NCWTS: Christopher Bell Ups the Ante at Las Vegas

MOORESVILLE, N.C. (Sept. 29, 2015) – Christopher Bell won his first NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race in July at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio in only his third start. The dirt standout was the odds on favorite to win at the half-mile dirt track, but this weekend he ups the ante trying to beat the odds and win his first pavement race in the Truck Series at Las Vegas (Nev.) Motor Speedway.

Bell dominated the race at Eldora leading 106 of 154 laps. He won again at Eldora last weekend claiming both the USAC Midget and Silver Crown races on the dirt. This weekend Bell faces the 1.5-mile pavement of Las Vegas. It will be only his second start on a 1.5-mile track, his first coming at Kentucky Speedway in July. Bell finished 17^th there after jumping into his No. 54 Tundra without turning a single lap of practice since rain washed out both practice and qualifying. He ran as high as sixth, but suffered some damage when the truck got loose toward the end of the race which left him in 17^th. With plenty of sunshine forecasted for Saturday, Bell should have ample time to gain experience with the aerodynamics on an intermediate track during practice. Having the defending winner (Erik Jones) as his teammate will provide valuable feedback as well.

Bell will have new colors on his No. 54 Toyota beginning this weekend. Audio company JBL® will be featured on Bell’s Tundra for all four of his remaining races on the 2015 NCWTS schedule: Las Vegas, Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway, Texas Motor Speedway in Ft. Worth and Homestead-Miami (Fla.) Speedway. Saturday he will be racing chassis KBM-030. This truck has three top-10 finishes in four starts since its debut at Kansas Speedway in May.

While the 20-year-old Norman, Okla., native is not old enough to bet in the casinos, he is certainly mature enough to challenge his more-experienced competitors for the win Saturday night and take home the Rhino Linings 350 trophy to add to his growing collection.

“Yes and no, it will definitely give me confidence having worked with this team before, but that was a dirt race and this is a pavement race, so I feel like I have yet to prove myself on pavement. Hopefully we can come away with a good finish. I’ve been looking forward to getting back in the truck since Eldora, so I’m happy I got the opportunity to run four more races this season.”

“I really enjoyed the mile-and-a-half race at Kentucky. The air moving the trucks around was something really cool to experience and I had a lot of fun being able to move around and find different lines that worked for me to run on the track. I think going to Kentucky helped me way more than winning Eldora did. I’m looking forward to Vegas because the aero will be so important there and I got a taste of that at Kentucky.”

“The first thing I’m going to do when we land in Las Vegas is go to In ‘N Out. Beyond that I’ll probably spend most of my time focused on the race. None of my KBM teammates (Erik Jones and Matt Tifft) are 21 yet either, so maybe we can figure something out together. In ‘N Out is definitely a priority though.”

“Vegas will be different than Kentucky in that hopefully Christopher will get some practice in before we start the race at Vegas!  We practice during the day and race at night, so the track goes through some fairly substantial changes based on the temperature. In the past the trucks have been able to run different grooves at Vegas during the race and make some passes, so that should really fit Christopher’s driving style.”

KBM-030: The No. 54 JBL team will race KBM-030, for Saturday’s Rhino Linings 350 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. This truck has three top-10 finishes in four starts since its debut at Kansas Speedway in May.

Year	Races	Win	Top 5	Top 10	Pole	Laps	Led	Earnings	AvSt	AvFn	RAF	Miles	LLF
2015	3	1	2	2	0	498	106	$71,107	10.0	7.7	3	468.0	2

Shannon Rursch will call the shots for the No. 54 Tundra in the Truck Series in 2015. The Iowa native may be new to KBM, but is no stranger to sitting atop the pit box. Rursch comes to KBM from Turner Scott Motorsports (TSM), where he most recently served as crew chief for the No. 31 team in the NASCAR XFINITY Series. In addition to leading the XFINITY Series team in 2014, he collected three top-10 finishes in four starts as crew chief for TSM in select Truck Series events last season. Rursch scored his first career win as a NASCAR crew chief in July when Christopher Bell won at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio.

This weekend will be Rursch’s first start as a crew chief at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in any series.