Christopher Bell No Head Starts

Christopher Bell and the No. 4 SiriusXM team head to Pocono Raceway in Long Pond, Pa., for Saturday’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Overton’s 150. Bell has already secured his spot in the playoffs with three wins across the first 11 events, but with five races remaining in the regular season will be looking to earn additional playoff points and at the same time continue to cut into Johnny Sauter’s lead in the point standings.
 
While Sauter sits seven points ahead of Bell in the regular season point standings, the 22-year old driver leads the Truck Series in nearly every major statistical category. Bell tops the circuits in wins (three), poles (three), playoff points (19), laps led (514), driver rating (117.7), average starting position (4.4), average finish (6.0), top-10 finishes (10) and fastest laps run (215).
 
Two of Bell’s three wins this season have come behind the wheel of the Tundra that the No. 4 SiriusXM team will unload for Saturday’s 60-lap event, KBM-38. The Oklahoma native captured the pole and won all three stages with “38 Special” in his first win of the season at Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton, Ga. In its most recent outing, Bell led a race-high 92 laps as he came from the 21st starting position to win the June race at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth.
 
Bell is hoping this year’s Pocono race gets off to a better start than last year’s did. He surrendered his sixth starting position to come to pit road when he noticed the voltage level on his Tundra was low during the pace laps and was summoned to pit road. Then, he was involved in an accident on lap 17 and after lengthy repairs returned to the track scored five laps down in the 25th position. Thanks in part to a race-record nine cautions and having the longest green-flag run consist of six laps, the majority of the field remained on the lead lap and Bell was the lone driver one or more laps down. With each passing caution, the No. 4 team earned the “Lucky Dog” and finally with six laps remaining he returned to the lead lap. He restarted from the 23rd position with four laps remaining and passed 13 competitors in the closing laps to earn a remarkable 10th-place finish.
 
Bell is hoping to not give the field a five-lap head start this time around. The talented youngster is also hoping to continue to diminish Sauter’s points lead and end the regular season with the most playoff points, so that no other driver will have a head start on him when the Truck Series playoffs start in September at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon.
 
KBM PR