NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series rookie Brent Crews will get the opportunity of a lifetime in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series event at Naval Base Coronado.

The 18-year-old driver will be stepping into the No. 20 CRAFTSMAN Toyota Camry XSE for Joe Gibbs Racing when the first caution of the race flies, replacing Christopher Bell. The move comes as Bell continues to recover from a broken wrist suffered a Michigan International Speedway two weeks ago.

Crews has an extensive road racing background, winning 11 Trans Am Series by Pirelli events throughout his young career – 10 of which came in the ultra-competitive CUBE 3 Architecture TA2 Series for Nitro Motorsports.

The Davidson, North Carolina-native has been under the guise of Toyota Racing USA and Joe Gibbs Racing for the last several years, coming up through the ranks of the ARCA Menards Series, where he won several events, into the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series, where he made his series debut earlier this year at Circuit of The Americas (COTA).

In 14 starts in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series, Crews has recorded an impressive six top-five finishes – including a trio of runner-up results at Talladega Superspeedway, Nashville Superspeedway and Pocono Raceway – as well as nine top-10s. On Saturday, Crews collected his first pole in the second-tier division at Naval Base Coronado.

To prepare for this exact scenario, Joe Gibbs Racing elected to have Crews jump in the No. 20 Toyota Camry XSE for some practice laps on Friday. In the five laps he ran, the up-and-coming driver quickly matched the pace of Bell.

Bell will start Sunday’s Anduril 250 from 37th.

This is a developing story.