Texas Motor Speedway was the host for the eighth race of the 2018 season for the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. While there were some notables that placed in the top 10, there were also some of the same familiar faces at the top.
Here are this week’s four takeaways from the PPG 400.
Johnny Sauter Continues To Dominate – There’s no stopping the four-time winner, Johnny Sauter, this season. He now has four wins, seven top fives and seven top 10 finishes. While he did not dominate as he did in previous races, Sauter still found a way to work his way up to the front and win at Texas for his fifth win at the track. If this was in November, he would have had already clinched his spot in the championship 4 as he did last November. However, it wouldn’t be surprising if Sauter does collect another win at Texas later in the year. He’s currently on track to becoming a three-time champion.
Tyler Young Shines In The Top 10 – Young had a great, but quiet Friday night at Texas Motor Speedway. While he didn’t finish inside the top 10 at all in either stage, he rallied toward the front to finish seventh at the end of the night. This was a strong finish, almost a win, for the underdog Young Motorsports team. It was his first top 10 finish of the year and his sixth of his career. A decent showing by the No. 20 of Young Motorsports.
Todd Gilliland Is The Highest Kyle Busch Motorsports Driver – Having no previous race experiences at Texas Motor Speedway, Gilliland scored a sixth-place and was the highest KBM driver in the final results. Not bad for the recent high school graduate, who will now be able to compete on a full-time schedule for the rest of the year. It will be interesting to see how he does and it wouldn’t be surprising if he collects a couple of wins before the season is all said and done. Spencer Davis finished ninth while Noah Gragson claimed 10th and rounded out the Kyle Busch Motorsports trio.
Cody Coughlin Has A Solid Top 10 Night – Coughlin continues to quietly finish inside the top 10 this season. He finished fifth in the first stage but fell outside the top 10 due to falling a lap down. With a late caution, Coughlin and his No. 2 JEGS Chevy made adjustments and he worked his way back into the top 10 late in the race. At the end of the day, he found himself in the seventh position in the final rundown for his fourth top 10 of the year.
The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series had a home race this past Friday night at Charlotte Motor Speedway. It was the seventh race of the season with a first-time winner at the track, but it was a familiar foe that ended up in victory lane.
Here’s a look at this weeks power rankings.
Johnny Sauter – Sauter tops off the power rankings list this week by notching his third career win of 2018, the 20th of his career and his first time ever at Charlotte. He continues to dominate the 2018 season by having six top fives and six top 10 finishes. Sauter even started from the pole after qualifying was washed out due to thunderstorms earlier in the day. With a 59 point lead over Noah Gragson in the regular standings, the sky is the limit for the No. 21 GMS Racing team and they will be tough to beat for the championship. Previous Week Ranking: 3rd
Brett Moffitt – Moffitt had a solid career night at the 1.5-mile track. After starting sixth based on owner points, the No. 16 Hattori Racing driver worked his way up to the lead by Lap 27, with just four laps to go in Stage 1. Moffitt was able to remain in the lead for those four laps to win the first stage and collect 10 championship Playoff points. He would take the lead two other times in the race to lead 28 laps and ultimately finishing in the fourth spot for his fourth top five of the year. Previous Week Ranking: Not Ranked
Ben Rhodes – Rhodes finished in the fifth position rounding out the top five in Friday night’s race. It was just his third top five of 2018. While only finishing sixth in Stage 2, Rhodes battled changing track conditions all night long and had a tough time restarting on the inside for the restart. Nonetheless, it’s only a matter time before the No. 41 Alpha Energy Solutions Ford driver breaks out and earns his first win of the season and career. Previous Week Ranking: Not Ranked
Stewart Friesen – Friesen continues to be part of the talk this year finishing inside the top 10 once more after almost winning the previous week at Kansas. He didn’t finish in the top 10 in either stages, but Friesen worked his way up to finish sixth and earned his fourth top 10 of the year. Previous Week Ranking: Not Ranked
Noah Gragson – Gragson comes down in the power rankings this week with his finish of eighth, but that wasn’t from the lack of trying. For most of the race, it was him and Sauter battling for the race lead, at least in the early laps. From Laps 1-22, Sauter and Gragson traded the lead five times before Sauter took over. When Gragson took the lead on Lap 10, it would be the last time he led for the rest of the night. He didn’t finish in the top 10 in Stage 1 due to a pit road speeding penalty, which set him back to finish 14th in the first stage. Stage 2 was just a little better for the No. 18 Safelite Tundra, finishing 10th. However, it was the last restart of the night that cost Gragson a shot at winning as he spun his tires and he almost spun out. After losing a few spots on the restart, the 19-year-old driver climbed his way back into the top 10, finishing eighth. Previous Week Ranking: 1st
Honorable Mentions:
1. Parker Kligerman – After a disappointing finish at Dover a couple of weeks ago, Kligerman rallied back to finish seventh. He even finished seventh in the first stage. While the team doesn’t run all the races, they seem to be a potential threat to win when the cards fall in their favor.
