Talladega backstretch wall to be modified after Bell crash

Matt Weaver

Talladega backstretch wall to be modified after Bell crash  image

FOX Sports

The section of the wall where Christopher Bell impacted on Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway will be modified in advance of the playoff weekend in October.

Senior director of racing communications for NASCAR, Amanda Ellis, said the portion of wall that was jutted out and caught Bell will be changed.

“That wall will be corrected before we return in the fall,” Ellis said on the latest episode of the Hauler Talk podcast. “They’re going to take that lip out and straighten the wall as well that leads into that area.”

NASCAR managing director of racing communications Mike Forde explained that the five degree angle was the byproduct of an access road that allows emergency vehicles quick access to the backstretch.

Forde says there is a better way to serve both purposes.

“Making it more of a straight edge should help as far as the significance of these wrecks,” Forde said. …

Matt Weaver

Matt Weaver is a former dirt racer turned motorsports journalist. He can typically be found perched on a concrete wall at a local short track on Saturday nights and within world-class media centers on Sunday afternoons. There isn’t any kind of racing he hasn’t covered over the past decade. He drives a 2003 Chevrolet Silverado with over 510,000 miles on it. Despite carrying him to racing trips across both coasts and two countries, it hasn’t died yet.