Christopher Bell responded to Kyle Larson doubting that he lost complete power steering during the NASCAR Cup Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Sunday.

During Stage 2 of the race at Vegas, Bell informed his team he was losing power steering. He said, “Losing it in a hurry.” NASCAR.com reporter Zach Sturniolo would also report he informed them, “I’ve lost it all now.”

Bell on his power steering: “I’ve lost it all now.”

Stevens: “10-4. When we get a caution, we’ll come look at it. We can’t do anything till then.”

#NASCAR

— Zach Sturniolo (@zachstur) October 4, 2026

During an appearance on the Stacking Pennies podcast, Kyle Larson shared his doubts about Bell completely losing his power steering. 

“No power steering. There’s no chance that Christopher Bell was hanging on to a race car with no—. When people say no power steering, you have some power steering.”

When the show’s co-host informed Larson that Bell claimed the power steering was completely gone, Larson bluntly responded, “Bull[crap]. I’m going to give you some flowers, but 0% power assist on an intermediate? No way.”

After fellow show host Corey LaJoie shared his experience at Bristol a few years ago where he lost power steering and only made it three laps, Larson quipped, “There’s a good chance I’m stronger than Christopher Bell. There’s no way either one of us is hanging on with power steering at 0%.”

Larson concluded, “I’m sorry Bell for busting on you, but I don’t think—. There’s no chance.”

Bell discussed the power steering loss and responded to Larson’s comments in an interview with NASCAR media.

“The Stage 2, whenever I first started having the issue, it was alarming how quick I was losing the assist. And then by the time it was out or whatever I had at the end of Stage 2, I knew that I was in position to get really good points. So I knew I couldn’t sustain that energy through the course of that race and then once I got the news in Stage 3 that they weren’t going to be able to fix it, there was no option to quit. You have to get it to the finish line. So I just had to run the pace that I could drive the car at to finish the race. It was max effort to get it to the finish line.”

“I think it’s probably like running a marathon. You know that you have to get to the end and you just put the max amount of effort that you can to make sure that you see the end. And I knew quitting wasn’t an option.”

Bell also shared how sore he was on Monday after suffering the power steering loss.

“It took me a little bit to recover, for sure. On Monday, just my shoulders. My shoulders and my hands really were the big things that hurt just from gripping the wheel a lot harder than I’m used, and then obviously, the effort that it took to turn the car through the corners.”

“It was disheartening to have an opportunity taken away from us like that, and it was just parts failure,” he continued. “It was a part that had been tested, and I believe, that it was a part that nobody had had an issue with in the past.”

When asked about Larson’s comments and what happens when one loses power steering, Bell said, “Well, I hope it happens to him so he can talk about it. Mine was a slow degradation of assist loss at some point in Stage 2. I was losing it slowly, slowly. And then it went from whatever it was, 50% assist, 20% assist to the stall moment. So, I really don’t know if I had 10% assist, 20% assist. All I know is that I couldn’t turn the car.”

“One thing that was interesting was under yellow, I would get some amount of power steering back. So swerving tires or just driving around under yellow, it would be somewhat there. And then the moment we would get up to speed I would have on corner where it was kind of somewhat there and then it would go away again.”

“I have no idea of knowing how much power steering I had or how little power steering I had, but I do know that it started here and then slowly, slowly, slowly, slowly, and then it ended here. And then once it got to this point, it stayed the same for the rest of the day. I hope it happens to him,” he concluded.

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