On the heels of his fourth consecutive top-13 finish to open the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) season, Tyler Young heads to Dover (Del.) International Speedway hoping to stretch his early season momentum in Friday’s Dover 200.
Last weekend at Kansas Speedway, Young took advantage of a late race caution to pit for four tires and used that strategy to propel him from 17th to 11th in a two lap shootout in the Toyota Tundra 250.
This weekend the Midland, Texas native returns to the “Monster Mile” not only hoping for another strong performance in his No. 02 Young’s Building Systems / Randco Chevrolet Silverado, but rekindle the success he had one year ago.
Last May, Young wrestled the handling of his truck in practice and during the early stages of the race. Despite qualifying 25th, the Young’s Motorsports team was able to use strategy and perseverance to earn the team’s first career top-10 finish with a 10th place run in the Lucas Oil 200.
With momentum on his side, Young looks to take the knowledge his Young’s Motorsports has gained this season and hope for an even better performance in the fifth race of the season.
“I’m looking forward to going back to Dover this weekend,” said Young. “We’ve had an unbelievable start. We made some changes during the off-season and while we weren’t 100 percent sure how the team would adapt to those changes, but I’d say we’ve done very well.
“It’s been a total team effort though. We’ve had to work hard for the finishes this year. They haven’t been handed to us by any means, but we’ve made best of the races and haven’t had any failures and just found luck on our side to keep us in the hunt when we needed it most. Hopefully, good things will continue to happen for us this weekend.”
Young, 25, knows that Dover isn’t a predictable track. It’s high-banked concrete fast surface sometimes interrupted by its host, Miles The Monster – who reminds you of the tracks potential cruel intentions. Thankfully, Young, now a seasoned veteran on the tour has been able to escape the track’s wrath and hopes that trend will continue for 200 laps Friday afternoon.
“If Miles is hungry, he can eat,” Young jokingly admitted. “This place is often a favorite among the teams because of the track characteristics but also because of its famed mascot. No one wants to have trouble at Dover, but it seems if you tend to get too comfortable with the track, it’s unforgiving nature will strike. The reward is not only gratifying with a win, but a sweet trophy.”
With finishes of sixth at Daytona, 13th at Atlanta (Ga.) Motor Speedway, 13th at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway and 11th last Friday night at Kansas Speedway – Young is determined to keep his truck out of trouble and better his current 10.8 average finish through four races.
“As a team, we talked about it last week that getting through Dover with a good finish is important to us overall – not only from a points outlook – but from a morale standpoint,” he added. “At Dover, we finished 17th in 2014, 10th last year. This year, considering how we’ve been running, we’d like to think we can run sixth to 10th. That would be a good day for us. No, a great day for us.”
With two practice sessions set for the teams on Thursday afternoon, Young admitted that it will be important to get their No. 02 Young’s Building Systems / Rando Chevrolet dialed up – because the threat of inclement weather has been forecasted for qualifying on Friday.
“If weather should work its way into the picture this week, we need to be prepared,” Young added. “We’re keeping that in mind. The lineup could be set by practice speeds and with it being difficult to pass at Dover, we’ll put an extra emphasis on practice, just in case we don’t get qualifying in on Friday afternoon.”
Dover marks the second of three consecutive races for the NCWTS tour with stops at Dover (Del.) International Speedway this weekend and Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway next weekend before a brief two-week break with competition resuming at Young’s hometown track of Texas Motor Speedway on Jun. 10.
Before heading to Dover this week, Young’s Motorsports announced on Tuesday that the Mooresville, North Carolina-based team will field an additional entry in the upcoming NCWTS race at Iowa Speedway next month. Fellow Texan driver Derek Scott Jr. will serve as a teammate to Young in the eighth race of the season on June 18.
For more on Tyler Young, please visit YoungsMotorsports.com or click on his Facebook page. Young is also active on Twitter. You can follow and tweet with him @TylerYoung02.
The Dover 200 (200 laps / 200 miles) is the fifth of 23 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series on the 2016 schedule. Practice begins on Thursday, May 12 from 2:00 p.m. – 2:55 p.m. A second practice has been etched in from 4:00 p.m. – 4:55 p.m. Qualifying is set for race day, Friday, May 13 beginning at 2:15 p.m. The 32-truck field will take the green flag shortly after 5:30 p.m. with live coverage on FOX Sports 1, the Motor Racing Network (Radio) and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Satellite Radio, Channel 90).
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