Christopher Bell ‘Sirius’ly Consistent

Over the first four races of the 2017 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series season only one driver has finished inside the top 10 in every race and that is the driver of the No. 4 SiriusXM Tundra, Christopher Bell. The 22-year-old will look to keep that streak alive in Friday night’s North Carolina Education Lottery 200 at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway.

 

Despite trailing reigning Truck Series champion Johnny Sauter by two points in this year’s championship standings, one could argue that Bell has been the most impressive wheelman in NASCAR’s third division in 2017. Over the first four races on the schedule, Bell has collected the pole twice and leads all Truck Series regulars in several key statistical categories including, average finish (4.0), driver rating (122.9), laps led (238) and fastest laps run (107).

 

Bell, who cut his racing teeth on dirt tracks across the country, burst onto the NASCAR scene in June of 2015 with a fifth-place finish at Iowa Speedway in Newton in his Truck Series debut. Then a month later, in just his third career start he led 106 of 154 laps at famed Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio en route to his first Truck Series victory. Despite a hot start to his career, the Oklahoma native only finished inside the top 10 once in his next seven events and after 10 career starts had an average finish of 14.4.

 

After a staticky first 10 starts to his Truck Series career, Bell has dialed things in and his results are moving up the charts. He has cut his average finish in half, boasting an average finish of 7.2 over his last 24 Truck Series events. If those 24 races were in one full season, his average finish would be better than three of the last five Truck Series champions. (Sauter 8.0 in 2016, Matt Crafton 7.9 in 2013 and James Buescher 8.6 in 2012). Across that 24-race span, he has finished inside the top 10 21 times, with half (12) of those starts resulting in top-five finishes.

 

Now that he has shown a knack for delivering a stretch of ‘sirius’ly consistent finishes, the 22-year-old’s next goal is to cash in on more jackpots. His first chance to do so will come at Charlotte on Friday night in the North Carolina Education Lottery 200 and with KBM’s winningest Tundra, KBM-21, underneath him, you have to like his odds.

 

KBM PR