2. Todd Gilliland – Gilliland will finally be able to race full time after turning 18-years- old this past week. It was his first start on a 1.5-mile track and he did alright for the most part. He finished eighth and fourth, respectively in both stages. Gilliland was running well until late race contact with two-time champion Matt Crafton. This ultimately put the Pedigree driver 10th on the scoring pylon at the end of the night.
3. Grant Enfinger – Enfinger is once again in the honorable mentions this week. He was one of the first cautions of the night after cutting down a right rear tire and leaving debris on the racetrack. It was an uphill battle for the Thorsport driver the rest of the night as he didn’t finish in the top 10 in either stage. Enfinger finished 12th.
The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series competed in their fifth race of the 2018 season at Dover International Speedway. Here are four takeaways from the JEGS 200 event on Friday.
Johnny Sauter Continues Series Domination – Sauter got his second win of the 2018 season this past Friday. It was his first win since the season-opening race at Daytona. Since then, he has finished third at Atlanta, second at Las Vegas and only finished outside the top 10 once at Martinsville, finishing 19th. Friday’s victory was the 19th of his career. He’ll look to get his first victory at Kansas Speedway since 2010, eight years ago.
Harrison Burton and Todd Gilliland Score Top Five/Ten Finishes – Burton and Gilliland who drive for Kyle Busch Motorsports earned a fifth and 10th place finish, respectively at Dover. Burton came from the back after starting 17th and finished seventh in Stage 1, while ultimately finishing in the top five. Todd, on the other hand, finished second in the first stage and eighth in the second, before finishing 10th.
Justin Haley Earns Third Place Finish – Haley earned his second top five of the 2018 season after finishing third. He started in the fourth position and finished third in Stage 1, with a second-place finish in Stage 2. As the JEGS 200 came to a close, the scoring pylon showed the No. 24 FOE Chevy third. A nice Dover outing for the GMS Racing team.
Close Battle For The Win Ends Under Caution – Sauter and Noah Gragson battled it out all the way to the end until the last corner with two laps to go. Both of them swapped the lead from lap 124 to lap 210. While it looked like Gragson could score his second career win, he would, unfortunately, get loose and end up finishing 20th due to a spin. Gragson and the No. 18 Tundra will look to rebound this week at Kansas Speedway and get his second career victory.
The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series finally returns to action this week at Dover International Speedway after a five-week off period.
So far for 2018, there have been four different Truck Series races with four different winners. Drivers will be itching at the bit to get back behind the wheel after a long rest period. At Dover, there have been five different winners in the past five races.
There are 34 trucks listed on the preliminary entry list this week.
Here’s a look at who might end up taking the checkered flag tomorrow night at Dover.
