NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Overview
Event: NCWTS 250, Race 17 of 23, 64 Laps – 20/20/24; 157.37 Miles
Location: Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in Bowmanville, Ont. (2.459-mile, 10-turn road course)
Date/Broadcast: Aug. 26, 2018 at 2:30 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR 90
What You Need to ‘Noah’bout
- Noah Gragson finished second in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) regular season standings after posting one win, six top-five and 12 top-10 finishes across his 15 starts. The Las Vegas native enters the NCWTS Playoffs as the third seed, behind Johnny Sauter and Brett Moffitt. In addition to the 10 playoff points Gragson earned for finishing second in the regular season standings, he earned 12 additional points throughout the season with seven stage wins and his victory at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City. He begins the Truck Series Playoffs 13 points above the cutoff line for advancing to the Round of 6.
- The 20-year old driver has already recorded two more top-five finishes across his 15 starts this season, six, then he did across 23 starts last season (four) and needs just one more top-10 finish to match his total from 2017. Gragson has also seen an improvement of 3.3 spots in his average finish (8.3 vs. 11.6) and 1.6 spots in his average starting position (5.1 vs. 6.7) this year versus last year. Last year he led a total of 187 laps all season and with seven races remaining in 2018 he has already been out front for 475 circuits.
- Gragson started sixth and finished second in last year’s NCWTS race at CTMP. To help prepare for this year’s race, he participated in the NASCAR Pinty’s Series event at the 2.459-mile road course in May. After starting 13th, he was able to bring home a third-place finish.
- Rudy Fugle, Gragson’s crew chief, called the shots for Erik Jones’ win in the 2015 NCWTS event north of the border.
- In September of 2016, the NASCAR Next alum collected three K&N road-course victories over an eight-day span. After producing wins on Saturday (9/10/16) and Sunday (9/11/16) in the K&N Pro Series West at Utah Motorsports Campus in Tooele, he traveled across the country and visited victory lane in the K&N Pro Series East race at New Jersey Motorsports Park in Millville the following Saturday (9/17/16).
- 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
How do you feel about the first round of the Truck Series Playoffs?
“Kyle Busch Motorsports, my Safelite AutoGlass team, we’ve got some good tracks coming up. We have Canada and then Vegas. Those are two really good tracks for us — we led laps there last year and finished second and then went to Vegas earlier this year and had a pretty strong run — led some laps as well. Really pumped up to get to those first two tracks and then you have the wildcard — Talladega. That one — that’s an odd ball. The first two hopefully we can pick up a win and lock ourselves in. I feel really comfortable with my Kyle Busch Motorsports Safelite AutoGlass team going into the playoffs.”
You’ve won three K&N road-course races. Do you consider yourself a road-course racer or regular racer that picked it up quickly?
“I think I’m a regular racer — NASCAR driver — who really enjoys going to the road courses. Some guys they don’t like going to the road course because it’s different, but I love outbraking people, downshifting, upshifting, going left and right and sawing on the wheel. It’s a lot of fun the road courses, I picked it up quick racing Legend Cars and have really enjoyed it ever since. Won three K&N road-course races – actually in a row, within eight days. So, I’ve run up front — finished second to Chase Elliott at Sonoma in the K&N race, he passed me with two to go. Really feel comfortable going into the road-course race, it’s a lot of fun and I’m ready to get out there and shift some gears.”
Noah Gragson Career Highlights
- In 40 career NCWTS starts has collected two wins, seven poles, 662 laps led, 10 top-five and 25 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-X134: The No. 18 Safelite Racing team will unload KBM-X134 for Sunday’s event at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in Bowmanville, Ont. It is the same Tundra that Erik Jones led 19 laps with en route to victory in the 2015 event north of the border.
KBM Notes of Interest
- KBM drivers have collected one win, 19 laps led, six top-five and seven top-10 finishes resulting in an average finish of 10.5 across 14 starts at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.
- Erik Jones captured KBM’s lone victory north of the border in the 2015 event.
- 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 (68) 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)
