Derek Kraus is headed to Florida this week to race in the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Friday.
He will be competing in his fifth truck series event of the season, the sixth of his career, wheeling the Bill McAnally Racing No. 19 Skooza Toyota Tundra.
It marks the debut of Skooza, which offers a line of electric fat tire scooters, as a sponsor with BMR.
“We’re pleased to have Skooza come on board with us,” said BMR President Bill McAnally. “We welcome them to the BMR family and look forward to displaying Skooza on Derek’s Toyota Tundra at the season finale for the truck series.”
Glenn Kafka, owner of Skooza USA, talked about the opportunity to team up with BMR.
“We’re super excited to get behind Derek Kraus and the entire team at Bill McAnally Racing for the Homestead race”, he said. “Performance, commitment and perseverance is at the heart of Skooza’s DNA and that is something we share with everyone at BMR and NASCAR. It’s a great partnership.”
The Homestead race is sandwiched between the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West season finale that was at ISM Raceway near Phoenix on Nov. 9 and the NASCAR Regional Awards ceremony in Charlotte, North Carolina on Nov. 23. Kraus captured the K&N West title at ISM Raceway, winning by the largest margin since the series adopted its current point system in 2012. He and his BMR team will receive all the accolades that go with the championship during the ceremony in the Crown Ballroom in the Charlotte Convention Center.
Before taking center stage at the awards banquet, however, Kraus has some unfinished business to take care of in the truck series.
The 18-year-old from Stratford, Wisconsin made his truck series debut with a strong eighth-place finish a year ago at ISM Raceway.
In his first three truck series starts this season, he finished eighth at Dover International Speedway in Delaware; 18th at Virginia’s Martinsville Speedway; and 27th at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, after being sidelined with mechanical trouble. He is coming off a disappointing night in the truck race at ISM Raceway on Nov. 8, in which contact from another truck sent his Toyota Tundra into the wall and ended his race early.
“It’s always disappointing when you don’t finish a race,” Kraus said. “The results at Phoenix didn’t reflect what we were expecting and what we thought we were capable of getting. We’re looking forward to a strong performance at Homestead and ending the season with a great finish.”
Through most of the season, Kraus has competed in the truck series on off weekends for the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West, where he was in his third full season of series competition. In clinching the series title, he wrapped up his year with five wins, 11 top-five and 13 top-10 finishes in 14 series starts. In addition, he also scored two wins earlier in the year in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East and led the standings in both divisions in the first half of the season.
Kraus is a member of the NASCAR Next program that spotlights NASCAR’s emerging stars.
Friday’s NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series race at Homestead-Miami Speedway is to be televised live on FOX Sports 1 and will also be carried live on MRN radio.
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