Ryan Flores spills the beans on Christopher Bell’s “ballsy” gesture after wrecking Zane Smith that impressed Corey LaJoie

Christopher Bell earned appreciation from Corey Lajoie and Zane Smith's tire changer on the Stacking Pennies podcast. The original post came from a user named “aj” on X, who shared a short video clip of Lajoie and Ryan Flores talking about Bell.

NASCAR confirmed on Thursday that Bell’s contact with Zane Smith at the Brickyard 400 was not a retaliatory move. The incident happened during overtime, leading to a second restart and affecting both drivers' final results. Bell finished eighth—his second top-10 in three races—while Smith ended up 31st.

In the video, Lajoie and Flores talked about the incident, and described how Bell personally walked over to Smith’s pit crew after the incident and offered an apology. The tweet was captioned:

“damn cbell #respect.”

Lajoie praised Bell for his gesture. Smith's tire changer Flores said:

“That’s what I wanna say about Christopher Bell. He stopped by our pit box on the way back and for the first time ever, a driver walked up to our all of our pit crew guys and apologized…. So like, that takes balls.”

As reported by ON3, Zane Smith was not happy with NASCAR’s decision regarding the incident. He felt that Bell had “hooked” him in the right rear for the second week in a row. The hit pushed the race into a second overtime.

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“I certainly don’t want to go anywhere else”: Christopher Bell commits long-term to JGR

Christopher Bell has also made his future intentions clear—he wants to stick with Joe Gibbs Racing for good. In a clip posted by Frontstretch on X, Bell talked about Denny Hamlin’s leadership role at the team and how it has influenced him. When asked whether he’d like to follow a similar path, Bell responded:

“Yeah I love it at JGR and I certainly don't want to go anywhere else, so, I hope I get to finish out my career with them.”

This came in response to Hamlin’s multi-year extension with the team. Bell praised the deal and said it was “awesome” for both the organization and the driver. According to Bell, Hamlin has played a major part in anchoring the team, especially with three younger drivers on the roster.

Christopher Bell also talked about how Hamlin’s experience has personally helped him grow. He brought up Martinsville as an example, where studying Hamlin’s data and setups allowed Bell’s team to make major improvements.

“He really helped improve my team by just me studying his data and I’m getting in the car and helping with the setup of the car too,” Bell explained.

The praise is backed by results. Hamlin, a veteran now signed through 2027, is currently leading the Cup Series in wins this season with four wins, the most recent at Dover. With 58 career Cup Series wins, Hamlin has set a high standard—and Bell seems eager to learn from it.

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Edited by Tushar Bahl