Christopher Bell Provides Good Injury News Ahead of Pocono Race
NASCAR saw its hardest wreck in years when Christopher Bell slammed into the outer wall at Michigan International Speedway about one week ago. The hard hit ensued when the No. 9 Chevrolet of Chase Elliott snapped on turn 3, contacting Bell, who was running side-by-side above Elliott. Both drivers hit the outer wall of the turn, bringing out the red flag.
Bell took the harder contact of the two drivers. When Bell exited the infield care center, he requested not to be spoken to by the media. It was later confirmed that Bell broke his wrist in the incident.
Despite the whirlwind of a week that Bell has endured, he has been confirmed to be racing the NASCAR Cup Series race at Pocono Raceway on Sunday, June 14. The race happens one week after his vicious Michigan wreck.
Per Joe Gibbs Racing, Bell is scheduled to race all 400 laps. However, the team acknowledges his situation: a broken wrist. They call upon their O'Reilly Auto Parts Series veteran driver, Brandon Jones, to be the backup driver on standby for Bell, should the Cup Series driver be unable to finish the race.
The call-up is ideal, but also risky. Jones happened to earn pole position in qualifying for the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series race slated to go green on Saturday, June 13, at 4:00 p.m. He flashed the speed and high-IQ that is demanded at Pocono, a track with three unique turns, hence the name, 'The Tricky Triangle.'
The risky aspect of the designation is that Jones has never run a single lap in a Cup Series race. Jones had 351 career starts in the O'Reilly Auto Parts Series, plus another 60 in the Truck Series. Never has he raced in a Cup car, which has a lot more drag than his No. 20 NOAPS Toyota. Nonetheless, the team trusts Jones for the job, should he have to put on his firesuit and run laps under the green flag.
Christopher Bell Opens Up On Michigan Wreck
When speaking with the media at Pocono Raceway, Bell finally gave us fans more information on the nature of his incident.
Per Jeff Gluck of The Athletic, "Christopher Bell says he hit the wall so hard at Michigan, his earpiece popped out, and he had no communication with his team." Bell was further quoted: "(I) knew my wrist was broke right away because I couldn't disconnect my shirt."
Luckily for Bell, he escaped a concussion. Hitting the wall at nearly 200 miles per hour poses a very heavy risk for such a head injury. NASCAR's safety protocols have clearly come a long way, including the fact that the outer walls are no longer made of concrete. They are now made of SAFER (Steel and Foam Energy Reduction) barriers.
Bell stated that the data confirmed his wreck occurred at 63 g-forces. In translation, that is over 10,000 pounds of force that his car took on.
The fact that Bell had no displaced bones is the reason for his return. If that had happened, Bell would have required invasive surgery and thus sat out of racing for roughly one month.
Bell will wear a cast that stabilizes his wrist. He still will likely have aches and pains in the car, but the Joe Gibbs Racing driver is deemed good to go at Pocono. In his career, Bell has 8 starts at Pocono with 3 top-10 finishes and 2 top-5's.
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This story was originally published June 13, 2026 at 12:59 PM.