MOORESVILLE, N.C. (Sept. 19, 2017) – 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 400th 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.”
