BROOKLYN, Mich. – Just two NASCAR Camping World Truck Series races remain before the post-season Playoffs begin for Noah Gragson and his Kyle Busch Motorsports team and with the championship title up for grabs, the No. 18 team looks to emerge as a frontrunner beginning with Saturday afternoon’s Corrigan Oil 200.
Gragson is returning to the seat of his No. 18 Safelite Auto Glass Toyota after being sidelined in the most recent race at Pocono Raceway last month after falling ill on pit road before qualifying.
With his second career win at Kansas Speedway in May and a granted waiver from NASCAR following his Pocono setback, Gragson is ready to put the distraction of Pocono behind him and put his Kyle Busch Motorsports team back in Victory Lane in his second attempt in the Irish Hills.
“I feel like this weekend is a great opportunity to win,” Gragson said Friday at Michigan International Speedway. “I know I’ve been working hard this past week to get back in my Safelite Auto Glass Toyota Tundra and I’ve done a lot of preparation going in.
“I feel like there’s not a ton of pressure going into this weekend, it’s more of a weekend with superspeedway racing or how superspeedway racing used to be – we’re not really going to do this kind of racing when we get to the Playoff races so this is not a fun weekend, but one that we can use as a chance to clean some stuff up before we get into the Playoffs and just have some fun and try to get the trophy.”
Gragson is right. With drafting the key to success in negotiating Michigan’s two-mile oval and with the 100-lap race offering characteristics similar to that of Daytona and Talladega, the Las Vegas, Nev. native reached out to his team owner Kyle Busch for advice.
Gragson made it clear – Michigan’s an opportunity for his team to get ahead and not behind.
“(I) talked to Kyle (Busch) quite a bit,” added Gragson. “He runs here good in a truck and I just have to be more aggressive. I have a good shot, a good opportunity this weekend to compete for the win and it’s all going to boil down to being in the right position at the end of the race.”
Busch said Michigan is one of the toughest races of the year – but with Gragson being a quick study, he has the confidence that his pupil will be able to succeed and improve on his seventh-place finish last August.
I think that Noah (Gragson) does his homework, which a lot of drivers do, and a lot of drivers don’t,” offered Busch. “Noah is one of those that’s working hard and certainly asking some questions and doing a good job this week.
“Michigan is a tough race and it’s such a chess match. You try to tell a guy how to move a piece and you can tell him the exact same way how to move that piece as you did before, but the match is different, so it doesn’t mean the same outcome. It’s obvious he has to be able to play his game and strategize his was of doing what he has to do to his pieces – Michigan is tough that way.”
From Michigan, Gragson takes on Bristol before the opening round of the Playoffs at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park later this month.
When it comes to ensuring his survival through the Playoff rounds, Gragson says his team must execute at all the tracks, but particularly CTMP and Talladega.
“I feel like some drivers might be nervous going into their (Canada) because it’s the only road course we get to race during the year,” he added. “I feel comfortable on the road course, I finished second there last year, so I like that track. I’m pretty confident going to that track, but Talladega, that’s the one I feel like probably is the biggest crapshoot just because anything can happen.”
With five top-five and 10 top-10 finishes in his 13 races run this year, Gragson insists that his Ryan “Rudy” Fugle team is the best Truck Series team in the garage and while they have on-track performance to back it up – the stakes will only get higher as the Championship 4 race nears at Homestead-Miami (Fla.) Speedway in November.
“I feel like we can always get better as a team first of all, but I have the most confidence in my team and I feel like we’re the best team in the garage and have the best Toyota Tundra’s when we get to the race track and just having that confidence is an important thing to me,” sounded Gragson.
“I feel like yes if we went to Homestead we would definitely be a contender. I have a great group surrounding me at Kyle Busch Motorsports and just really fortunate to be racing here in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and just trying to do the best I can do when I get out onto the race track and learn the most I can.
“This weekend it will be a fun weekend and then we go to Bristol. Once we get into the Playoffs, that’s where it really starts, and we have to start capitalizing on opportunities to get to Homestead and then it’s kind of gloves off when we get there.”
But in order to fulfill his goal of taking his team to the championship race, Gragson admitted he plans to be aggressive as the finale approaches. Not being a part of the championship chase last year allowed the 19-year-old driver to fly under the radar and not put himself into awkward positions, but this time around, all bets are likely off.
“I feel like this weekend is going to help me quite a bit, but I’ve kind of noticed a trend where we’ll be really fast in practice, really fast for the first and second stage of the race and then if we get shuffled back sixth or seventh on a pit stop or whatever happens in traffic, I need to do a better job of getting my way through traffic and making bolder moves,” Gragson noted.
“I spoke with my crew chief Rudy Fugle this week and I was like, ‘Let’s prepare for Michigan,’ and I was expecting to go in there and we would talk solely about Michigan, but he told me to do what I did at other race tracks where I was making passes and I was making bold moves and we kind of looked at my restarts and what I did well with and what I did better so just trying to be more aggressive and have good judgement all at the same time without wrecking people, but it’s a fine line when you’re out there.
“I lay in bed every night thinking about the upcoming race or a race I did in the past and what I could have done better. I’m just always thinking about that and it’s easier said than done and then you think about it that I could just weave my way up through there, but once you get in the moment, it’s harder. Just trying to get that experience and trying to learn what I can and ultimately it’s going to come down to Homestead and hopefully, I can have all that experience pay off.”
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
