NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Overview
Event: M&M’s 200, Race 9 of 23, 200 Laps – 60/60/80; 175 Miles
Location: Iowa Speedway in Newton (0.875-mile oval)
Date/Broadcast: June 16, 2018 at 7 p.m. ET on FOX Sports 1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR 90
What You Need to ‘Noah’bout
- Noah Gragson and the Safelite AutoGlass Racing team head to Iowa Speedway for Saturday’s M&M’s 200. The 0.875-mile oval is a track where Gragson is very comfortable navigating his way around, having made three K&N Pro Series West starts there prior to his first Truck Series start last season. In his three K&N Pros Series West starts, the Las Vegas native posted an average finish of 3.6, including a runner-up finish in July of 2015. He used that experience to his advantage in the Truck Series last year, capturing the pole and leading 16 laps before ending the day with a sixth-place finish.
- Gragson maintained second place in the NCWTS championship standings with a 10th-place finish in the series’ last event at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth. He enters this week’s race 77 tallies behind points leader Johnny Sauter. Gragson has earned 10 playoff points through the first seven races in 2018, including the seven he earned by sweeping all three stages en route to victory from the pole at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City in May. Overall in eight starts this season, he has posted one win, two poles, three top-five and five top-10 finishes. The 19-year-old driver has led at least one lap in seven of the eight races this season and ranks second to Sauter with 276 laps led on the year.
- Crew chief Ryan “Rudy” Fugle has called the shots for two Truck Series wins in the Hawkeye State. Erik Jones led a race-high 112 laps en route to the victory in 2015 and William Byron led a race-high 107 laps in his 2016 triumph.
- Safelite AutoGlass, the nation’s largest provider of vehicle glass repair and replacement services, will adorn the hood of Gragson’s No. 18 Tundra for all 23 events on the NCWTS schedule in 2018.
Noah Gragson, Driver Q&A
With three starts in the K&N Pro Series West and one in the Truck Series at Iowa, is it a track where you feel more comfortable at than some of the others on the schedule?
“I think racing at Iowa Speedway in the K&N car and having that K&N experience definitely helped me get the pole there last year in the Truck Series. Definitely really like that track — it’s a track where you have a lot of options as a driver. You can run the bottom, you can run the top, it has progressive banking, so it makes it a lot of fun with two and three-wide racing. It’s definitely one of my favorites.”
Is there a track that is comparable to Iowa Speedway?
“I feel like Kansas Speedway — especially this year because it has been aging — is like a big Iowa. You can run different lanes — I was able to run the bottom at Kansas and then we moved up to the wall. A lot of the same characteristics and shape of the race track can come into play with both places. We ran good at Kansas and now we are going short-track racing, which I really enjoy. Getting out there at Iowa Speedway, it’s a lot of fun and I’ve definitely had it circled on my calendar for a long time — since the season started.”
Noah Gragson Career Highlights
- In 33 career NCWTS starts has collected two wins, five poles, 463 laps led, seven top-five and 18 top-10 finishes.
- Recorded two top-five and three top-10 finishes resulting in average finish of 4.3 across three NASCAR Xfinity Series starts for Joe Gibbs Racing this season
- Finished 10th in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) championship standings in 2017 after collecting one win, three poles, 187 laps led, four top-five and 13 top-10 finishes in his rookie campaign. He earned his first NCWTS victory last October at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway outdueling series veterans Johnny Sauter and Matt Crafton in the closing laps
- The NASCAR Next alum also competed in three events for KBM’s Super Late Model team in 2017, highlighted by his triumph in the prestigious ARCA/CRA Super Series Winchester 400 at Winchester (Ind.) Speedway in October
- The Las Vegas native has collected four NASCAR K&N Pro Series West victories across 27 career starts and two NASCAR K&N Pro Series East victories across 16 career starts
Noah Gragson’s No. 18 Safelite AutoGlass Tundra:
KBM-053: The Safelite AutoGlass team will unload KBM-053, for Saturday’s race at Iowa. This will be the first outing for the newest Tundra in the No. 18 team’s fleet.
KBM Notes of Interest
- KBM drivers have collected three wins, three poles, 525 laps led, seven top-five and 15 top-10 finishes resulting in an average finish of 8.0 across 21 starts at Iowa
- William Byron led a race-high 107 laps en route to the victory at Iowa in 2016. Erik Jones took the checkered flag in both 2014 and 2015, combining to lead 243 of 400 laps in those events.
- The No. 18 team, which last year was the No. 4 team with Christopher Bell, has won five consecutive NCWTS Owner’s titles for KBM and has produced two championship-winning drivers (Erik Jones, 2015 and Christopher Bell, 2017)
- The No. 18, the number which was on the first Tundra that went to victory lane for KBM in 2010, has 21 career victories
- KBM holds the NCWTS records for most career wins (67) and most wins in a single season (14 in 2014). In addition to collecting a series-record six Owner’s Championships, the organization has produced two championship-winning drivers; Erik Jones (2015) and Christopher Bell (2017)
