Road America NASCAR Betting Preview: 2022 Kwik Trip 250

Last season it was Hendrick Motorsports winning five of the seven road courses races on the NASCAR Cup schedule with Kyle Larson winning his first three road races and Chase Elliott winning his only two races of the season and it's why both are the favorites to win this week at Caesars sportsbooks.  Elliott is 9-to-2 to win Sunday’s Kwik Trip 250 at Road America and Larson is 5-to-1.

But neither of those road racers have won in the first two road races of 2022. It’s been Trackhouse Racing with Ross Chastain grabbing his first Cup win at COTA and also Daniel Suarez dominating at Sonoma for his first Cup win. That’s two first-time winners from the same team on tracks dominated by one organization the previous four years. 

What changed?

KWIK TRIP 250 PICKS & PREDICTIONS

The answer all rests with the new NextGen car which debuted this season. All those winning set-up notes that Chase Elliott and crew chief Alan Gustafson put together that aided him in winning seven of 14 road races from 2018-2021 are no good anymore with the new car. Imagine winning half the road races entered as Elliott did for four seasons. His next road course win will tie Tony Stewart for second-most in NASCAR history and his ninth win will tie all-time NASCAR leader Jeff Gordon with nine.

Kyle Larson winning his first three road courses last season was because of having fast cars but also a set-up secret revealed to his team by Elliott’s team. Larson was decent on road courses in the past and could run a fast single lap, but his road skills were no where close to Elliott’s until joining Hendrick. 

The NextGen car has flipped the table on just one elite team dominating. Trackhouse Racing found an edge on the road courses before the season and applied that edge to both cars. I don’t know what it is and they’re not sharing their secret, but two wins in two tries are almost as big of an edge as Hendrick had on the roads last season.

The NextGen has done its job of not making any team dominant. Parity was desired and that’s what we have aided by a tire that has a great chance of blowing up after 25 laps. In 17 races this season we’ve had 12 different winners with five drivers having two wins each. Elliott’s two wins this season have come on concrete tracks and Larson’s last win came in the second race of the season at Fontana. Elliott has gone winless in the last five road races.

It’s been a wild ride of parity which has made betting the races and winning tougher than ever but also offered several drivers the true possibility of winning weekly in the 25-to-1 or higher range. I like it when I win, but hate it when I lose directing my anger mostly at NASCAR’s new regime and agenda moving forward.

Road America is located in Elkhart, Wisconsin. (Getty)

KWIK TRIP 250 BETTING RESOURCES

• Date: Sunday, July 3, 2022
• Venue: Road America
• Location: Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin
• Distance: 250 miles
• Laps: 62
• Network-Time: USA - 3:00 p.m. ET
• Defending Champion: Chase Elliott

Let’s move on with Sunday’s race at Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin which is a massive 14-turn, 4.048-mile layout with unique corners while turning both left and right. It’s a fast track with lots of long straightaways and a bunch of braking also required around the turns. It’s a new track for the series. Chase Elliott won last season, his last road course win, following the 1956 race won by NASCAR Hall of Famer Tim Flock. 

Yes, that’s quite a gap between races, but now we're starting a new Fourth of July tradition and it sure looks like the crowd is having a blast in multiple areas of this track. We can still call this race the Firecracker, right?

After two road races, there is a lot of data for the teams to review to prep themselves for this week, things they did wrong, errors they made, wrong assumptions based on the old cars, and just being slower than others. The team I’ll pay attention to the most this week is Joe Gibbs Racing because they didn’t learn anything at COTA in March with all their drivers struggling at Sonoma last month. Saturday’s practice and qualifying should give a glimpse of their road racing progress.

But my first thought about Sunday’s race was why would I fool around with guesswork on road racing progress when I already know Ross Chastain and Daniel Suarez has things figured out already. No guesswork is needed. 

