Mid-Ohio marks Hailie Deegan’s first start at the historic 2.258-mile road course — her 38th career NASCAR Camping World Truck Series appearance.
The series’ last race at Nashville Superspeedway marked one of Deegan’s most consistent performances in 2022, running within the top-10 before being turned on the event’s final restart.
Deegan is no stranger to road courses, netting a pole at Sonoma in the K&N West Series and teaming with fellow Ford Performance drivers Austin Cindric, Harrison Burton, and Chase Briscoe in the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge at the Daytona Road Course this past summer.
Veteran Crew Chief Mike Hillman Jr. has sat atop the box in two Mid-Ohio contests, with a career-best finish of seventh in an Xfinity Series outing with Bryan Scott in 2015.
Tanner Gray enters Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course for the 63rd NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race of his career on Saturday afternoon. It will be his first career appearance at the road course in Lexington, Ohio.
At Nashville Superspeedway two weeks ago, Gray suffered a flat right front tire on lap 60 that sent the No. 15 hard into the wall and hampered his speed for the duration of the race.
The lower rear quarter panel on the Ford Performance F-150 will be adorned with the logo of Newark, Ohio-based Advanced Business Communications, Inc. (ABC). Larry Pettet, President of ABC, was featured on the name rail of Gray’s truck last fall at Martinsville Speedway as part of the Martin Truex Jr. Foundation & The NASCAR Foundation Honor A Cancer Hero program. Gray and Pettet have maintained a close relationship and will join forces this weekend on the 2.258-mile road course.
Jerry Baxter has called 39 road course races in his career with two wins, eight top-fives and eight top-10s in the Truck Series. Surprisingly, this will be the first time Baxter has called a race at Mid-Ohio.
Taylor Gray will pull double duty at Mid-Ohio this weekend competing in both the ARCA Menards Series on Friday and the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series on Saturday afternoon.
It will be the fourth NCWTS race of the year for the younger Gray as he searches for his first top-10 of the season.
Gray has two previous road course starts in the NCWTS and five in ARCA competition with one win, three top-fives and four top-10s. His one victory came at Portland International Raceway last season with the ARCA Menards Series West.
Chad Johnston will be visiting Mid-Ohio for the first time as a crew chief this weekend. He and Gray will be jumping in head first with an extremely busy schedule between the two series.
