The strategic planning of Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) prevented a potential disaster for Christopher Bell during Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway when his team executed a rare pit stop maneuver to address a loose wheel.

During a lap 108 caution, crew chief Adam Stevens made a critical call for Bell to stop in another team's pit box to tighten a concerning wheel. Bell, who was running second at the time, sought out a teammate's pit box and ultimately stopped at Chase Briscoe's No. 19 team stall, where crew members secured his left front wheel.

While the move is legal due to safety concerns, it did result in penalties. Bell was forced to surrender track position and received a penalty for pitting outside his assigned box. Despite starting from the rear of the field due to a pre-race throttle body change, Bell had impressively worked his way up to second place before the incident.

"Starting in the back is never fun, but we got all the way up there to P2," Stevens explained. "Once we had that loose wheel, it was going to take a miracle for us to be racing for the win."

The team, which had been chasing their fourth consecutive victory, ultimately finished 12th. While the outcome wasn't ideal, the quick thinking and pre-planned response to the loose wheel situation potentially prevented a more serious issue on the track.

"We're allowed to do that," Stevens noted about the unusual pit stop strategy. "It's something that we've talked about before, so it happened. Hopefully, we don't have to do that too many times."

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