Christopher Bell remains an angry young man it seems. It's been a week since Martinsville Speedway's chaos, and Bell is still fuming from an incident that not only yanked him out of championship contention but left him seething at what he sees as a manufactured end to his season. Bell finally faced the media on Saturday, and he wasn't pulling punches.

It all went down as Bell and William Byron battled for the last playoff spot. Byron, a Chevy man, just needed to hang onto his position, while Bell had to snag one more spot for a tiebreaker advantage. But blocking Bell's path were two Chevrolets, stalling the pack to safeguard Byron's position. And then, on the final lap, Toyota's Bubba Wallace "coincidentally" slowed down with a "flat tire." Bell, right behind him, hugged the wall and shot forward in a move straight out of Ross Chastain's playbook from two years ago -- the move that sent Chastain to the Championship 4 in grand style before NASCAR banned it. But Bell learned the hard way that his attempt would cost him.

After a half-hour of suspense where neither driver knew who'd gotten through, NASCAR ruled that Bell had committed a "safety violation." He was hit with a penalty that pushed him to the back of the lead lap, giving Byron the last championship slot and leaving Bell in the dust.

At Phoenix on Saturday, Bell wasn't exactly zen about it. Normally low-key, Bell didn't hold back: "I feel cheated," Bell said. "I feel cheated out of a chance to compete for a championship. It all stems from what happened earlier - 15, 20 to go, whenever the race got fixed, and manipulated by Chevrolet, that forced our hands to do what we did and ultimately, it forced me into a mistake on the last lap to get into the wall. I feel like I should have never been in that situation had the race been ran fairly, the 24 (William Bryon) would have lost enough spots to get me into the final race."

Bell claimed he saw Chevy's "race manipulation" unfold right in front of him. "I could very clearly see the race manipulation and the race fixing that was going on," he said.

Tuesday, NASCAR had reacted, slapping fines on drivers who blocked for Byron -- Chevy's Austin Dillon and Ross Chastain, plus Toyota's Wallace. Their teams were penalized, too, and several crew chiefs were benched. NASCAR examined footage and listened to team radio calls, concluding that while manufacturers might have wanted outcomes, there wasn't hard evidence tying them to any plan. And even if there was, NASCAR COO Steve O'Donnell admitted, they couldn't punish manufacturers directly -- not yet.

"I'll probably get in trouble for saying this, but I'll say it anyway," NASCAR COO Steve O'Donnell said during the sanctioning body's State of the Sport address at Phoenix. "I've been around a long time, but Bill France used to say, being pissed off is not a plan.

"What I saw in Martinsville pissed me off, and it pissed everyone off at NASCAR because we all know better, and we know what happens. We do have rules in the rule book where we can address it, and we did. We had a call with our OEMs where we were very clear in what our intentions are going forward. It is true, do we have a rule right now where we could do something? We don't. Will we have a rule next year? 1,000 percent."

Despite all that, Bell's championship dreams were history. But he wasn't giving up his argument. "I should be in the Championship 4," Bell said. "When the manipulation happened, it was clear I needed a spot. With the 23 (Wallace) falling back, I got that spot, and when we crossed the finish line, I was in."

And about that final lap? Bell doesn't believe he did anything wrong. "It wasn't a move," he said. "I didn't try to gain an advantage by riding the wall. I don't think I broke any rule."

Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin backed Bell, saying it was tough to blame those who blocked for Byron. "They're doing what they know to do -- it's practically protocol," Hamlin said. "The 24 was in a bad spot and going to lose spots until they let up. Penalties were given. But if that changes things going forward? Who knows."

Hamlin, who co-owns 23XI Racing, where Wallace drives, also defended his driver, insisting Wallace did indeed have a tire issue. "There were no pinholes left in that tire -- it had gone completely bald," he explained. "Carson Hocevar had the same issue earlier. But it's water under the bridge now."

In the end, NASCAR's verdict was clear: time to tweak the rulebook. Yet Christopher Bell, despite it all, is left empty-handed. He may carry that chip on his shoulder for now, but he's not dwelling on it too long. "Yeah, I'm disappointed -- who wouldn't be?" he admitted. "But it's just this weekend. At least it wasn't earlier in the playoffs. After Sunday, I'll close the book, start fresh, and focus on getting a better shot at Martinsville next year."