James Small knew what was happening when he saw Christopher Bell slow in Pit Road in Las Vegas

Concord, NC – While the chief of the Adam Stevens crew told Christopher Bell to find the boxes of a teammate to press a loose wheel in car No. 20 during the race last weekend in Las Vegas, how much warning James Small had to stop in the boxes of his team?

None.

No warning was needed.

“If you are at that extreme of Pit Road (near the output of boxes), simply, for years, we have had an agreement that if someone approaches your box box, you know what you have to do,” Small told NBC Sports on Tuesday after the first two -day tire test at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

The first five races have provided a variety of stories for this season.

Little Chief of the Chase Briscoe crew, saw Bell Slow in Pit Road and knew Bell’s plan. Bell avoided Pit Road traffic and entered Briscoe’s boxes clean.

“I could see Bell trying to reach our box and I am as if I had a loose wheel,” said Small. “He entered and was pointing and climbed into our radio in the car and began to shout: ‘Front left! Front!'”

Briscoe, who was on the track under caution, said he was surprised when he heard small shouts on the radio on the left front tire and thought that was something wrong with his car. Once Bell was far from Briscoe’s boxes, Briscoe was told what happened.

It was ingenious, really, and well thought out.

Small said that Joe Gibbs Racing teams have talked about a teammate to run into the well of another for a wheel to harden “for many years and that is the first time it happens.”

If Bell had returned to the track and the left front tire, it went out, two laps would have been penalized and had two members of the boxes crew suspended during the next two weeks: the infractions that the Briscoe team and the Kyle Busch team had in Las Vegas.

But by making the Briscoe team tighten the loose wheel, Bell was only penalized to face outside his position. That sent it to the back of the field for the restart.

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“When I saw him, my initial reaction was that it was really intelligent to do what they did,” Ryan Blaney told NBC Sports. “Honestly, we have had discussions about the last years.”

When Bell was heading by Pit Road in the outer lane, he had William Byron beside him in the inner lane, at least briefly.

“It was a bit weird because I was like ‘very well, I will feel that I am going to run for Pit Road and then began to reduce the speed,” Byron said Tuesday in the tire test. “When we talk about that under warning about what happened, it was as if it were a warning to anticipate that and obviously have talked about it in the past.”