NASCAR VP jokes with Christopher Bell at the New Hampshire Cup race drivers' meeting

Ahead of the USA Today 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, NASCAR's Vice President of Competitions, Elton Sawyer, joked with Christopher Bell on account of the recent announcement fiasco done by the #20.

The Joe Gibbs Racing driver unintentionally slipped the name of Martin Truex Jr.'s replacement in the #19 car for the next season. With JGR looking to fill the seat with a new driver, Stewart-Haas Racing's Chase Briscoe turned out to be the lead candidate. However, nothing official was announced. Inadvertently, Bell let slip Briscoe's name in a press conference.

Recently, NASCAR VP Sawyer jokingly asked the #20 JGR driver if the latter wanted to make any announcements ahead of the driver's meeting ahead of the 18th race of the 2024 season. Journalist Bob Pockrass shared this on X (formerly Twitter), writing:

"At drivers meeting, Elton Sawyer starts by asking Christopher Bell if he has any announcements he wants to make."

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Christopher Bell reflects on unintentional slip-up in announcing new driver's name

In a recent media interaction, Joe Gibbs Racing driver Christopher Bell talked about the accidental announcement of Chase Briscoe coming to JGR that made him plunge into hibernate mode.

In the conversation, #20 Bell told the reporters (via Bob Pockrass):

"After yesterday, it was definitely a day that I stayed off of my phone. I stayed off social media for sure, just to try to hibernate. And nobody let me live it down. I get everyone I see, obviously, tells me how stupid I am."

The Oklahoma native also claimed that he reached out to the Joe Gibbs Racing executives to apologize.

"The driver announcement is a really big deal and I completely fudged it up. I've never in my life screwed up that bad. And that was a huge, huge mistake and I'm very glad that they(JGR) took it easy on me," Bell added [at 0:46].

The 29-year-old has confirmed his berth in the playoffs with two wins already under his belt at Phoenix Raceway and the rain-shortened Charlotte Speedway. He currently sits at P8 in the overall Cup Series standings along with five top-fives and ten top-ten finishes after 17 starts in the 2024 Cup Series season.