READ MORE HERE....TOP-5 FINISH PREDICTION ON VEGASINSIDER.COM

Chase Elliott is 9/2 favorite to win at Road America

 

9 CHASE ELLIOTT   Age: 26 (Nov. 28, 1995)   Hometown: Dawsonville, Georgia   Resides: Dawsonville, Georgia   Crew Chief: Alan Gustafson   Standings: 1st              No. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS Chevrolet Camaro ZL1   MUSIC CITY MAGIC: Last Sunday on the 1.33-mile concrete oval of Nashville Superspeedway, Chase Elliott scored his 15th career NASCAR Cup Series victory. Elliott led the final 39 laps of the race to earn his second win of the 2022 season. His first came in May at Dover Motor Speedway, another concrete track. This marks the fifth consecutive season that the 26-year-old driver has visited victory lane more than once.  TOP DOG: Following last week’s win at Nashville, Elliott not only continues to lead the regular season point standings, but now sits atop the projected playoff standings. He currently has two wins on the year, 13 playoff points and 513 laps led. He’s one of five drivers to score multiple wins this season, and his laps led and playoff points are both top marks for Elliott through 17 events.  ROAD AMERICA REWIND: The Wisconsin venue was the site of Elliott’s second of two wins during the 2021 season, both coming on road courses. Elliott took to the 4.048-mile road course in 34th but moved through the field quickly, ending the first stage in the 10th position. He finished stage two 15th after pitting under the green flag. Staying out during the stage break, he reset for the final stage in second and took the lead for the first time on the day a few laps later. Getting shuffled back to fifth after pitting under a caution, he used his fresh tires to retake the lead with 17 to go. He would remain there, taking the checkered flag with over a five-second lead. This remains the deepest starting position in the field for an eventual road course Cup Series race winner. 9 IN 22: Across two road course starts in 2022, Elliott and the No. 9 team have finishes of fourth at Circuit of The Americas and eighth at Sonoma Raceway. Those account for two of Elliott’s series-leading 11 top-10 efforts on the year (tied with Kyle Busch and Ross Chastain). He is one of only four drivers to finish inside the top-10 in both road racing events. IN GOOD COMPANY: Elliott has proven his road-racing prowess, leading all active drivers with seven wins on road courses. He’s also third on all-time list of drivers in that category, trailing only NASCAR Hall of Famers Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart. The Dawsonville, Georgia, native has victories across five different serpentine layouts, which is the most in series history. In 21 Cup Series starts on that track type, Elliott has an average finish of 7.71, which is not only the best among active drivers, but third all-time among drivers (five or more starts), behind NASCAR legends Fireball Roberts and Buck Baker. He’s only 0.01 away from tying Baker. His seven stage wins on road courses are also the top mark in the series. WINNING COMBO: Elliott and crew chief Alan Gustafson are the longest active driver/crew chief pairing at Hendrick Motorsports and it’s for good reason. Together, they’ve earned 15 Cup Series wins, which is the third-best among active driver/crew chief pairings in the series. Those victories also account for nearly half of Gustafson’s wins at the Cup level. The veteran crew chief has accumulated 35 wins total – second-most among active crew chiefs - with four different drivers (Elliott, Gordon, Mark Martin and Kyle Busch). AG’S ROAD COURSE PERFORMANCE: At Road America, Gustafson will call his 43rd road course race from atop the pit box. In those starts, he has led his team to seven wins – a series-high among active crew chiefs – with 15 top-five finishes and 22 top-10s.  BIG 10 FOR NAPA: Sunday’s victory at Nashville was the 10th for NAPA AUTO PARTS as a primary partner for Elliott and the No. 9 team as well as the third straight for the Atlanta-based company. In addition to Nashville, NAPA was also on Elliott’s No. 9 Chevrolet when he earned the checkered flag at Dover earlier this year and at Road America last July. Chase Elliott, driver of the No. 9 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, on heading back to Road America: "I’m excited to get back to Road America. I thought last year’s event was really good. For me, I was always partial to having the Fourth (of July) race at Daytona, but the crowd was really good and the energy was super high, and I think we need to have an energetic race on the Fourth. That’s a big weekend for our country. It’s a race inside our sport that I think is deserving of a lot of energy too, because we are a sport that’s going on this time of year and that needs to be a big event. I felt like the people up there welcomed us with open arms and brought a lot of energy. Anytime you have energy at the track, it makes it fun for everybody involved - whether you’re working inside the sport, you’re a driver, you’re another a fan there, it just makes for a better event, better environment. Last year, I felt was a great example of that. I hope that’s the case again this weekend. I hope the results are the same this weekend and everybody has a big time." Alan Gustafson, crew chief of the No. 9 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, on what makes Road America hard to prepare for: "Road America is different. I love the track. It’s a great visual road course. Braking zones are the first thing that come to mind there, though. You need to be good in those. There’s some really big braking zones that are difficult. The car needs to be able to change direction well and have stability at the same time. You can’t swing the back to change directions. If you do that, then there’s more that the driver has to manage. There’s also the course intricacies that you have to prepare for. There’s a few tight 90 degree corners, the carousel, the kink – a high-speed left. That’s what makes it so difficult. There are so many styles of corners there that make it harder. I think stability in the braking zones and consistency out of the car are the biggest things to hone in on. You key in on one area and want the front tires to be responsive and follow his hands. If we can do that without the back sliding, then that’s ultimately the best thing. We’ll try to do that this weekend at Road America. I’m looking forward to the challenge."

