Eighteen-year old rookie Noah Gragson set a new career best finishing fifth place in Friday night’s ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards season finale at Kansas Speedway.
“What a great learning experience tonight,” said Gragson. “I had a lot of fun out there. Venturini Motorsports did a phenomenal job prepping my SPEEDVEGAS-Alert ID Toyota. I feel we were probably better than a fifth-place car, I just need to get better myself, but I had a ton of fun out there and that’s the most important part. Ultimately, I wanted to learn a lot coming to Kansas and that’s what we accomplished. Finishing top-5 on the lead lap and to gain valuable experience means a lot.”
A member of the NASCAR Next program, Gragson impressed in his team debut behind the wheel of his Venturini Motorsports’ No.15 SPEEDVEGAS-Alert ID Toyota, running up front throughout most of the 100-lap Kansas event. ARCA’s Kansas finale was Gragson’s third career start in the series.
“This has been a dream come true…to get the opportunity to race here,” said Gragson. “I have a lot to learn that’s for sure. I’m new to this mile-and-a-half stuff. Still getting the feel of dirty air and the changing attitude of the cars. I felt like I adopted pretty good, but I need to learn more on the aero deal. We fell back, worked on the race car on pit stops, and I stayed focused. I had a lot of fun out there.”
Gragson, a native of Las Vegas, recently signed with Kyle Bush Motorsports (KBM) for full-time driving efforts in next season’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. Gragson has spent the last two seasons primarily racing in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East and West Tours. Running two full consecutive seasons on the West tour, Gragson earned Sunoco Rookie of the Year honors in 2015. In 41 career NASCAR K&N Pro Series starts across both regional series, Gragson has tallied 6 wins, 18 top-five and 31 top-10 finishes.
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