Christopher Bell is a man who grew up racing on dirt, but unfortunately, his team owner does not allow him to race on the treacherous surface. Joe Gibbs’ reasons are understandable. No matter how good one may be, a driver’s availability is at risk. Kyle Busch recently demonstrated how that is in the Tulsa Shootout earlier this month and found himself in a dangerous situation.

Kyle Busch made contact at one point during the race, and his car flipped a couple of times before coming to a stop. At first glance, it looked quite bad, but Rowdy seemed okay. It turns out that the midget racing cars are quite secure after all. However, for a little while, Rowdy’s team members must have had their hearts in their mouths.

Christopher Bell reveals Joe Gibbs’ aversion towards dirt-track, open-top racing

Kyle Busch’s incident is the kind of JGR is looking to avoid by not letting Christopher Bell race on dirt. In an interview earlier this year, the driver of the #20 spoke about the Joe Gibbs Racing rule last year, but at the time he did not sound appreciative of the team’s decision as he took a jibe at his boss.

“Definitely the largest event that I grew up going to as a kid, and it means the world to me that I’ve been able to win it. But Joe Gibbs has been extremely, extremely vocal about his — I don’t want to use the word hatred, but it’s pretty close to hatred — towards dirt-track racing. He does not love dirt-track racing or open-wheel racing at all,” Bell said.

Kyle Busch is not the only man to have suffered something like this in 2023. Hendrick Motorsports driver Alex Bowman suffered a serious injury, albeit while driving different cars. The driver of the #48 car missed several races due to the injury and that is something that JGR wants none of.

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However, there is another side to this argument. Yes, it is a risk to allow a driver to take part in different series and risk a serious injury, but it also makes their driving style quite one-dimensional. With regular experience in different types of racing, several drivers, like Kyle Larson, for example, improved their driving.

Kyle Larson stands firmly against JGR’s policy toward star driver 

The Hendrick Motorsports driver had not taken the JGR decision very kindly. Kyle Larson took a dig at the rival team’s owner for not allowing someone as good as Christopher Bell to take part in dirt racing. The driver of the #5 sang the praises of Bell, who had learned his craft in dirt racing.

“He’s always been a really fair, clean racer,” Larson admitted. “We’ve had numbers and numbers of battles in stock cars, but mostly in dirt track. I’m typically the one that is the aggressor or the aggressive one in our battles. Probably push the limit of being dirty sometimes,” Christopher Bell said, as per Heavy. 

“For him to continue to race me clean, I definitely have a ton of respect for him. Always have. In my opinion, he’s one of the best race car drivers in the world and could do everything that I get to do outside of NASCAR if his team would let him,” the 2021 Cup Series champion added.

On what side of the fence are you in this matter? Should drivers be allowed to race midweek? Or should teams always have the right to protect their investments? Let us know what you think. 

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