Spotlight shifts to Chase Elliott following Nashville win

Hendrick Motorsport’s driver Chase Elliott became the fifth driver of the 2022 season with two victories following his win last weekend at Nashville Superspeedway. Now, the NASCAR Cup Series points standings leader, Elliott, holds a 30-point edge on Ross Chastain in second in the driver standings, as the spotlight shifts its focus on the series’ Most Popular driver and his quest for his second title.

Elliott’s win in Nashville gave him a much needed cushion between himself and Chastain as they battle it out for the Regular Season Championship and the coveted 15 Playoff points that come with it. Unlike in season’s past when one driver would accumulate a lot of Playoff points heading into the postseason, this year the five drivers with multiple wins are primarily grasping onto the lion’s share of the Playoff points – Elliott (13 Playoff pts.), Chastain (13), William Byron (13), Joey Logano (12) and Denny Hamlin (12) – making winning this season Regular Season title that much more important.

Fortunately for Chase Elliott, the NASCAR Cup Series is returning to a road course this weekend which is the type of track that nearly half (seven) of his 15 career Cup Series wins have come on; including last season’s race at Road America. Elliott has also grabbed road course wins at Watkins Glen (2018, 2019), Charlotte ROVAL (2019, 2020), Daytona Road Course (2020), and Circuit of The Americas (2021). Last season at Road America, Elliott started 34th and raced his way up to the win, leading 24 laps en route to the checkered flag.

This season, Elliott has put up two wins (Dover, Nashville), four top fives and 11 top 10s. He has led 513 laps and has held the points standings lead since assuming the position following Atlanta. If Elliott manages to hold on and win the NASCAR Cup Series Regular Season Championship, he will become the fifth different driver to accomplish the feat; joining Martin Truex Jr. (2017), Kyle Busch (2019, 2018), Kevin Harvick (2020) and his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Kyle Larson (2021).

And if Elliott would go on to win the overall series championship in Phoenix in November, he would become just the 17th different driver all-time with multiple titles. He would also join Herb Thomas (1951, 1953), Tim Flock (1952, 1955), Buck Baker (1956, 1957), Joe Weatherly (1962, 1963), Ned Jarrett (1961, 1965), Terry Labonte (1984, 1996) and Kyle Busch (2015, 2019) as the eighth driver all-time with just two series championships.

 

NASCAR celebrates Fourth of July Weekend at Road America

For the second year-in-a-row the NASCAR Cup Series will be celebrating Independence Day (July 4) Weekend in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin competing on the world famous Road America this Sunday, July 3 at 3 p.m. ET on USA, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Channel 90). This weekend’s Kwik Trip 250 presented by JOCKEY Made In America race marks just the third-time in series history that Road America has hosted a NASCAR Cup Series event (1956, 2021, 2022).

In the early 1950’s, sports car races were being run on the streets in and around Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, but the state legislature banned racing on the public roads soon after. A man named Clif Tufte organized a group of local citizens and leaders of the Chicago Region of the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA). This group developed plans and sold stock to build a permanent racecourse. The overall vision of Road America grew out of the dreams of Tufte, a highway engineer, who chose 525 acres of Wisconsin farmland outside the Village of Elkhart Lake for the track. Ground broke for Road America in April of 1955 and the track’s first SCCA national race weekend was held later that same year (September 10, 1955).

At 4.048-miles in length, with 14 turns, the track is virtually the same today as it was when it was first laid out. The natural topography of the glacial Kettle Moraine area was utilized for the track, sweeping around rolling hills and plunging through ravines making it one of the most challenging tracks in the world.

The first, and up until last season, the only, NASCAR Cup Series race at Road America was on August 12, 1956. An estimated crowd of 10,000 braved terrible weather to watch the event. And in an unusual ruling, NASCAR limited the cars to 10 gallons of fuel at start the race.

