It didn’t take Christopher Bell long to figure things out. 

In only his third race on the NASCAR truck circuit, the 20-year Norman, Oklahoma native was holding the checkered flag after winning the MudSummer Classic NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio.

After starting his career racing on dirt tracks around the state, Bell became the first Oklahoma driver to win in one of NASCAR’s three top divisions.

“It was pretty unbelievable,” Bell said, “something I never would have dreamed of. I wouldn’t have dreamed of actually getting to compete in a NASCAR sanctioned race, let alone winning one.”

In the first two truck races of his new NASCAR career, Bell took fifth and 17th place. The latter included him crashing and not being able to finish. He believed he was on his way to another top five finish.

But Bell didn’t let that mishap diminish his confidence heading into the MudSummer Classic. Holding off a variety of other competitors, Bell took the lead on the 60th lap and did not relinquish it the rest of the night.

“It’s just unbelievable,” Bell said in Victory Lane. “I’ve been coming here quite a few times, and if you would have told me two years ago that my first win at Eldora was going to be in a truck, I would have told you you’re crazy. This is just fantastic. I’m just thrilled to be here.”

Even though Bell is still in the early stages of his NASCAR career, he has been part of the racing culture since he was a child.

“My dad (David Bell) coached high school basketball at Community Christian School,” Bell said. “And one of his players (Daniel Orr) used to race. I just went to the races with his family and I’ve been hooked ever since.”

Bell was six years old when he first caught the racing bug. His father could see he had an intense interest in the sport, but he said there was no way he would have predicted his son would have taken it this far.

“I pretty well knew it from the time he was about 12 or 14 years of age,” David said. “Of course, when he was younger, he would say that he wanted to race in NASCAR, but somewhere around 12 or 14 he knew he wanted to race for a living. It’s just been a lot of hard work by him to live out this dream.”

It was around six years ago when Christopher said it clicked for him that being a professional racer would be his career path.

“I got hired to drive for my buddy [Darren Ruston],” he said. “It was completely unexpected. It’s crazy to look back at all the opportunities, how one thing leads to another. You take one of those steps out of the equation, you don’t end up where you are today.”

Now, Bell is traveling the nation competing in more than 100 races a year. His biggest sponsor is Toyota, which takes away a lot of stress and worry that many young drivers, forever hungry for funding, must typically deal with.

“As a manufacturer, we don’t own race teams. But the minute you can’t keep a driver in a car or truck, you open yourself up to losing that driver. It’s an imperfect science,” David Wilson, president of Toyota Racing Development, told Motorsport.com. “We didn’t want to let Christopher get away without trying.”

Bell has no plans to slow down and would appear to be, quite literally, on the fast track to racing stardom.

“Honestly, I’m living my dream right now,” Bell said. “I’m getting to race for a living and getting to race 100 times a year and that’s all I’ve ever wanted to do. Whatever opportunities may come my way, I’ll be thrilled to take advantage of them.”

Kinney writes for The Norman (Okla.) Transcript