William Byron has now publicly come out to lay the blame on NASCAR’s Next Gen car for playing a role in the horrifying Christopher Bell's Michigan crash.

Bell was left with a wrist and an ankle injury after what was described as one of the hardest impacts in the Next Gen era.

Byron argued that the way the car is designed causes more such accidents, which traditionally would have been absent in the older variant. In a recent presser uploaded by Joseph Srigley on X, Byron said,

“I feel like I had this conversation, like, you wouldn't see a guy in Gen 6 overcorrecting. Like, you wouldn't see that kind of crash, as violent as that was, with Gen 6.”

He then pointed directly to the current rules package, adding, “So, you're seeing that crash because of the nature of the tire and the aero and everything with these cars. So, it's a violent impact.”

The Michigan accident began when Chase Elliott immediately got loose during a restart battle with Bell when they were both battling for second. He sent the Joe Gibbs Racing driver straight into the outside wall and crashed with him. Luckily, Bell was able to get out of the car of his own accord despite the injuries discovered later.

Byron, however, concluded by acknowledging the safety benefits of the current car while still questioning its role in how the accident went down.

“Fortunately, the car is capable of taking that, and Christopher was able to get out. So, that's a good thing." However, he continued, “That impact to me is way, way larger than what we would have had in the past with a bigger sidewall and a different tire.”

NASCAR also acknowledged the severity of Bell’s crash, with shocking comments coming from top officials. Let’s take a look at the full coverage.

Why NASCAR called Bell’s Michigan wreck one of the hardest ever

NASCAR officials revealed that Bell’s crash was the hardest recorded in the Next Gen era because it had the presence of a variable that was monumentally high: Delta-V.

Delta-V measures the change in velocity during an impact and is one of NASCAR’s key indicators of crash severity.

Speaking on Hauler Talk, Vice President of Racing Communications Mike Forde said that Bell’s crash in Michigan generated the largest Delta-V seen since the Next Gen car debuted in 2022. He wasn’t alone in describing the severity of the incident.

NASCAR Managing Director of Safety Systems Matt Harper also went on to describe the crash as one of the hardest impacts he has evaluated since joining NASCAR in 2015.

The comments have again reignited debates about the safety and viability of the Next Gen car, and now, with William Byron joining in, it is almost a guarantee that this topic is here to stay among fans.

Read more at the RFK Racing Digest!

Written by

Uday Jakhar