Matt Crafton – Currently in 2018, Crafton and the No. 88 Ford has zero wins to start the season. However, Dover just might be the place where he’ll snap a winless streak just like Joey Logano did last weekend at Talladega. In five races, Crafton has one win, three top fives and three top 10 finishes, along with 181 laps led with an average start of 6.0 and an average finish of 8.4. The last time he went to victory lane was two years ago. Dover could be the track in which Crafton punches his ticket into the Playoffs. He’ll need some work to do so as he was 13th and 10th, respectively in the two practice sessions on Thursday.
Johnny Sauter – Dover is another one of Sauter’s best race tracks. He is the defending race winner from last year’s race after leading just 33 laps and he still has momentum from the Daytona season opener win. Sauter will have to pull double duty this weekend after Spencer Gallagher was indefinitely suspended from NASCAR. Sauter is the highest active driver among all drivers when it comes to Dover. He has one win, three top fives and three top 10 finishes with 33 laps led. Sauter has an average start of 11.6 and an average finish of 4.8. In the two practice sessions today, he was second and third fastest respectively. Keep an eye out for the No. 21 GMS Racing Chevy team.
Todd Gilliland – Gilliland will return this weekend to drive the No. 4 Pedigree Toyota Tundra for Kyle Busch Motorsports. In his only start at this track which came last year, he was running a smart race until an incident took place on Lap 115 as Gilliland had suspension issues. Despite the woes, he was able to lead 25 laps after starting 15th. He’ll look to rebound and challenge for the win on Friday night. Gilliland was fourth in both practice sessions Thursday afternoon.
Brett Moffitt – Moffitt is having a stellar 2018 season so far. He collected the second win of his career at Atlanta back in February and collected three top fives, and three top 10 finishes this year. While Moffitt will be making his track debut in a truck at Dover, he does have some experience racing cup cars and in the K&N East Pro Series. In fact, Moffitt has even taken the checkered flag here way back in 2009. His first cup start here was for Jay Robinson Racing and he ended up finishing 22nd. While he doesn’t have any race experience with a truck, Moffitt will be using his past experiences to figure this place out. He was eighth and first fastest in both practice sessions.
Noah Gragson – Gragson has one start here at Dover in the Truck Series which came last year. After starting eighth, he finished fifth in Stage 1 but fell outside the top 10 in Stage 2. Gragson stayed around the top 10 for the rest of the race, as he would wind up finishing ninth, one lap down. He was sixth and second fastest in two practice sessions.
Qualifying will be especially important at Dover. In the last five races, the winner has come from a starting spot no lower than 11th which happened last year when Johnny Sauter took the checkered flag.
Qualifying is slated for Friday afternoon at 1:05 p.m. ET live on Fox Sports 1.
The JEGS 200 can be seen live on FS1 with race coverage beginning at 5:00 p.m ET and on MRN Radio. The approximate green flag is 5:18 p.m. ET.
The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series started the 2018 season last Friday night at Daytona International Speedway. Here are four takeaways from the event itself.
GMS Racing Look To Recapture Championship – GMS Racing’s Johnny Sauter started off the season with a win, followed by the No. 24 of Justin Haley. If history repeats itself, Sauter would wind up winning his second championship this year as he won the season opener a few years ago and won the championship in that year. It could happen again, but there are a lot of hungry and new drivers looking to knock off the seasoned veterans for the championship.
Scott Lagasse Jr. Gets A For Effort – Lagasse Jr earned a fifth-place finish Friday night at Daytona. It was his best finish at the historic 2.5-mile superspeedway since the 2015 race where he finished third. Regardless of where he finished in the stages, he gets an A for effort while earning his second top five of his career.
Kyle Busch Motorsports Has Star-Studded Lineup – The driver lineup will look different this year for Kyle Busch Motorsports than it did in past years. Noah Gragson returns for his second full-time season driving the famed No. 18. Todd and David Gilliland will split the rides until Todd turns 18 at Charlotte in May. Spencer Davis and Kyle Busch will also spit the No. 51 Truck. While at Charlotte, KBM will field four entries with Todd in the No. 4, Gragson in the No. 18, Busch in the No. 51 and Brandon Jones in the No. 46. As you can see, the KBM entries are fielded with bright stars looking to make an impact and headlines in 2018.
