22-year-old Bell the veteran teammates will lean on at Dover

But when KBM rolls into Dover International Speedway, Bell, who is currently second in the Camping World Truck Series standings, will be joined by three-teen racers that will likely lean on their veteran for advice. 

When it comes to role models, these rookies couldn’t ask for a better mentor than Bell. 

"Times have changed that's for sure,” Bells said. “When I made my first start in the Truck Series I was a little bit of an older rookie because I didn't make my first start until I was 20. Now two years later, I'll be the veteran of the KBM group this weekend at Dover. 

“All three of my teammates this weekend are super talented and I expect them to be running up front right alongside me.”

Young and fast

Noah Gragson, 18, will make his eighth start in the No. 18 truck. His best result was fourth at Martinsville Speedway in April. Gragson has one start at Dover - competing in the K&N Pro Series East tour last year. He qualified third but was caught up in a wreck just before halfway in the  race. 

Todd Gilliland turned 17 earlier this month. He currently leads the K&N Pro Series West tour standings and has four wins, five top fives and six top 10s in six starts. The third-generations racer will make his truck debut this weekend at Dover. 

Harrison Burton, 16, finished 22nd in his truck debut at Martinsville Speedway last fall. He improved his performance when he returned to the half-mile paperclip in April, finishing 13th. Burton currently leads the K&N Pro Series East tour with two wins in five races. He finished sixth at Dover in the KNPSE finale last year. Burton won an ARCA race at Toledo earlier this year. 

Bell’s teammates will big shoes to fill at Dover. When he made his debut at the Monster Mile, Bell finished third.

And while the truck talent pool is certainly trending  younger, Bell has enjoyed his own meteoric rise through the NASCAR ranks. He won a truck race (Eldora) in just his third career start while running a limited schedule in 2015. Last year Bell won at Gateway to qualify for the first NASCAR truck playoffs and finished third in the standings. 

Xfinity debut

Not surprisingly, Toyota escalated the driver’s development by entering Bell in last weekend’s Xfinity Series race at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Although he spun on the front stretch after contact with Ryan Reed on Lap 3, Bell battled back for a fourth-place finish in his debut with Joe Gibbs Racing.

“Really thankful to be in this No. 18 car,” Bell said. “We had to fight through a lot of adversity there, we had a lot of issues there. We would start passing guys and we’d have to go back and start at the tail. I’m glad it was 200 laps because we used every single bit of it. We didn’t have a lot of luck on the restarts at the beginning of the race starting on the bottom, but we got the luck when we needed it at the end.”

 The Norman, Oklahoman is currently second in the truck standings behind defending champion Johnny Sauter. Bell won from the pole at Atlanta and enjoys a remarkable average qualifying effort of 2.6. He’s completed every lap and led 240 of 781 possible circuits this season. Bell’s worst finish of the season? Eighth at Daytona in the season opener.

"I feel like my truck season has been great, I feel like it's great and we haven't finished outside the top-10 yet,” Bell said. “We finished inside the top five every time except for one, so that being said, Sauter has had a better year, he's still beating us in points. We have to do a little bit to catch up there, but I feel like it's there. He's just been able to execute the stage racing a little better where we're giving up on stage points to try to win races and he has been able to get those stage points and still contend for wins as well. 

“We have to work on our speed a little bit on tracks like Kansas and Charlotte, I felt like we were a second-place truck at Charlotte and a third-place truck at Kansas once the green flag flew. We have practice speed and we have qualifying speed, but we have to do a better job of going faster in the race."

Watch Bell talk about his run at Charlotte last weekend. Click on the image below to view: