NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Overview
Event: Gander Outdoors 150, Race 14 of 23, 60 Laps – 15/15/30; 150 Miles
Location: Pocono Raceway in Long Pond, Pa. (2.5-mile tri-oval)
Date/Broadcast: July 28, 2018 at 1 p.m. ET on FOX Sports 1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR 90
What You Need to ‘Noah’bout
- With three races remaining in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) regular season Noah Gragson is in hot pursuit of points leader Johnny Sauter, trying to earn the coveted 15 playoff points that will be awarded to the regular season champion. The veteran had a 73-point lead on the sophomore leaving Gateway Motorsports Park in Madison, Ill., June 23, but over the last three events Gragson has cut the deficit to 32 tallies heading into Saturday’s race at Pocono Raceway.
- Gragson heads to Pocono riding a streak of eight consecutive top-10 finishes, including last week at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio where he came from the 27th starting position to earn a hard-fought sixth-place finish. Overall in 13 starts this season, he has posted one win, five top-five and 10 top-10 finishes resulting in an average finish of 8.5. The Las Vegas native leads the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series with four pole awards, seven stage wins, 450 laps led and an average starting position of 5.1 in 2018.
- The 20-year-old driver has earned 12 playoff points this season, 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. His most recent stage victory came in Stage Two at Kentucky Speedway on July 12.
- Gragson started eighth in last year’s race at Pocono and also finished Stage One in the eighth spot before being relegated to a 24th-place finish after getting caught up in an accident on lap 40. Gragson’s crew chief, Rudy Fugle, has been the winning crew chief in the last two events at the Tricky Triangle. Fugle guided William Byron to victory in the 2016 event and called the shots for Christopher Bell’s win last year. Overall Kyle Busch Motorsports (KBM) has won the last three NCWTS races at Pocono, starting with Kyle Busch’s victory in 2015.
- 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
You’ve cut into Johnny Sauter’s lead for the regular season championship over the last three races. How much would it mean to you to be able to win the title?
“We’re 30 points out of the regular season championship right now and battling Johnny Sauter. There’s a few races left and Pocono has historically been a really good track for Kyle Busch Motorsports. So, I’m really excited to get to Pocono and hopefully get some more stage points — win a couple stages, hopefully win the race and dig into that championship lead a little bit more. It would really mean a lot to win the regular season championship.”
What is the trickiest thing about the Tricky Triangle?
“The trickiest thing about the Tricky Triangle is that all three corners are different from each other. Turn 1 has a little bit of banking, Turn 2 is really flat and fast and Turn 3 is really, really long and flat. So, trying to setup your truck to be a happy medium between all three corners, making all three corners good. It’s super-fast, so just really trying to maintain your speed through all three corners and everything comes up so quickly that it’s definitely a challenge behind the wheel for us race car drivers trying to get the balance of our race trucks good. I know I have a good team at Kyle Busch Motorsports with Safelite AutoGlass, so I’m ready to go and have some fun.”
Noah Gragson Career Highlights
- In 38 career NCWTS starts has collected two wins, seven poles, 637 laps led, nine top-five and 23 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-38: The Safelite AutoGlass team will unload KBM-38 for Saturday’s Gander Outdoors 150 at Pocono Raceway. The Tundra nicknamed “38 Special” has won five times in nine career starts, including last year’s Pocono race with Christopher Bell, and has an average finish of 2.5. It is the same Tundra that Gragson captured the pole, led 128 laps and won all three stages with at Kansas in May. It finished 10th in its most recent outing in June at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth.
KBM Notes of Interest
- KBM drivers have collected three wins, 166 laps led, seven top-five and 13 top-10 finishes resulting in an average finish of 8.4 across 17 starts at Pocono
- Kyle Busch led 53 of 69 laps to collect his team’s first-ever victory at the 2.5-mile tri-oval in 2015, William Byron made it back-to-back wins leading 44 of 60 laps in 2016 and Christopher Bell made it a three-peat winning last year’s 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 (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)