Jordan Anderson Fields Own Entry In 2018 – It will be interesting to see how Anderson does competing in his own team this year. He will be fielding the No. 3 Toyota Tundra in 2018. He was there at the end challenging for the win despite not finishing in the top 10 in both stages. However, just like Spencer Davis, Anderson went spinning around at the start-finish line to earn the first top 10 of his career. If Anderson can keep this up, he will have a solid 2018 season.
Todd Gilliand had an interesting 2017 racing season across all series. Just like his teammate Harrison Burton, he made full time starts in the K&N Pro Series East and West as well. On the West side, Gilliland collected six wins and the 2017 series championship. For the east, however, he won four races and finished second to Burton in the point standings. While all that was going on, Gilliland made his first ever Truck Series start at the tough concrete track of Dover International Raceway.
They say Dover is the “Monster Mile.” Well, it was a monster of a problem for the 17-year-old in his first start in the series. He qualified 15th, ran as high as first and averaged a 13th running position throughout the race. He even placed in the top 10 in both stages until lap 118 when a caution came out for Gilliland who spun in Turn 2. The damage was too severe to continue the race.
Troubles followed him into his second start of the season at Gateway. He placed his best career qualifying position of fourth, but his night ended on Lap 112 when Gilliland had transmission problems thus regulating him to a 21st place finish. It was not the greatest of back to back starts.
However, things began to turn around at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park where he finished 11th. Gilliland continued to turn in impressive results at Loudon with the best finish of his career, third. In the final two races of his 2017 season, Gilliland finished fifth at Martinsville and seventh at Phoenix. A seventh-place finish at Phoenix locked in the No. 51 Truck for a shot at the owner’s championship, which Kyle Busch Motorsports ended up winning at Homestead.
The final stats show two top fives and three top 10 finishes, an average start of 9.2, an average finish of 11.2 and two DNF’s.
Gilliland describes his Phoenix race. “It was a rough night, but we kept fighting the entire race,” he said. “I am still really proud of everyone at Kyle Busch Motorsports, as well as PEDIGREE® for being on board. My team gave me an opportunity to have a good finish and that was the goal. It’s big to just finish the race and log more laps in my memory bank for the future.”
The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series raced in the mid-west this past Friday night at Phoenix International Raceway. It was an action-packed race that did not disappoint.
Here are four takeaways from the Lucas Oil 150.
Chase Briscoe Earns A Top Five Finish – With a strong F-150, Briscoe was able to earn a top-five finish at Phoenix International Raceway. He did not place in the top 10 at all in both stages, but, after all the melee was over and adjustments made to the truck by the pit crew, he wound up fourth on the pylon at the end of the night. It was his ninth top-five finish of the year.
Todd Gilliland Has Another Strong Finish – In his rookie season in the truck series, Gilliland has been finishing inside the top 10 for the most part. Despite not finishing at Dover and Gateway, he seems to have found his groove. Before Phoenix, Gilliland placed 11th at Bowmanville, third at Loudon, fifth at Martinsville and recently finished seventh at Phoenix. He started fifth and placed eighth in both stages. When the night was all said and done, Gilliland finished seventh thus earning a spot in the truck series owner’s championship that will conclude Friday night at Homestead-Miami.
Bayley Currey and Jason Hathaway Have Strong Runs – Expect the unexpected was used this past weekend at Phoenix. Currey and Hathaway only made one previous start, placing 25th and 15th, respectively. But after all the carnage was over with, these two rookies earned the best finish of their career thus far.
Robby Lyons Gets 12th Place Finish In Debut – The Seminole, Florida driver made his first Truck Series debut at Phoenix International Raceway. Previously, Lyons only made starts in the CARS Super Late Model Tour making only four starts in two years. He collected a 12th place finish in his career debut. Not bad in your first career start.
Kyle Busch Motorsports teammates Todd Gilliland and Harrison Burton both had a great day in the Camping World Truck Series race at Martinsville Speedway and even had some fun racing with each other, as well.
