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Tag: Camping World Series

  • Driver Analysis: 2017 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Champion Christopher Bell

    Driver Analysis: 2017 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Champion Christopher Bell

    The 2017 season could not have been any better for the eventual champion Christopher Bell. Early on in the year he was up front and challenging for wins every week. With a strong Kyle Busch Motorsports Toyota Tundra, it was not surprising to see him challenge for victories week in and week out.

    Bell got his win early in the season at Atlanta Motor Speedway, the second race of the year. He collected poles at Kansas and Charlotte, finishing fourth and third, respectively, in those two races. However, a week later at Dover, Bell was collected in an unfortunate crash leaving him with a 25th place finish at the end of the day.

    The following week at Fort Worth, Bell put that disappointing finish behind him and won by mere inches over Chase Briscoe. It was his second win of the season. If he did not feel comfortable with just that one win at Atlanta, Bell sure felt comfortable now, knowing that he would be racing for the championship if the Playoffs went well. It was a great victory for him and the No. 4 JBL Toyota Tundra entry.

    “Well, it’s huge. We’ve been so fast throughout the entire year and all of our partners have done such a great job bringing really fast cars,” Bell said. “Rowdy Manufacturing chassis and everyone at Joe Gibbs Racing Engines, they just work so hard to bring really fast Tundras to the race track and I’m the lucky one who gets to drive them.”

    After the wild finish at Texas, Gateway and Iowa saw him finish sixth and fifth. A week later, Bell was back to his winning ways at Kentucky even though he spun out early in the race. The victory was just as good a feeling for his team, after winning the week before at Texas.

    “This is pretty special, man,” Bell said. “This is an extremely tough race for me. We had our ups and downs there and through practice yesterday, just kind of – practice didn’t really go smooth. We had such a good Toyota Tundra that I knew, I knew if the right circumstances came up we could do it and Rudy (Fugle, crew chief) did a great job on top of the pit box just getting me track position after I made a mistake there and spun out. Just really glad to be here.”

    Bell continued his winning ways once again at Pocono. With already having four wins early in the season, he was the regular season champion in the Truck Series after the race was over at Chicago. At that point in the season, 2017 was already being great to him and the No. 4 Toyota Tundra team.

    “It’s huge,” he said, “Thankfully, this year we were able to accumulate some points to have a little bit of a cushion going into the Playoffs and just really thankful to be here at Kyle Busch Motorsports driving this No. 4 SiriusXM Tundra and not just SiriusXM, but all of our partners at JBL, TRD, Toyota and 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.”

    Just like in early season form at Atlanta, Bell started out the Playoffs with a bang by winning at Loudon. It was his fifth win of the season and it advanced him on to the Round of 6.

    “It was really big. To be able to win the first race and now we can be more aggressive at Vegas and especially Talladega and try and win the race compared to how I did it last year and just kind of had to take my fifth through eighth place finishes and move on,” Bell said. “It’s just a credit to Rudy (Fugle, crew chief) and Kyle (Busch, owner) and everyone on this group – this team that I’ve got, man.”

    With that win at Loudon, Bell continued to be consistent throughout the Playoffs. His worst finish in the championship hunt was eighth which occurred at Martinsville and Phoenix. Otherwise, he finished second at tracks such as Las Vegas, Talladega and a third at Fort Worth. During those races, Bell collected two poles at Talladega and Phoenix. By having such a strong season, he ultimately qualified for the Championship 4 for the second consecutive year.

    Bell would be competing against tough challengers like 2016 champion Johnny Sauter, two-time champion Matt Crafton and Canada winner Austin Cindric. He knew it would not come easy for him and that he would have to bring the best of the best.

    “I think everyone on this No. 4 JBL team is as prepared as we can be,” Bell said. “Overall, if you look back on the season, I think we’ve shown the most speed in the Truck Series, and week in and week out we’ve been the best team. I’ve always enjoyed Homestead and Rudy (Fugle, crew chief) has been really fast there the last few years. If we can just go out and focus on what has gotten us to this point, I think we should be in good shape. Regardless of the outcome, it’s been an amazing season.”

