HAMPTON, Ga. – Even though the pairing of Ryan Truex at Kaulig Racing came later than usual in the movement of musical chairs, the combination of the two seems to be paying off early in the NASCAR XFINITY Series season.
The season started off strong at Daytona by scoring stage points and earning a seventh-place finish.
Saturday at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Truex improved from his 15th starting position to finish ninth, earning back-to-back top-10 finishes for the third time in his XFINITY career.
“We had a really good car,” said Truex. “It was typical Atlanta. “We just had to keep the tires under it. Chris Rice (crew chief) and this whole Bar Harbor Sea Watch team gave me a great car and he made all the right calls and it was good to have Matt (Kaulig, team owner) up on the box.”
Saturday’s effort for Kaulig Racing was the first time the Chevrolet organization finished inside the top-10 for two consecutive races since their formation in 2016.
“Two top-10s, that’s hard to do, really hard to do,” added Kaulig. “And that’s outstanding. (Ryan) did a killer job today and it was awesome. Ryan’s for real. It was a great job by everyone at Kaulig Racing.”
With a strong start to the season, the team is assembling their arsenal for the West Coast Swing for three consecutive races on the West Coast at Las Vegas, Phoenix and California.
Sitting fourth in the championship standings entering the third race of the season, Rice says it has been great to work with Truex and his ability and sees the chance for the team to improve even more as the series prepares for the grind of their schedule.
“It has been great working with Ryan,” offered Rice. “He really knows race cars and he studies a lot to prepare for the race ahead. He will only get better with time understanding what he needs in practice to be able the race car better. Two top-10s to start the year is huge for Kaulig Racing and gives us momentum going into the West Coast Swing.”
To cap off a solid weekend at Atlanta, Hattori Racing Enterprises, the Truck Series team that Truex piloted last season won their first career race with driver Brett Moffitt. During his post-race press conference, team owner Shigeaki Hattori mentioned his former driver.
“Thank you (also) to Ryan and the Truex family for everything they’ve done for us,” Hattori said.
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