First off, Burton qualified in 10th place, his best career starting position, for the second time. By having a strong truck contending for the win, he finished 10th in Stage 1 and sixth in Stage 2. After various pit strategies and stops, the Huntersville, North Carolina scored a career-best finish of fourth.
““I just want to say how proud I am of my whole team,” Burton said. “We unloaded on Friday with a fast truck, we qualified well and we raced even better. Martinsville has given me trouble in the past, but I think I learned a lot from my previous races here and it showed today. Everyone at KBM worked hard to bring me a fast No. 51 DEX Imaging Tundra for my final race of the season and I’m happy with my fourth-place finish.”
In just his fifth race, Gilliland had scored his second career-best finish. He fell behind in Stage 1 when he made a pit stop to allow the crew to fix his truck and finished 15th in the first stage.
Stage 2 was much better for the 17-year-old. After restarting ninth, he would quietly finish in the seventh position. When all was said and done, the scoring pylon showed Gilliland fifth right behind his teammate, Burton. It was Gilliland’s second-best career finish.
“It was a good day for our Pedigree Toyota Kyle Busch Motorsports team,” Gilliland said. “We struggled really bad in the beginning and then made some really good changes to be able to battle up there into the top five. I’m really proud of this whole KBM team – Pedigree, Toyota coming on board and helping to get us here. It’s fun racing teammates up there. I just wish we were a little further ahead but really happy to get a fifth-place finish here at Martinsville.”
The Round of 8 began this past weekend for the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. While there were some surprises in the top 10 results, most of it saw the normal faces up front. Here are this week’s power rankings.
Christopher Bell – Bell continued his dominant season and starts the Playoffs off with the win going into the next round. He led three times for 73 laps and won both stages. Bell also gained seven playoff points after his fifth career victory of 2017. He certainly dominated this weekend at New Hampshire and is safe for at least the next two races in this round.
Noah Gragson – Despite not getting the finish he wanted and missing out on the playoffs, Gragson dominated most of Stage 1 until Bell passed him late in the stage. However, the second stage did not go as well as the first stage did for the Las Vegas driver. On lap 65, Gragson was involved in a multi-truck accident involving a tap by Ben Rhodes. Playoff contender, Johnny Sauter, was also collected as he had right side damage to his truck. Gragson could not rebound after this wreck and wound up 15th on the scoring charts.
Todd Gilliland – The young 17-year-old was not to be denied at the “Magic Mile” on Saturday afternoon. In Stage 1, he finished eighth. However, during the pit stops after the stage was over, Gilliland was nabbed with a pit road penalty for running over equipment. This sent him to the back before Stage 2 started, although, Gilliland charged through the front late and ended up finishing third. Nice rebound after getting tabbed with a penalty early on.
Stewart Friesen – Friesen has been a solid 2017 season so far, despite not competing in the full schedule. Prior to New Hampshire, Pocono in July was the site that saw the best finish of his career by finishing 12th. However, he upped that this past Saturday by finishing fifth, scoring his second top five of the year.
Grant Enfinger – Enfinger is another driver who missed the playoffs this year but had a solid outing at New Hampshire. He finished ninth in Stage 1 and third in Stage 2. At the end of the day, when all was settled and done with, Enfinger earned a fourth-place finish.
Next Up: The Round of 8 continues this weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. While one driver is locked in, seven others will look to lock themselves in as well and punch their ticket to the next round.
Known as the namesake for Bill McAnally Racing, Bill McAnally is no stranger to success. Aside from being the owner of a seven-time K&N Pro Series West-championship organization, McAnally also teamed up with two-time Pro Series West champion (both titles were won with McAnally) Brendan Gaughan and his father Michael Gaughan to win two Camping World Truck Series races and the Rookie of the Year honors in 2002.
