Christopher Bell calls out Austin Dillon, Ross Chastain for ‘manipulating the race’ at Martinsville

There was controversy from multiple angles during the finish at Martinsville on Sunday, with two spots in the Championship 4 on the line. Much of it centered on Christopher Bell.

Bell made a hard charge in the final lap and at least briefly secured himself the last playoff spot by pulling level with William Byron on points. It wouldn’t last.

The driver of the No. 20 car used a hard run into the wall to jockey for final positioning, and NASCAR would ultimately issue him a safety violation, sending him back to P22 and out of the playoff picture. But Bell also took issue with how Byron closed the race.

It certainly appeared that there were some blocking attempts made by Ross Chastain and Austin Dillon, keeping Byron from sliding further and ceding points.

“I mean that was disappointing,” Christopher Bell told NBC Sports’ Dustin Long. “That was disappointing to see them blocking like that and manipulating the race. I don’t know.”

Radio communications between the crews and their drivers at least somewhat supported the case that there was intentional blocking going on, too. That’s something NASCAR might have to sift through in the coming days.

In any case, Christopher Bell was bumped from the playoff standings for how he finished the race. That wasn’t without controversy either, as Bell made a remarkably easy pass on Bubba Wallace.

Wallace said after the race that he felt a tire going down, thus the reason for his rapid deceleration.

But Christopher Bell floored it into the finish at Martinsville, hitting the outside wall hard but seemingly staying in the gas while doing so. He explained from his vantage point after the race.

“My options are to slide into the wall or spin out, and I can’t spin out, so I slid into the wall,” Bell said.