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Bell Wants to Lead the Truck Stampede at Texas

MOORESVILLE, N.C. (Nov. 3, 2015) - Most drivers will say winning at their home track is one of the most memorable wins of their racing career. Christopher Bell is no exception. The Norman, Okla., native is hoping to add his name to the list of NASCAR Camping World Truck Series winners at Texas Motor Speedway (TMS) in Fort Worth, located just 150 miles from his hometown. After attending his first NASCAR race at TMS in 2009, Bell knew he wanted to make a career in racing.

Bell has had a great week leading up to the WinStar World Casino 350k. Last week it was announced he will drive full time for Kyle Busch Motorsports (KBM) in the Truck Series in 2016 with sponsorship from JBL. He followed that up with his sixth victory of the season in KBM's Super Late Model Saturday night at Hickory (N.C.) Motor Speedway. Now he is prepared to head to Texas for his third intermediate-track start of the year.

Although he has never raced at Texas, Bell certainly has a great network of drivers willing to offer advice on the best way to get around the 1.5-mile track. KBM teammate Erik Jones won the XFINITY race from the pole for Joe Gibbs Racing in the spring, and grabbed the pole in the Truck Series race in June. Bell's team owner, Kyle Busch, also has a pretty outstanding record at TMS with one Sprint Cup win, seven XFINITY wins and three in the Truck Series, two of which were for KBM.

Bell will be racing the same JBL Tundra the team brought to Las Vegas Motor Speedway last month. KBM-30 ran well throughout the race and it looked as though Bell would get a top-five finish. Unfortunately the race came down to fuel mileage and he came up two laps short, leaving him with a 14th-place result.

This weekend Bell is looking to put all the pieces together for not only a good finish, but a win at his home track. With friends and family in attendance to cheer him on, a trip to Victory Lane at Texas would be a very special win for a young man who only six years ago was watching from the grandstands.

Christopher Bell, Driver of the No. 54 NCWTS JBL Tundra:
You ran well in Las Vegas with the same Tundra you are racing at Texas. Does that experience give you more confidence going into this race?
"Definitely, I feel like Texas and Vegas really relate to each other. I'm excited to get on another mile-and-a-half track and try to get a good result. We arguably had an opportunity to win Talladega, and should have easily finished in the top five at Vegas, could have run top five at Kentucky. Coulda, shoulda, woulda had a lot of good finishes, but now it's time to put one together."

How much can you learn from your KBM teammates Erik Jones and Daniel Suarez for this race since they both ran the XFINITY race at Texas in April and the Truck Series race in June?
"It's certainly nice to have teammates with experience at these tracks and I can learn quite a bit from them. It helps to have people to lean on and get advice from throughout the weekend. Of course Kyle (Busch) will be there too and he's always a very valuable resource when it comes to learning new tracks. I know I can call him anytime and he always makes himself available to help."

Being from Oklahoma, does Texas feel like your home track?
"It' cool because I remember as a kid I went to Texas to watch the NASCAR races with my first-ever car owner. That was in 2009 and we stayed the whole weekend to watch the Cup, XFINITY and Truck Series races. It's pretty amazing to go back there and this time be racing. I'll have a lot of my family there so it will definitely be a home race for me."

Eddie Troconis, Crew Chief of the No. 54 NCWTS JBL Tundra:
Christopher had a strong run at Las Vegas. Although Texas is also a 1.5-mile track how do its characteristics differ from Vegas?
"They are similar since they are both 1.5-mile tracks, but the frontstretch is shaped differently at each track. We're taking the same Tundra Christopher liked in Vegas. The truck setup is pretty similar between the two tracks, but with a few changes. We can't really control when a race will be decided by fuel mileage, so we'll make a better race strategy so we're not short on fuel at the end."

Christopher Bell's No. 54 JBL Tundra:
KBM-030: The No. 54 JBL team will race KBM-030, for Friday's WinStar World Casino 350k at Texas Motor Speedway. Bell raced this Tundra at Las Vegas last month where he finished 14th after running out of fuel with two laps remaining.

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