Christopher Bell Is Focused On Bringing Home The CWTS Championship

With the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series regular season title already in hand, Christopher Bell and the No. 4 SiriusXM team are now focused on bringing home another combined championship to Kyle Busch Motorsports (KBM). KBM has won the Truck Series Owner’s championship four straight seasons (2013-2016), including a combined Driver’s and Owner’s championship with Erik Jones driving the No. 4 Tundra in 2015, and a series-record five Owner’s championships overall since its inception in 2010.

Bell and the No. 4 team enter the playoffs as the No. 1 seed after collecting 40 playoff points during the 16-race regular season. The 22-year-old registered a series-leading four wins (Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton, Ga., Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, Kentucky Speedway in Sparta and Pocono Raceway in Long Pond, Pa.), added five stage wins to earn 25 of his playoff points and then was awarded 15 more for winning the regular season title.

In addition to leading the Truck Series in wins, the Oklahoma native leads NASCAR’s third division in nearly every major statistical category. Bell sits atop the charts in poles (three), top-five finishes (10), top-10 finishes (14), driver rating (116.2), average starting position (4.6), average running position (6.6), laps led (593), fastest laps run (285), green flag speed (3.000), fastest early in run (4.143 average rank) and fastest on restarts (5.625 average rank).

KBM has produced three wins at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in the five years that it has raced at “The Magic Mile” since it began competing in the Truck Series in 2010. Owner-driver Kyle Busch led 156 of 175 laps from the pole en route to victory in 2010, 165 of 175 laps from the pole in 2011 and last year William Byron led 161 of 175 laps also from the pole. Bell finished second to Byron in last year’s event. The good news for him is that both the truck, KBM-024, and crew chief, Rudy Fugle that Byron had for last year’s win will be on his side this weekend.

Bell will be looking to continue KBM’s winning tradition at the 1.058-oval on Saturday to start the playoffs. A win would secure a spot in the second round and go a long way toward the ultimate goal of bringing home a championship banner to KBM for the fifth straight season. It would also be a nice way to celebrate the organization’s 400^th overall start in the Truck Series.

Christopher Bell, driver of the No. 4 NCWTS SiriusXM Tundra:

What did it mean to win the regular season championship?

“It’s huge, I’ve got the best guys in the world and I’m really thankful to drive the No. 4 Tundra for Kyle Busch Motorsports and represent all of our partners — SiriusXM, JBL, TRD and Toyota. Everyone at Kyle Busch Motorsports, there is a whole group there that builds these Tundras and they do an excellent job and it really shows week in and week out — they are a pleasure to drive. Thankfully this year we were able to accumulate some points to have a little bit of a cushion going into the Playoffs. The regular season championship is nice, but now it’s time to get the playoffs started and win another championship for KBM.”

What is your team’s outlook heading into the first race of the playoffs?

“Loudon is a great place for the playoffs to get started at because Kyle Busch Motorsports has been really successful there — including a one-two finish last year. I’m excited to go there with Rudy (Fugle, crew chief) and have a shot at winning another race. Our tactic as the playoffs start is to go out and win races. Ultimately, if you go out and win races you are going to make it all the way to Homestead and that’s our No. 1 goal.”

Ryan “Rudy” Fugle, crew chief of the No. 4 NCWTS SiriusXM Tundra:

What is your team’s outlook heading into the first race of the playoffs?

“Loudon has been a really good track for us. If we can go there and execute, I know that we are capable of bringing home the win and advancing to the second round. It would be nice to do that and take a little pressure off for the next few races. It’ll be a little different at Loudon this time around with the grip strip, so we’ll need to figure out how that is going to affect things and then go out and win the race. It’ll be good to have a little bit of cushion with the playoff points we built up in the regular season if you have any small issues, but we are going to go into this race like we do every other race and that’s to win it.”

Christopher Bell’s No. 4 SiriusXM Tundra:

KBM-024: The No. 4 SiriusXM Racing team will unload KBM-24 for Saturday’s UNOH 175 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon. The truck is the same Tundra that William Byron won the pole and led 161 of 175 laps with in last year’s race at “The Magic Mile.”

KBM-024 Peformance Profile:

Notes of Interest:

Christopher Bell NCWTS Career Stats:

Christopher Bell’s NCWTS New Hampshire Motor Speedway Performance Profile:

Christopher Bell 2017 Highlights 

• Won the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series’ first-ever regular season title after posting four wins (Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton, Ga., Texas Motor Speedway in Ft. Worth, Kentucky Speedway in Sparta and Pocono Raceway in Long Pond, Pa.), three poles, 593 laps led, 10 top-five, 14 top-10 finishes resulting and an average finish of 6.8 across the 16 regular season events

• Enters the playoffs as the No. 1 seed after earning 40 playoff points (15 for the regular season title, 20 from race wins and five from stage wins) and is currently 33 points above the cutoff line for advancing to the second round

• Leads the NCWTS in wins (four), poles (three), top-five finishes (10), top-10 finishes (14), driver rating (116.2), average starting position (4.6), average running position (6.6), laps led (593) and fastest laps run (285)

• Became first driver under NASCAR’s new format to sweep all three stages of a race when he led 99 of 130 laps en route to victory from the pole at Atlanta Motor Speedway (3/14/17)

• Has collected one pole, 152 laps led, one top-five and two top-10 finishes resulting in an average finish of 11.2 across four NASCAR Xfinity Series starts for Joe Gibbs Racing

• After restarting eighth with three laps to go, won the ARCA Racing Series event at Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Ill., (9/14/17) in his lone series start this season

• In Midgets has seven victories; opened the 2017 season by winning the prestigious Chili Bowl Midget Nationals at Tulsa (Okla.) Expo Raceway (1/15/17), swept both features at the Fourth Annual POWRi Lucas Oil National Midget Turnpike Challenge at I-44 Riverside Speedway in Oklahoma City, Okla. (3/26/17), won consecutive USAC National Midget events at Macon (Ill.) Speedway (7/1/17) and Lincoln (Ill.) Speedway (7/2/17), the USAC National Midget event at Solomon Valley in Beloit, Kansas (8/3/17) and the Mike Phillips Memorial POWRi Lucas Oil National Midget event at Southern Illinois Raceway in Marion, Ill. (9/16/17)

• In Sprint Cars has three victories; won the NRA Sprint Invaders feature at Limaland Motorsports Park in Lima, Ohio (4/21/17), the Ninth Annual Lou Blaney Memorial All-Star Circuit of Champions Sprint Car race at Sharon (Ohio) Speedway (7/8/17) and the Knight Before the Kings Royal at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio (7/14/17)

Christopher Bell 2016 NCWTS Highlights

• Finished third in the inaugural NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Chase after collecting one win, nine top-five and 17 top-10 finishes across 23 NCWTS starts in his first full-time campaign 

Kyle Busch Motorsports No. 4 Tundra 2017 NCWTS Box Score:

-TIL NEXT TIME, I AM STILL WORKING ON MY REDNECK!