The August 12, 1956, race was won by NASCAR Hall of Famer Tim Flock driving a Mercury for car owner Bill Stroppe. Flock led 17 laps of the 63-lap event, making just two pit stops en route to his win; his fourth victory of the 1956 season. Flock won with an average speed of 73.858 mph and did it in 3 hours, 29 minutes, and 50 seconds. He won the race by a 17 second margin of victory over second place. Bill Stroppe’s cars actually finished 1-2 in the race with Flock winning and his teammate Billy Myers finishing second.

Then last season, the NASCAR Cup Series returned to Road America after nearly 65 years, and the race was won by Hendrick Motorsport’s driver Chase Elliott with a margin of victory of 5.705-seconds over second place Christopher Bell.

Road America will be the third of six road courses on the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series schedule – Circuit of The Americas, Sonoma Raceway, Road America, Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course, Watkins Glen International and Charlotte ROVAL. Trackhouse Racing teammates Ross Chastain (Circuit of The Americas) and Daniel Suárez (Sonoma) have already won the first two road course races of the year.

The highspeed on-track activity for the NASCAR Cup Series will begin this weekend with practice from 11:30 a.m. – 12:20 p.m. ET, directly followed by Busch Light Pole Qualifying at 12:20 p.m. ET. Both events will be televised on USA Network from 12-1:30 p.m. ET.

Kyle Busch is 10/1 to win at Road America

 

KYLE BUSCH Hitting the ‘Road’ For Fourth of July Weekend   HUNTERSVILLE, North Carolina (June 28, 2022) – With Independence Day coming up on Monday, many Americans will be celebrating by hitting the road to spend outdoor time with family and friends over the holiday weekend.   Kyle Busch, driver of the No. 18 Skittles America Mix Toyota Camry for Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR), will also be hitting the road, but one of a different sort this Fourth of July weekend, The two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion heads to Wisconsin as the series returns to the 4.048-mile, 14-turn Road America circuit in Elkhart Lake for Sunday’s Kwik Trip 250.   Not long ago, road-course racing in NASCAR’s top series consisted of just two stops of the 36-race schedule with its yearly visits to Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway and Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International. An annual trip to the Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway Roval was added to the schedule in 2018. Now, road-course racing has taken on even more importance in the Cup Series with the recent additions of Road America, Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course joining the traditional stops at Sonoma, Watkins Glen and the Charlotte Roval. With those additions, it’s more important than ever to have a strong driver and team that can turn left and right.   As the Cup Series heads to Wisconsin for just the second time in the modern era, many of the younger Cup Series competitors have raced several times at Road America with NASCAR’s Xfinity Series, which has competed there each year since 2010. While the 2021 Cup Series race at Road America was the first time Busch had raced there, he took to the historic road course very quickly, bringing home the win in last year’s Xfinity Series race before notching a solid third-place finish in Sunday’s Cup Series race.   Busch has long shown a propensity for road-course racing during his Cup Series career, well before road course occupied a larger chunk of the schedule. The Skittles America Mix driver’s four road-course wins tie him with NASCAR Hall of Famers David Pearson and Mark Martin on the all-time Cup Series road-course wins list. That’s some pretty elite company, already. A fifth road-course win would tie Busch with Darrell Waltrip, Tim Richmond and Dan Gurney on the list. There is a bit of distance from there to the top three spots on the all-time road-course wins list, however, as Chase Elliott, Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart, who have seven, eight and nine career road-course wins, respectively.     To help mark America’s Independence Day celebration this weekend, Busch’s No. 18 Toyota will feature the Skittles America Mix scheme. Each bag of Skittles America Mix contains a fun, fruit-flavored and patriotic mix of red, white and blue candies. The patriotic-themed Skittles are a must-have for celebrating this weekend – and of course, a great snack while watching a Cup Series race. They’re available at retailers nationwide through the summer.    So as Busch heads to Road America this holiday weekend, he’ll get right to work in hopes of adding to his impressive road-course statistics by taking a special road trip, so to speak, straight to victory lane.

