied, “What do you mean?’

Bell responded, “Check Twitter.”

However, before Briscoe could check the social media site now known as “X” he arrived at the Sprint Car track where he was racing, and he had no signal on his phone for about six hours.

“I couldn’t get anything to load, no text messages would send,” Briscoe said. “I couldn’t call anybody. It was terrible! There was zero signal.”

So, Briscoe was clueless as to what had occurred in New Hampshire Motor Speedway’s infield media center Friday afternoon during Bell’s press conference when the Joe Gibbs Racing driver let it slip that Briscoe would replace Martin Truex Jr. in the No. 19 Toyota next year.

“It was kind of weird just knowing that something was out there, but not having any ability to see what it was or what happened,” Briscoe said. “People were coming up to me at the track, and I had no idea what they were talking about. It was definitely an odd night.”

When Briscoe finally arrived at his motor home in the NHS infield about 1 a.m. Saturday the Indiana native found approximately 80 text messages on his phone. He also saw Kyle Larson’s Tweet which poked fun at the situation by insinuating that his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Chase Elliott was going to JGR.

Larson’s Tweet read: “Man totally blind sided by this news! Wishing @chaseelliott the best on his new adventure at @JoeGibbsRacing. Have enjoyed you as a teammate! Good Luck #d19”

“I thought Larson’s Tweet was really good,” Briscoe said. “And the hashtag D one nine was phenomenal.”

Larson was one of several drivers still laughing on Saturday about Bell’s press conference faux pas. In fact, Larson admitted that when he saw Bell’s misstep he was “literally laughing out loud.”

“I got to the airport yesterday (Friday) … and just scrolling Twitter,” recounted Larson, who admitted he has accidentally let something slip like Bell did. “Saw that. I mean, his (Bell’s) reaction was great. That was hilarious.

“I hope that JGR is not upset at him because I think that’s amazing. That’s the best way to genuinely announce somebody coming to a team. I’m sure marketing and PR has been working the last couple weeks on how to make this nice, formal announcement that Chase Briscoe is coming in … you wouldn’t get as many clicks as he got yesterday. So, I thought it was great.”

Elliott grinned and said his boss sent him a screenshot of Larson’s tweet.

“Evidently, there were all kinds of stuff going on that I didn’t know I was doing this week,” Elliott said.

Bell Wins Xfinity Race at New Hampshire

After winning Saturday’s Sci Aps 200 NASCAR Xfinity Series race at the one-mile New Hampshire track, Bell admitted he had stayed off his phone, social media and just tried to hibernate since the incident.

“Nobody’s let me live it down,” Bell said. “Everyone I see, obviously, tells me how stupid I am.”

Bell said as soon as he left the media center on Friday, he contacted team owner Joe Gibbs and other executives with the organization to tell them of his mistake and apologize.

“The driver announcement is a really big deal, and I completely fudged it up,” Bell said. “I have never in my life screwed up that bad. That was a huge, huge mistake and I’m very glad that they took it easy on me.”

Results

NASCAR Xfinity Series SciAps 200

New Hampshire Motor Speedway

Loudon, New Hampshire

1. (23) Christopher Bell(i), Toyota, 203.

2. (5) Sheldon Creed, Toyota, 203.

3. (1) Cole Custer, Ford, 203.

4. (12) Justin Allgaier, Chevrolet, 203.

5. (38) Carson Kvapil, Chevrolet, 203.

6. (9) Ryan Sieg, Ford, 203.

7. (8) Parker Kligerman, Chevrolet, 203.

8. (4) Riley Herbst, Ford, 203.

9. (37) Alex Bowman(i), Chevrolet, 203.

10. (7) Corey Heim(i), Toyota, 203.

11. (22) AJ Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 203.

12. (6) Sammy Smith, Chevrolet, 203.

13. (15) Jesse Love #, Chevrolet, 203.

14. (29) Brandon Jones, Chevrolet, 203.

15. (2) Chandler Smith, Toyota, 203.

16. (21) Brennan Poole, Chevrolet, 203.

17. (10) Matt DiBenedetto, Ford, 203.

18. (20) Jeb Burton, Chevrolet, 203.

19. (28) Shane Van Gisbergen #, Chevrolet, 203.

20. (3) Sam Mayer, Chevrolet, 203.

21. (11) Anthony Alfredo, Chevrolet, 203.

22. (18) Jeremy Clements, Chevrolet, 203.

23. (25) Justin Bonsignore, Toyota, 203.

24. (17) Josh Williams, Chevrolet, 203.

25. (13) Austin Hill, Chevrolet, 203.

26. (32) Kyle Weatherman, Chevrolet, 203.

27. (24) Parker Retzlaff, Chevrolet, 203.

28. (33) Blaine Perkins, Ford, 203.

29. (35) Glen Reen, Chevrolet, 203.

30. (34) Garrett Smithley, Chevrolet, 202.

31. (31) Mason Massey(i), Chevrolet, 202.

32. (19) Kyle Sieg, Ford, 201.

33. (30) Hailie Deegan #, Ford, 201.

34. (36) Armani Williams, Ford, 198.

35. (27) Patrick Emerling, Chevrolet, 197.

36. (16) Ryan Ellis, Chevrolet, DVP, 196.

37. (26) Nathan Byrd, Chevrolet, Accident, 185.

38. (14) Leland Honeyman #, Chevrolet, Accident, 95.

Average Speed of Race Winner: 82.951 mph.

Time of Race: 2 Hrs, 35 Mins, 21 Secs. Margin of Victory: 0.254 Seconds.

Caution Flags: 11 for 58 laps.

Lead Changes: 15 among 10 drivers.

Lap Leaders: C. Custer 1-16;A. Hill 17-18;C. Custer 19-36;S. Smith 37-39;S. Mayer 40-48;J. Bonsignore 49-51;C. Bell(i) 52-93;C. Custer 94-149;C. Smith 150;C. Kvapil 151-166;C. Custer 167-170;J. Love # 171-173;C. Kvapil 174-181;C. Custer 182-201;S. Creed 202;C. Bell(i) 203.

Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led): Cole Custer 5 times for 114 laps; Christopher Bell(i) 2 times for 43 laps; Carson Kvapil 2 times for 24 laps; Sam Mayer 1 time for 9 laps; Justin Bonsignore 1 time for 3 laps; Jesse Love # 1 time for 3 laps; Sammy Smith 1 time for 3 laps; Austin Hill 1 time for 2 laps; Chandler Smith 1 time for 1 lap; Sheldon Creed 1 time for 1 lap.

Stage #1 Top Ten: 1,8,98,16,7,17,88,39,27,19

Stage #2 Top Ten: 20,19,00,18,81,7,26,9,21,48