    The day finally came, the race the Kyle Busch Motorsports No.4 team had been waiting for all season, the Championship 4 race at Homestead. Bell was the worst of the four Playoff drivers when it came to qualifying, as he would qualify 13th leaving him with a challenge to get up to the front fast.

    When Stage 1 began, he worked his way up to first and won the first stage. Bell would stay there in Stage 2, but fell one spot short and finished second when Ben Rhodes ended up winning the stage. With 30 laps to go, he began to drive away from Sauter. Bell would eventually stay in the second position and win the 2017 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Championship, finishing just one spot ahead of Sauter.

    It was the first ever championship in NASCAR for Christopher Bell and the second Truck Series driver championship for Kyle Busch Motorsports. This was a great feeling for the No. 4 driver who came out of Norman, Oklahoma. It was a moment that Bell will remember forever.

    “A dream come true just doesn’t even describe it,” Bell said.  “For me to be at KBM (Kyle Busch Motorsports) as long as I have and to go out a champion — that is something I’m really proud of. Really cool that we have our partners JBL here on the championship stage with us. They’ve been with me since day one of my Truck career and I’m really glad to have them here with us. Between JBL, Toyota, TRD (Toyota Racing Development), SiriusXM, DC Solar, everyone at KBM, man – these trucks are so good and they pay so much attention to all the detail into that goes into these things and that’s what makes these Tundras so fast. I’m just speechless.”

    Winning the championship was very emotional for the 23-year-old.

    “There are no words to describe what this means to me,” he said. “To be able to be here and to finish out my career at Kyle Busch Motorsports with the championship is something that I’m going to cherish for the rest of my life and, man, to be able to do it with JBL on the truck – they’ve been with me since day one and the start of my career. They were with me through last year and we had a struggle point there through the beginning and middle parts of last year and they stuck with me and believed in me and we were able to persevere and come away a champion a year later.”

    After the final checkered flag of the season, Bell earned five wins, 15 top fives and 21 top 10 finishes with an average start of 4.9 and an average finish of 5.7. He also had two DNF’s and led 875 laps.

    In 2018, Christopher Bell will not return to the Truck Series as he will be joining Joe Gibbs Racing driving the No. 20 Rheem Toyota Camry.

    Bell can be found on social media pages. You can follow him on Twitter at @CBellRacing and on Instagram @CBellRacing.

     

  • All-Star Race Venue Change?

    All-Star Race Venue Change?

    Dale Jarrett this week suggested that the All-Star Race be moved from Charlotte Motor Speedway to Bristol.  Stating that these drivers have all grown up on short tracks, I’m assuming he isn’t taking into account Danica Patrick or Juan Puablo Montoya, who both have not ever thought about driving short track or dirt track cars.

    When I first heard this brought up, I took the typical approach of, “Why change something as historic as the All-Star Race?”  Then I realized that the last several years that I have not enjoyed the All-Star event as much as I once did.

    Perhaps this isn’t such a bad idea after all.  I mean think back to this weekend’s race, we saw plenty of cautions, plenty of beating and banging on each other, tempers flared, and despite the fact that there wasn’t a ton of passing for the lead, there was still some and a good bit of drama as the laps wound down.

    Granted true NASCAR fans don’t want a ton of carnage during a race, we mainly want to see meaningful passes, people getting held up in lap traffic, and the leaders trying to figure out how to navigate that lap traffic in a confined space.  Drop in something like Bruton Smith did this year and give a bonus for winning each segment and we the fans win almost instantly.

    Obviously the segments and rules would need to be tweaked a little bit to be more entertaining for a smaller venue.  Whereas this year’s segments were twenty lap events in the first four sections, with one final ten lap shoot out, I would plead with anyone listening that they make the segments longer, work with Goodyear Tires and build some give up into the tires and then let the boys have at it.  Let’s think outside the box a little more here since we are basically playing with house money and throwing things against the wall to see what sticks.  Currently the only ones allowed into this star studded event are: Any driver that has won a race in that year or the preceding year, then any Sprint Cup All Star Race winner within the last ten years, Any Champion of the series in the past ten years, The top two finishers in the Showdown, and the fan vote winner, (whom is determined the night of the event).

