Justin Boston will make his NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) debut on Wednesday night at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway and begin a likely transition from the ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards to prepare for a full NCWTS assault in 2015.
Boston, the Baltimore, Maryland native has teamed with his ARCA Racing Series powerhouse team Venturini Motorsports to field his entry tonight in the No. 25 ZLOOP / Geekbox Speakers Toyota Tundra in the UNOH 200 presented by ZLOOP.
Boston, 24, is in the midst of his second full-time season in ARCA carrying the flagship banner for Venturini Motorsports. After an uncharacteristically slow start to the season, Boston is carrying seven consecutive top-10 finishes in competition, including a seventh place finish in last Sunday’s ChevySuperStores.com 100 at the Illinois State Fairgrounds. He also recorded his first career win earlier this season at Toledo Speedway.
To ensure Boston is comfortable in “Thunder Valley” Wednesday night, the Concord, North Carolina-based team has brought some of the sports’ seasoned veterans to help the rookie in the first of four planned NASCAR Camping World Truck Series races this season.
Rick Ren, the former general manager at Kyle Busch Motorsports and largely responsible for the quick growth and success of that organization is on-hand as a team consultant, while Johnny Benson Jr., the 2008 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series champion is serving as a driver coach for the former X-1R Pro Cup Series driver. Billy Venturini, the team’s general manager is serving as crew chief in the 200-lap event.
Boston paced the 25th fastest time during the lone practice session for the tour on Wednesday. He completed 61 laps around the 0.533-mile oval.
“Our No. 25 ZLOOP / Geekbox Speakers Toyota Tundra is okay,” said Boston. “We need to get the thing freed up a little more for qualifying and the race. I think we will have a lot more speed once we get it feed up. It’s a lot different. It’s really boxy, it feels a lot slower in the steering wheel. It’s defintley an adjustment for me and I spent the first couple runs of practice just getting my head wrapped around the truck and what I had to do inside the cockpit to go fast. We’ll use this (tonight) as a learning night and see where we shake out and try to have to fun with it.”
Not only is Boston putting pressure on himself to succeed in his first showing, but his primary sponsor ZLOOP, an e-waste recycling business is also the presenting sponsor of the 13th race of the season in a partnership with the University of Northwestern Ohio (UNOH).
Wednesday night however won’t be his first tango with BMS. In March 2013, he made his NASCAR K&N Pro Series East debut there in a car fielded by Venturini Motorsports.
In addition to Bristol, Boston will attempt the remaining three NASCAR Camping World Truck Series races at Texas Motor Speedway, Phoenix (Ariz.) International Raceway and Homestead-Miami (Fla.) Speedway after the conclusion of his sophomore season in ARCA competition.
With 37 entries entered for the 36-truck field, Boston must qualify on-time.
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
