AUDIO/FEATURE: Bell Looks To Ring In Rookie Season With Truck Title

Christopher Bell is seeking his first-career NASCAR Camping World Truck Series championship in his rookie season. (Brian Lawdermilk/Getty Images for NASCAR photo)

AVONDALE, Ariz. — He may be a rookie, but Christopher Bell has not driven anything like a typical first year NASCAR Camping World Truck Series driver in 2016.

The driver of the No. 4 Kyle Busch Motorsports Toyota Tundra has been on an impressive run as of late, sitting second in points heading into Phoenix Int’l Raceway’s Chase elimination race on Friday night.

Bell says the common misconception of being a rookie and having a hot run is nothing to go wild about. Instead, he is on the grid to play, and win, KBM’s second-straight series championship.

“I’m just another racer out there just trying to win races.” Bell said. “Go ask Matt Crafton, you go ask anybody out here, we just want to win.Regardless of if you are a rookie or a veteran … you still have the same goals. Obviously the strategy is a little bit different, but overall the big picture is to win races and to win the championship.”

As for the championship, Bell is taking it one step at a time. The Oklahoma native enters Friday night’s Lucas Oil 150 (10 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM) five points to the good in regards to elimination, but stresses that margin is tenuous and not at all safe.

“We have to perform well here (at Phoenix) to get to there (Miami). We just have to pay attention to all the details here today and dot our I’s and cross our T’s. If perform the way we have been, we will be just fine.”

His team owner is no slouch to winning championships himself, as Kyle Busch has won both the NASCAR XFINITY Series championship (2008) and is the defending Sprint Cup Series champion, with a shot to go back-to-back if he can advance through Phoenix and then repeat next weekend.

Bell’s team won the Truck title last year with Erik Jones, and the former dirt track racing standout looks to add another title for them next weekend, saying that it has aided him to have such a hands-on owner like Busch behind him.

“Kyle’s so involved with all the teams at Kyle Busch Motorsports. It’s so cool to see how involved he is and how he wants the best for everybody,” Bell said. “He wants there to be three truck champions (from the team), but obviously that can’t happen. He is able to go to all of our meetings, to listen to us and to tells us what we did right, what we did wrong and what we need to do better.”

“With him being a Cup champion, he knows what it takes. He sat me down in the middle of the year and said, ‘Hey these races don’t matter. Take what you can out of these and get what you can at the end.'”

As the Round of 6 ends this weekend, Bell finds himself with some solid footing. The 21 year old is a two-time winner in the series and has been battling toe to toe with some of the Truck series giants, including his very impressive rookie teammate William Byron.

Wise beyond his years, Bell knows that if he survives Phoenix on Friday without any issues, he will be a contender for the first-ever Truck Chase championship.

If he could pull it off, the young gun would be a part of a unique first as a first-time driver in the series.

Listen in as Race Chaser Online caught up with Bell prior to Friday’s Camping World Truck Series event at Phoenix:

About the Writer

Rence Brown is Race Chaser Online’s West Coast-based correspondent, who currently resides in California and carries a deep passion for NASCAR, but is a follower of multiple forms of auto racing across multiple disciplines.