    Let’s expand the eligibility to anyone who has won a race in any of the three top touring series in the last five years.  How great would it be to see a Ron Hornaday, or some rookie that snagged a victory in the Nationwide Series getting a one off deal to run in the All-Star Event?  And since we are doing that, then obviously we have to let any champion in those three series in the past five years into the event as well.  This will automatically give us an expanded field, if there are teams out there willing to take a run at that tasty thought.

    Of course we would allow any Cup champion in the last ten years in, since that is what like three now?  (Just kidding I know it’s four).  I know I am just thinking loudly, and these things may seem like madness, but let’s play with this thought a little more.  Let’s allow the top three finishers in the Sprint Unlimited All-Star Showdown Race presented by about seventy different sponsors whom we don’t even know, or whatever they plan to call it next year, I just call it the qualifying race for the All-Star Shootout.

    The last rule on eligibility that I would make is a simple one, once you win the fan vote you are ineligible to win the fan vote again for three years.  I am tired of seeing the same select few people win this part of the process before the night even gets started (Danica Patrick and Dale Jr, I am looking directly at you two).

    Now to the matter of segment and race length, let’s start out slow and actually build towards something and learn a little from the trucks being on dirt this season.  The first segment is twenty laps, and only green flag laps count, the second segment is thirty, and again only green flag laps count.  The third segment would be forty-five laps, and a fourth segment would be fifty both with only green flag laps counting.  I liked the idea of how where you exit pit road is where you line up, and a few years ago NASCAR gave us the fans a chance to participate a little more with each segment.  At the beginning of each segment there would be a brief five minute voting process to determine the number of spots to invert at the end of the segment.  This way the drivers and crew chiefs don’t know where they will be starting until the final sixty lap segment, which would be run for an extra payday for the drivers favorite charity.  Let’s make it about giving back to the community that has been supporting this sport for so very long.

    This would actually add a certain level of excitement back to the event, of course it would have to be run under the lights, if a driver is able to win all five segments then of course that team earns an extra million dollars for their favorite charity.  Again I want this to be about the fans, because isn’t that what this event is supposed to be about?  Isn’t the All Star supposed to be about giving us an extra layer of entertainment?  Something extra for us to believe that our driver is simply the greatest person out there, would this instantly fix what is ailing NASCAR these days?  Probably not, but it would at least give us something to cheer for again, and one final thought?  Bring back the pit crew challenge the day before qualifying, show case the teams and let them factor heavily into the outcome of the event.

  • How To Improve The Nationwide Series

    How To Improve The Nationwide Series

    How can NASCAR turn the yawn fest that has become Nationwide Series Racing into something the fans will enjoy again?  My twitter and Facebook time lines both blow up when Kyle Busch, Joey Logano, Brad Keselowski, Kasey Kahne, or even Matt Kenseth take the lead at any point in the race.  It quickly becomes a stream of “Anybody but……(fill in Cup Regulars name here).

    For the longest time I defended allowing the cup regulars racing in the lower series, mainly because my favorite driver was still doing it from time to time and ran well in that series at points.  I even defended it more when NASCAR made the rule that drivers had to declare which series they were going to race for a championship in before the season really began.

    The excuse that I often used was, “Well it helps the track promoters out by getting butts in the seats to see their favorite drivers one more time during the race weekend.”  Granted this was back before the Cup regulars truly dominated the lower series.  Would they win often? Yes, but they would not go on an eight race winning streak, or in the case of this year’s races, winning sixteen of twenty-one races, or a winning percentage of 1.3125 percent of the time.  Now, honestly it is keeping people OUT of the seats more than it is putting butts in seats.

    I have also heard and understand the argument that having the Cup drivers in the lower series gives the lower series guys a chance to see what they will be up against when they get into the Cup series.  For the longest time, I really didn’t have a comeback for this statement, now I do.  While the younger driver may learn something about driver etiquette on the track, they are not learning anything else for the most part.  The Cup cars are not the same cars the Nationwide series cars are, and therefore the driver in the NNS isn’t learning very much that will help them once they graduate into the Cup series.  About the only thing it shows them is that if they want to be successful in the Cup series they will need to land at a top tier team or their hopes of challenging for a win each week is out the window.