Aside from also winning the 1990 NASCAR Whelen All-American Late Model championship at Roseville Speedway as a driver, McAnally has also fielded cars in the K&N Pro Series for several drivers such as Austin Cameron, Clint Bowyer, and Gaughan. McAnally also holds one of the longest sponsorship associations in motorsports, as his teams have been sponsored by NAPA Auto Parts for 27 years.
What is it regarding the K&N Pro Series that has helped your organization thrive?
BM: Well, we worked our way up through NASCAR’s weekly series, and actually captured a championship back when I was driving, and it was just the next step in the progression. Back then it was just known as the NASCAR Winston West Series, and I bought a Winston West car and the thing that I found about the NASCAR regional touring series is that it was easier to find support to get into some of the markets, especially on the west coast. I mean, we’d get into very popular markets like Spokane, Washington; Seattle, Washington; Denver, Colorado; that have no NASCAR racing at all, so when we come in we’re a real good sales tool for our partners in having a NASCAR race.
So I was able to find support; at the regional level it’s much more hands-on if you get your sponsors in and up-close. We were just at Greenville-Pickens Speedway in South Carolina, and it’s just a lot more that can fill ownership of it, so much better. The customers from NAPA Auto Parts, the shop owners, the store owners, the Toyota dealers and their employees and their key customers; they can just get in and fill ownership and get so much closer to it.
After several years in the K&N Pro Series that have seen your organization win multiple championships, what is it that keeps you in that division?
BM: It’s a very rewarding series to help develop the young drivers that are coming up. It’s a lot of fun for me because it’s a great series where you can work weekends, and you aren’t traveling as much as you do with the national touring series.
I got to build a Camping World Truck Series team back from 2000 to 2002 for Brendan Gaughan, and we ran trucks there for several years. We got Rookie of the Year in 2002 and won both races at Texas our rookie year. But there was just so much traveling and you were gone so long that you couldn’t have the family time and tend to my other business.
Brendan Gaughan celebrates a Winston West (now K&N Pro Series West) victory at Auto Club with his Bill McAnally Racing crew in 2001. Courtesy: Bill McAnally Racing
So the K&N Pro Series, there are less races, especially here in the west and the traveling is fairly close so you don’t spend so much time on the road. It’s a fun series, helping these young drivers achieve their dreams and moving up the latter. We’ve had amazing drivers over the years, Brendan Gaughan, we’ve worked with Clint Bowyer, Sarah Fisher, Cole Custer, currently Todd Gilliland, just a lot of great, young drivers trying to achieve their dreams and it’s fun to be able to help them do that along with the crew members who have gone through our programs and get jobs at the national touring series level in NASCAR. To walk through the garage area and see all the guys living their dream that actually used our program as one of those steps is very rewarding.
As a K&N Pro Series owner, do you feel that the lack of a gimmick (Playoffs, stage-racing) in this division helps it maintain a separate identity from the other divisions?
BM: Yeah, I mean it definitely has it’s own identity. It’s gotten to the point now that drivers are stepping through it so quick. In years past, you’d have drivers that would run the series such as Andy Santerre, Doug Fadden, Matt Kobyluck, and out here in the west you had guys like Austin Cameron and Eric Holmes who were just staples in the series. Back in the day you had Ron Hornaday and Rick Carelli; they were here and that’s what they did.
Now, today where they’ve changed their rules and allowed 15-year-old drivers to get into the series, they’re here and gone before anybody could learn who Daniel Suarez was or Kyle Larson was, or the people who used the series recently as a stepping stone, they’re now out of the series before they could really get a fan following. So it’s definitely changed a lot.
How do you feel about the competition product that the K&N Pro Series puts out at each event?
BM: It’s amazing. Every year it’s a challenge to be competitive and to contend for the championship. About the time I think it’s going to be easy because somebody’s moved on or moved up there’s always somebody else that steps up and makes it a challenge that you’re battling to win races and championships.
With the current state of change in NASCAR, do you feel that the K&N Pro Series could use similar changes?
