After defending NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Larson staged an inspiring comeback to take second place after overcoming its own handling issues with his Hendrick Motorsports No. 5 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 in Sunday’s South Point 400 at Las Vegas, the Chase leader took time to bluntly dismiss a rival driver’s claim of his own troubles in the race.
Larson called Christopher Bell’s claim of total power-steering loss at Las Vegas “bull****.” Bell took his opportunity to answer Wednesday.
Larson leads Bell by 55 points in the Chase with five races left, and Bell says he likely needs two wins to close the gap, according to Roundtable.
Larson made the remarks on Corey LaJoie’s “Stacking Pennies” podcast.
“When people say ‘no power steering,’ you have some power steering,” he said, as quoted by On3.
“Zero percent power assist on an intermediate? No way,” Larson said.
He added that he lost power steering in a Next Gen car at Bristol and lasted three laps with both hands on the wheel.
“There’s a good chance I’m stronger than Chris Bell,” he said on the podcast.
Christopher Bell Responds to Kyle Larson Comments
“I hope it happens to him, so he can talk about it,” Bell said Wednesday, as quoted by The Tennessean.
“Mine was a slow degradation of assist loss from some point in Stage 2,” Bell said. He described the assist fading gradually until the car would not turn.
Las Vegas, Bell said, was the better place for it to happen.
“If you let go of the wheel, the wheel is going to turn left,” he said, as quoted by On3. He slowed until the car tracked the corner and mostly fought to hold it straight. “It wasn’t much fun. That’s for sure.”
The failure struck during the South Point 400 on Oct. 4. Chase Briscoe won, while Bell qualified third in the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota and finished 23rd, one lap down, according to Motorsport.com.
With about 30 laps left in Stage 2, Bell radioed that he was “losing power steering in a hurry,” as quoted by NASCAR.com. Nine laps later he said he had “lost it all.” The team found a busted power steering cooler that leaked water, which boiled into the steering fluid, according to EssentiallySports.
NASCAR Power Steering Failures
Power steering trouble in NASCAR has precedent. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. posted that he drove 420 laps without power steering at Bristol in September, according to his own account.
The Sept. 17, 2022 Bristol night race produced a wave of failures. Martin Truex Jr., Ty Gibbs, Aric Almirola and Ty Dillon were knocked out with destroyed systems, and Bubba Wallace spent nearly 100 laps behind the wall. NASCAR competition official Scott Miller called Bristol “a unique load case,” according to Toby Christie’s Bristol report.
Robert Pressley hit the Turn 4 wall at Bristol on March 29, 1998, with 10 laps left after power steering trouble, according to The Auto Channel.
Bell passed Larson on the final lap of the 55-lap A-main at the Chili Bowl Nationals in Tulsa on Jan. 19, 2019, winning his third straight Golden Driller by 0.350 seconds. Larson missed the bottom in Turns 1 and 2, glanced at the monitor, and Bell drove under him, according to Racer.
“If anything, I was the dirty one,” Larson said, as quoted by NASCAR.com.
NASCAR Champ Kyle Larson Calls Out Christopher Bell Over Power Steering Claim