    The cars in the Nationwide series are great, they look incredible on T.V. and on the track. They afford for some nice side by side racing.  Only when the cars that are being raced aren’t from an over funded team with an over talented driver, holding off someone who is simply trying to get a handle on the series.  I could actually understand a lower talented Cup driver trying to get extra seat time to try and improve their performance for their main sponsor on Sunday.  Take Bliss, Blaney, Stremme, or any other driver, hell even take Danica and put her in the Nationwide series and allow them more seat time to improve the racing on Sunday, and I would get it much better than I do these days.

    These days unless the series is split like it is this weekend with the Cup cars in Michigan and the Nationwide cars in Ohio; it basically takes a catastrophic incident or failure by the Cup regulars team or car for the Nationwide series drivers to even stand a chance to win the race.  Which is what leads to my timeline being blown up with people changing the channel, going to the pool, or horror of all horrors heading to the store or mall to get some last minute shopping done.

    My solution is a relatively simple and painless one to implement and simply builds upon the declaring which series a driver is running for a championship.  Limit the number of starts that a Cup regular can have in the lower series, to five.  Which would mean that the track promoters would still be able to promote the fact that Dale Earnhardt Jr will be running both Daytona and Talladega races, without stacking the deck at the races against the Nationwide drivers.  It would allow the drivers like Kyle Busch, and Brad Keselowski to race the Nationwide and Camping World Series trucks, but on a limited basis.  Let’s just call it the Mark Martin schedule for simplification purposes.

    Let’s face facts, drivers in the Cup series retire, where will that leave fans that still love the sport but don’t have a driver to root for?  In my case I know that in the next year to two my driver Jeff Burton will be retiring.  I have followed Jeff’s career since I attended my first Cup race and Jeff won for the first time in Texas.  I know that I will have to find someone else to root for week in and week out.  Are there drivers suitable enough for me to start cheering for already in the Cup series?  Of course there are, but I do not want to have to repeat this cycle in another five to ten years.  I would much rather have a driver that I can cheer for week in and week out in the Trucks or Nationwide series, see him or her grow into the next series and root for them when they finally reach the Cup series.

    Can I realistically do that now? Yes, but I honestly do not get to “KNOW” the driver these days in the lower series.  The main focus by main stream media is either how well the cup drivers or doing, or when things are going wrong for them, how badly things are going.  I will gladly put a large portion of the blame for the Cup regulars doing double duty on the shoulders of main stream media since it is these same media members that focus so greatly on the Cup drivers.  Aside from Kyle Busch I honestly do not think that the other regular drivers would run as many races, of course this isn’t taking into account sponsorship obligations, as they do now if they weren’t almost guaranteed almost unfettered T.V. time each week.  Kyle is the lone amalgam in this situation; he in a lot of ways is the same as Tony Stewart.

    Tony is a racers racer, and so is Kyle.  They both see seating behind the wheel of a vehicle and trying to get something out of it that no one else can as therapeutic.  It is their weekend golf game, or shooting hoops with the guys.  The difference is this, while Tony does it in a series that doesn’t directly impact the potential for up and coming drivers; Kyle almost relishes in the fact that he is potentially holding back a future driver in the Cup series.

    With the limited number of races it would be an excuse for people like Matt Kenseth, Brad Keselowski, Joey Logano, Mark Martin and Kyle Busch to actually MENTOR potential drivers on a weekly basis.  Especially when you take into account that two of the five drivers I named own a lower series team.  To mentor someone, means teaching not showing someone how to do something, allowing them to fail in their own unique way, and being there to pat them on the back when they succeed.  It does not mean, “Step out of my way, let me show you how this is done, and oh by the way don’t even THINK about passing me late to steal a victory away from me,”

    We worry about the future of the NASCAR sport, and trying to fix so many things that are wrong with it, how about we start looking at what truly IS the future of the sport in the lower series and attempt to give them something to hope for on their own?