Christopher Bell looks back at 'really up and down strange day' after Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway

Christopher Bell was one of two Toyotas to finish behind the runaway Chevrolet Camaro ZL1s from the stables of Hendrick Motorsports last weekend during the Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Finishing in a respectable P5 position, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver was led by Toyota teammate and 23XI Racing driver Bubba Wallace Jr., finishing ahead of him in fourth, with Team Penske's Austin Cindric in his Ford Mustang rounding off the top-6.

Bell elaborated on his day at the 1.5-mile-long oval track in Sin City as a strange outing after experiencing varied performance levels from his #20 SiriusXM Toyota Camry TRD and said:

“Honestly, the finish to that ended up about as good as we could have asked for with the Sirius XM Toyota Camry TRD. I don’t know, really up and down strange day for us because we took off and I felt really good and drove right to top-5 and I didn’t feel like I had anything for the Hendrick cars. It seemed like we were the best of the rest and then we lost the handling.”

Christopher Bell's explanation of Toyota cars being the best of the rest after the Chevrolets from Rick Hendrick's team dominated the top-3 positions in the race came as a shock to the Joe Gibbs Racing driver, who also complained of a drop in performance late in the race.

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Christopher Bell elaborates on what he and Bubba Wallace Jr. discussed after the Pennzoil 400

As drivers exited their cars after racing 400 miles at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway last Sunday, Bubba Wallace Jr. and Christopher Bell were seen exchanging words after the drivers got out of their respective cars.

Both drivers were also seen racing each other hard at one point in the Pennzoil 400, with Wallace Jr. elaborating on how he talked to Bell about losing time as Toyota teammates if they continued to fight each other.

Bell further elaborated on what the conversation was and said:

"He was mad at me for, I shouldn't say mad at me. He was discussing whether I should have let him go mid-race whenever we were side-by-side for a couple of laps."

The NASCAR Cup Series visits Phoenix Raceway next weekend for the final race of the West Swing in the 2023 season. United Rentals Work 500 is slated to go live next Sunday at 3:30 pm ET.