“One was intentional, one was an accident”: NASCAR reporter defends Christopher Bell ruling after Austin Hill gets playoff waiver

Austin Hill and Christopher Bell both had crashes on the field, but the two incidents were dealt differently by NASCAR officials, leading a netizen to question the way these instances were treated. However, NASCAR reporter Jeff Gluck soon joined the discussion and shared how the JGR driver's incident was unintentional, which cannot be said for Hill's maneuver.

The Xfinity Series race at IMS saw Hill take out Aric Almirola after the former was initially bumped by the No. 19 driver. This incident was viewed with grim eyes within the racing sphere, and the RCR driver was given a one-week suspension.

This essentially made him ineligible to participate in the playoffs later in the season, despite having won three races. On the other hand, Christopher Bell's incident with Zane Smith happened just a day later, but was treated differently as the 30-year-old had mistimed his move, which NASCAR acknowledged:

"That incident was reviewed and NASCAR viewed it as an aggressive, but mistimed, racing move by Bell and not a move of retaliation that rose to the level of a penalty."

This allowed Bell to remain off the charts to avoid any threats of not making it to the Cup Series playoffs this year, while Hill had to forfeit all of his playoff points that he claimed so far. This led a fan to question how the same rule was not enforced on Bell for his actions. However, Gluck came to the rescue for the JGR driver:

"It was mentioned and covered. One was ruled intentional, one was clearly an accident. You don't get suspended if NASCAR believes it was an accident. On Stacking Pennies, @SkipFlores described how Bell approched every member of the team to apologize immediately after the race."

Jeff Gluck

@jeff_gluck

It was mentioned and covered. One was ruled intentional, one was clearly an accident. You don't get suspended if NASCAR believes it was an accident. On Stacking Pennies, @SkipFlores described how Bell approached every member of the team to apologize immediately after the race.

Meanwhile, Christopher Bell had finished eighth at the Brickyard 400, while Austin Hill was relegated to a 34th-place result for the Xfinity Series race at IMS after being hit with a five-lap penalty.

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Christopher Bell's hopes come true as NASCAR acquitted him

Christopher Bell started 16th for the Brickyard 400 and moved up the road in the following stages. With him running inside the top-10 after a subpar qualifying, he tried to get ahead in the pack, but he miscalculated his move on the FRM driver.

Subsequently, the Oklahoma-born driver was accountable for the mishap and even apologized to the No. 38 crew. He had then shared how he wanted his incident to be viewed as a mistake, and said in a post-race interview, via NASCAR:

"Obviously, it was a mistake and I think the general consensus was the 21 (Hill) deal wasn’t a mistake. It sucks because I did hook him to the right and there’s been plenty of cases where people have done that exact same mistake, but it’s been to the inside... I hope that whenever people see that, they’re like ‘yeah, he didn’t mean to do that.'"

On the other hand, Bell sits fifth in the regular season standings, having won three races already.