BM: Yeah, I mean, they’re continually changing things; we’re making changes, not at the level of the national touring series, but we are making changes such as spec engines and a new body. These changes help strengthen the series and make it better all the time.
Considering that the K&N Pro Series visits the smaller, older home tracks that were popular during NASCAR’s Golden Age in the 60s’ and 70s’, are there any tracks you feel the division could benefit from visiting?
BM: It’s funny you ask that because it is a double edged sword. It’s amazing that we get into markets like Spokane, Washington, Seattle, Washington, and Denver, Colorado because no other NASCAR touring series goes through those markets, even though they’re very strong markets. It’s great that we get into those markets as well as for the sponsors that we have (NAPA Auto Parts, Toyota, etc.), corporations that support our racing efforts, love that we get into those markets that have no other form of NASCAR touring racing.
But when you’re developing drivers you like to develop them on the national touring tracks. So like I said it’s a double-edged sword. Developing a driver, I would love to be taking them to [Auto Club] Speedway, get them out here on the west coast; Chicagoland, you know, take them to Kansas City, run the tracks they’re going to run as they move up the ladder and gain some more experience on the national touring tracks.
But then again, like I said it’s a double-edged sword. It’s just so great that we get into these markets and we have such a hands-on, up-close series that our sponsors can utilize and use us as a marketing tool in areas that have no other form of NASCAR racing.
What is it about Bill McAnally Racing that has kept it as the premiere organization in this series?
BM: It’s the people. We’ve got a great bunch of people and we’ve been very fortunate through the years to keep a great group of people and they care, and they do what it takes to be the best. They’re willing to work hard and put in what it takes to be competitive week in and week out, and that’s what it takes. It takes great people and we’re fortunate to have them.
There’s also the great sponsors that give us what we need to go promote them and be able to race, to live the dream. If we didn’t have the great people and we didn’t have the sponsorship support, it wouldn’t be happening.
Todd Gilliland wins his third K&N Pro Series West race of 2017 at Irwindale Speedway. Photo Courtesy: Bill McAnally Racing
With the success you’ve had this season and last with Todd Gilliland, is there any other driver that you’ve worked with that you can compare him to, or is he in a league all his own?
BM: We’ve been fortunate to have a lot of great drivers, and Todd is just, for his age, I’ve never had a driver with the experience, the knowledge, the know of what he wants out of a race car. Not just to qualify, but what he needs in the race car 100 laps into the race to have the car good. Todd’s just got an amazing knowledge of that at his young age.
At his age, I had Cameron Hayley for awhile at the age of 15, but Todd is one of the youngest drivers that I’ve ever had, and his knowledge compares to drivers who have been driving race cars at this level for many years. He’s very special, unique, and he’s got a very bright future in front of him.
Speaking of, how would you describe the chemistry between the three of your drivers (Gilliland, Chris Eggleston, Derek Kraus)?
BM: We’re one corporation, one company, and we all work together. The drivers, the crew chiefs, every team member, we work together to be the very best that we can be. That goes for the drivers too. Anything they can do help each other, they’re more than willing to work together.
You’ve brought in a lot of young, great talent, some of which have gone on to accomplish a lot in the sport. How do you feel about BMR’s position as a stepping stone for some of those up-and-coming drivers?
BM: Personally, I feel we’re one of the best in the business, and it’s because of the people we have. Not only do we help you develop on the racetrack and learn the skills that veteran drivers, (three-time K&N Pro Series champion) Eric Holmes works for me as a spotter and a driver coach. We surround our drivers with people who can help them develop as quick as possible not just on the racetrack but with their marketing, speaking in front of sponsors, and even doing autograph sessions. We have show car and driver appearances, interviewed on radio and television, we work really hard to put our drivers in position so they can also develop their public relations skills and working with the media while working on their driving skills.
We just try to give them a well-rounded development program as a whole, and I don’t think there is a better place to develop a driver in the NASCAR ranks, in the K&N Pro Series level, than at BMR.
Thank you to BIll McAnally and Kevin Green of Bill McAnally Racing.
