Noah Gragson has had Iowa Speedway in his sights on the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series schedule since the beginning of the year.
The Kyle Busch Motorsports driver considers the .875-mile track a favorite in his young career and hopes to make a trip to Victory Lane in Saturday night’s M&M’s 200.
First Practice Speeds | Final Practice Speeds
Gragson made his Truck Series debut at Iowa last year, winning the pole and leading 16 laps on his way to a sixth-place finish. But he’s also made three K&N Pro Series West starts at Iowa and compiled an average finish of 3.6, which included a second-place performance in 2015.
There’s no doubt why Gragson is looking forward to Saturday’s return.
“Racing at Iowa Speedway in the K&N car helped me get the pole there last year in the Truck Series,” Gragson explained. “It’s a track where you have a lot of options as a driver. You can run the bottom, you can run the top, it has progressive banking, so it makes it a lot of fun with two- and three-wide racing.”
While many drivers compare Iowa to Richmond Raceway because of its similar length and layout, Gragson has a different track in mind when asked to make a comparison.
“Kansas Speedway – especially this year because it has been aging – is like a big Iowa,” Gragson said. “You can run different lanes. I ran the bottom at Kansas and then we moved up to the wall. A lot of the same characteristics and shape of the racetrack can come into play with both places. We ran well at Kansas and now, we’re going short-track racing, which I enjoy.”
Gragson enters the weekend second in the series standings behind Johnny Sauter after a 10th-place run last week at Texas Motor Speedway. Overall in eight starts this season, he has posted one win, two poles, three top-five and five top-10 finishes. The 19-year-old driver has led at least one lap in seven of the eight races this season and ranks second to Sauter with 276 laps led on the year.
He’s looking to add to those numbers Saturday night.
“Getting out there at Iowa Speedway, it’s a lot of fun and I’ve definitely had it circled on my calendar for a long time – since the season started,” he said.
