Christopher Bell on Daytona Truck Series crash: ‘Did that happen to me?’

Christopher Bell had one thought as he barrel-rolled down Daytona International Speedway’s frontstretch on the final lap of the Feb. 19 Camping World Truck Series season-opener.

“I was just trying to wonder when this thing was going to stop,” Bell said Friday at Atlanta Motor Speedway. “Whenever you start flipping, it just feels like it goes on forever.”

Bell was running third and had just pushed Johnny Sauter into the lead when his No. 4 Toyota turned sideways into the outside wall then back into a pack of trucks entering Turn 1. The 21-year-old rookie, who drives for a team owned by Kyle Busch, flipped 10 times before coming to a stop with all four wheels on the ground.

Throughout the crash, Bells says he was in a tuck positon and hoping another truck would not strike him, which did not occur.

“When I stopped, you’ve got a lot of adrenaline and so I felt really good,” Bell said. “As soon as I got done crashing, I was on the radio (saying), ‘I’m fine. Let me out of this thing.’”

The accident was not the first time Bell has gotten upside down in a race car. It’s a common occurrence in sprint car racing, which he competes in regularly. But the difference was the increased amount of G-forces in the Daytona wreck compared to other instances when he’s flipped, as he felt like the truck was trying to throw him out of the vehicle.

Although dizzy, Bell extracted himself from the smoldering truck without assistance and walked to an awaiting ambulance. He was briefly hospitalized for precautionary reasons at a nearby medical facility, but passed a concussion test and was released a short time later.

Bell had some bruising on his forehead and around his eyes, suffered a bout of nauseous and was quite sore the next morning. He will race in Saturday’s Truck Series race at Atlanta.

“Woke up the next morning and felt 100 percent until I got out of bed, and then once I got out of bed I realized I couldn’t move quite as fast,” Bell said. “But after a couple days that was all gone and I’m good to go.”

Drivers flipping at Daytona is not an uncommon site, but it’s something Bell never thought would happen to him. And even when watching replays of his crash, he still has difficulty comprehending that it’s him tumbling wildly.

“Watching it was definitely an eye opener because even after I went through the crash, it still didn’t really sink in,” Bell said. “But when I got to watch myself flipping, it’s like, ‘Wow, that did happen to me.’ It puts everything in perspective for sure.”