Christopher Bell appeared to have found a little wrinkle in the NASCAR rule book, as he stopped in a teammate's pit box to prevent another tire issue from transpiring during Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Bell has clearly been one of the best drivers so far in 2025, with three wins in a row heading into Sunday's race. He was looking to make it four in a row in Las Vegas, but it wasn't in the cards.
Yet he was still able to make some noise on Sunday, especially in the pits, as he had a big moment during the Pennzoil 400.
What a catch by the No. 20 team
During a routine pit stop under cation, Bell left his pit box following a four-tire pit stop.
Something was quickly wrong, as crew chief Adam Stevens came over the radio telling him he needed to stop because his wheel wasn't tight. Luckily for Bell, teammate Chase Briscoe's stall was open, and he was guided into it, allowing the No. 19 team crew to tighten the wheel safely.
Bell ended up being hit with a penalty for pitting outside of his box, which sent him to the rear of the field, and he never could quite recover from it. But it seems like a smart move moving forward.
And it begs the question at to whether or not it is a legal move, by NASCAR rules.
Fox Sports' Bob Pockrass did some digging about the legality of the move that Bell and his team pulled off, and it's clear by the NASCAR rule book that there isn't anything explicitly against it.
The rule states that a driver must pit in the driver's assigned pit box. The penalty for not doing so is being sent to the tail end of the longest line under yellow, and a pass-through penalty if under green.
A driver must not obstruct another team's pit area. This means that a driver cannot drive through the pit box of another team that is servicing their car.
Also, a team in an adjacent pit box can't purposely help another team. This rule is in effect so teams don't work together when rolling tires to use other crews for help.
The final part of the stated rule entails that, under extenuating circumstances, a team can use another organization's roster members.
Future use could really make things interesting
As it turns out, the move might be already within a number of teams' playbooks. They just hadn't thought of trying it yet. In fact, Briscoe's crew chief, James Small, knew what was happening, according to Dustin Long from NBC Sports.
"" I could see Bell trying to get to our box and I'm like he must have a loose wheel. He came in and he was pointing and I got on our in-car radio and started yelling, 'Left front! Left font!'""James Small
It was also in talking with Long that Small admitted Joe Gibbs Racing have talked about having this strategy as an option, in case any of their drivers need it.
That begs the question: how many other teams are going to use it going forward? What about the smaller one-car and even two-car teams? Wouldn't it be unfair for those drivers?
That was a major talking point this week on several of the more popular NASCAR podcast's, including Dirty Mo Media's Door, Bumper, Clear, along with Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour.
It will be interesting to see what NASCAR does going forward about this type of situation. Bell still suffered from a penalty, but this might have been a safer option than having him roll of the pit lane and have the tire fly off, which carries its own penalties.