Wood Brothers Racing’s Josh Berry called Christopher Bell’s wreck at Michigan a ‘massive’ crash.
Bell’s wreck happened with 51 laps to go on last Sunday’s FireKeepers Casino 400. The JGR driver was battling Chase Elliott for second when the latter lost control and snapped up the track.
The two cars collided and crashed into the walls one after the other. The hit was so bad that NASCAR needed a 20-minute red flag to weld parts of the SAFER barrier.
NASCAR’s Managing Director of Safety Systems, Matt Harper, labeled it the hardest recorded impact of the last decade. Furthermore, NASCAR’s vice president of racing communications, Mike Forde, went on the Hauler Talk podcast and called it the biggest delta-v change in the Next Gen Era.
In crash analysis, delta-v refers to the change in velocity during an impact.
“I can’t give out the Delta-v number for Bell….But we can confirm that it was the largest number we’ve seen in the Next Gen era,” Forde said.
Berry shared his thoughts on the incident in an interview with NASCAR reporter Steven Taranto.
“Yeah, it was certainly massive. Gosh, just the visual of that, you can just tell when there’s contact like that and the speed that he was going into the wall. I mean it was tough,” he said.
“We were sitting under the red flag after that incident,” Berry added, “I’m like ‘hey, let me know if those two guys are alright, because they just hit a ton.’ I obviously don’t want to speak for Christopher and how it felt and how he’s feeling, but to see him get out of that car was certainly a positive in that whole deal.”
Josh Berry credited NASCAR’s safety measures for helping drivers walk away from such wrecks. Bell endured a fracture on his left wrist. The JGR driver flew out of Michigan with a cast on his hand, but he’s cleared to race this weekend at Pocono.
“Hate it happened”: Chase Elliott apologizes to Christopher Bell
Chase Elliott walked away from the Michigan incident relatively unhurt. Up until the wreck, the HMS driver had a race-best 67-lap lead and was gunning for yet another win.
In a post-race interview, Elliott took responsibility and apologized to Christopher Bell.
“I knew that he kind of took the brunt of it. I definitely just hate it happened to anybody, but certainly him. He races me with a lot of respect, and it was nothing intentional. I just stepped over the line and overcorrected,” he said.
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“Danger to others”: Christopher Bell Faces Fan Backlash Over Racing at Pocono With Fractured Wrist
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