NCWTS: Noah Gragson Sails to Kansas Victory

Noah Gragson swept the evening at Kansas Speedway to score his second career NASCAR Camping World Truck Series victory in the 37 Kind Days 250. Gragson started on the pole and led 129 of the 167 circuits and won both stages of the race.

Gragson’s first Camping World Truck Series victory came last season at Martinsville Speedway. In that race the 18-year old driver started fifth and led only 10 circuits enroute to victory. The win tonight at Kansas was by 1.558 seconds over team owner Kyle Busch.

Kyle Busch came into the evening looking to tie Ron Hornaday Jr. for the most wins in the Camping World Truck Series at 51. Busch, a Las Vegas native, came one spot short of doing so behind teammate Noah Gragson at the end of the race.

The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series veteran will leave Kansas with two top five and two top 10 finishes along with a win at Las Vegas in March. Tonight marked his third race of the season on the Camping World Truck Series tour.

Rounding out the top three was Stewart Friesen. Friesen, piloting the No. 52 Halmar Intl. “We Build America” Chevrolet for a small team, scored his fourth career top five finish in the Camping World Truck Series since making his debut at Eldora Speedway in 2016.

The driver from Canada also led the field for six laps in the 37 Kind Days 250 at Kansas and will leave the 1.5-mile Midwest oval holding an average finish of 21.5.

John Hunter Nemechek and Johnny Sauter rounded out the top five.

Brandon Jones made a Camping World Truck Series appearance on Friday night in the No. 51 Toyota for Kyle Busch Motorsports. Jones made his first start in the series since August of last year at Bristol Motor Speedway. Jones, after starting the night in 13th, took home a ninth-place finish.

There were two yellow flags all throughout the 250-mile event besides the two stage breaks. Debris displayed the third caution flag on lap 98 in turn two. Shortly after going green an incident involving the No. 54 of Bo LeMastus displayed the yellow in turn four. Despite the spin and bringing out the yellow, LeMastus went on to finish 19th and six laps down.

Ben Rhodes showed promise in the middle of the event after finding his way towards the front. However, after coming to pit road for an issue and having crew members go under the hood, Rhodes fell off the lead lap and lost all chances of winning. He also suffered a couple of pit road penalties that backed the No. 41 even further.

Rhodes will leave Kansas with an 18th-place finish.

The series will move onto Charlotte Motor Speedway for the North Carolina Education Lottery 200 on May 18. The event will air live on FOX Sports 1 and MRN radio.

Brett Winningham
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