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Kyle Busch applauds Christopher Bell’s Chili Bowl win

NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Texas Roadhouse 200 presented by Alpha Energy Solutions - Practice

Kyle Busch, left, and Saturday’s Chili Bowl winner, Christopher Bell.

Getty Images

It’s no secret Kyle Busch loves winning races.

The next best thing is when one of his drivers takes a checkered flag.

The 2015 NASCAR Sprint Cup champion is celebrating in a big way after one of his drivers, Christopher Bell, won the legendary Chili Bowl Midget Nationals Saturday night in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Bell drives in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series for Kyle Busch Motorsports – co-owned by Kyle and wife Samantha – including finishing third in the Truck standings this past season.

And while he’s won two Truck races in his young career, the 22-year-old Bell has always hoped to win the Chili Bowl.

Not only is it arguably the most prestigious midget car race in the sport, the Chili Bowl is also held in Oklahoma, Bell’s home state.

While the Chili Bowl takes place on a unique indoor track in Tulsa, Bell is a native of Norman, about 115 miles southwest, just south of Oklahoma City. He’s been going to the annual mid-January classic for most of his life, first as a spectator and in recent years as a competitor.

The younger Busch brother took to Twitter following his young protégé’s big win Saturday night. Here’s a couple of the more interesting tweets.

Saturday was Bell’s fourth time in the Chili Bowl’s A-Feature main event. Now that he is a Chili Bowl champion, he plans to return for next year’s 32nd edition to try for back-to-back wins, much like Rico Abreu did in 2015 and 2016.

And even though Busch hasn’t said anything, one might wonder that now with Bell having the highly coveted Golden Driller trophy for winning Saturday night, might his NASCAR Trucks team owner start thinking about climbing behind the wheel and potentially joining Bell in the Chili Bowl fun next year?

Follow @JerryBonkowski