KYLE BUSCH, Driver of the No. 18 Skittles America Mix Toyota Camry for Joe Gibbs Racing:

What are you expecting at Road America as the Cup Series races there for only the second time?   “I’ve never raced there before last year, but we had a really good weekend. We were able to win the Xfinity race with our M&M’S Ice Cream Supra, and then we had a really solid race with our Skittles America Mix Camry. We had to come from the back last year, but we had a really good racecar, just not good enough to keep up with Chase (Elliott). We struggled at Sonoma (earlier this month), so hoping we learned some things not to do from Sonoma and we can have a better run there. Looking forward to getting to Road America this weekend and learning as much as we can and have a good run with our Skittles America Mix Camry and get us a win on Fourth of July weekend. That would be pretty cool.”   Is road-course racing something that comes naturally to you, or is it something you had to work on?   “It’s definitely something you have to work on. With rule changes and tire changes, it’s something you work on every year. There’s always change that you have to work on to be competitive. When I was a kid back in Las Vegas in Legends cars, that’s where I was able to learn about shifting and turning left and turning right. I had the natural instincts for it and won a couple of championships in the winter series we had out there. We actually went out to Sonoma back then and ran the national championship races two years in a row and finished third both times, so I had a little bit of experience on road courses as I came up through the ranks.”   How hard is it to recover at Road America if you miss a corner?   “With those big straightaway, the corners are important, like missing turn three, I think it’s called, and then going down along back there. That’s important. That’s a big deal. Obviously, the last corner, I think it’s 13 or 14, coming up along from straightaway. So those can be detrimental to lap time, for sure, because you’re just losing time by the distance in which it takes to get up to speed, so you really want to be strong on those turns.”   How has your view on road-course racing changed with the addition of more of those races the last couple of years?   “I’ve always enjoyed the road racing. Back years ago, when we had two on the schedule – Sonoma and Watkins Glen – it was kind of fun because it was like an off-week. You would go and enjoy the experience and try to learn and get better at it each time that you would do it, but now that there are five of them on the schedule, it’s definitely more loaded towards needing to be good at it – not wanting to but needing to with the amount of road course races we have. I feel like I’m a decent road racer and would love to have a chance to showcase that on Sunday.”   Why do you say Joe Gibbs Racing struggled at Sonoma after being decent at COTA?   “Yeah, I mean, we struggled at COTA as well, to be honest, with raw speed and being able to be good there. You know, in the early stage of the race, I think we were running eighth, we were fading, I got spun out by Chase Elliott running 12th, you know what I mean? So we weren’t great at COTA, either, but we were able to get through some of the restarts and get positions on guys to get ourselves up front. Christopher (Bell), I think was third or fourth. I was right with him on the last lap there. And so you know, felt like with everything that kind of ensued on the last lap, we would have had a shot to run in the top two or three, for sure. But I would say both road-course events so far this year were not our strong suit. Why we missed it? I don’t know. If I could answer that, we wouldn’t struggle, we wouldn’t have been bad.”

Event Overview:

● Event: Kwik Trip 250 ● Time/Date: 3 p.m. EDT on Sunday, July 3 ● Location: Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin ● Layout: 4.048-mile, 14-turn road course ● Laps/Miles: 62 laps/250.98 miles ● Format: Stage 1: 15 laps / Stage 2: 15 laps / Final Stage: 32 laps ● TV/Radio: NBC / MRN / SiriusXM NASCAR Radio

Chase Briscoe is 30/1 to win at Road America

 

CHASE BRISCOE Road America Advance No. 14 HighPoint.com Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing

Event Overview

● Event: Road America 250 (Round 18 of 36) ● Time/Date: 3 p.m. EDT on Sunday, July 3 ● Location: Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin ● Layout: 4.048-mile, 14-turn road course ● Laps/Miles: 62 laps/250 miles ● Stage Lengths: Stage 1: 15 laps / Stage 2: 15 laps / Final Stage: 32 laps ● TV/Radio: USA / MRN / SiriusXM NASCAR Radio

Notes of Interest

● The NASCAR Cup Series heads to Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, for the third of six road course events on the 2022 season schedule. Sunday’s race marks Chase Briscoe’s second Cup Series start at the 4.048-mile, 14-turn road course.   ● The HighPoint.com driver started 35th and drove his way to a sixth-place finish a year ago this weekend at Road America. It was his second of three top-10 finishes in 2021. In total, Briscoe has nine Cup Series starts on road courses with three top-10s. He finished 13th in his most recent road-course race June 12 at Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway.   ● The 27-year-old racer from Mitchell, Indiana, picked up two Xfinity Series wins on road courses – his first career Xfinity Series victory was in the series’ inaugural race on the Charlotte Roval in 2018. He also fulfilled his childhood dream of kissing the historic Yard of Bricks when he scored his fifth win of the 2020 season on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course.   ● Briscoe finished among the top-10 in all but three of the 10 road-course races in which he competed in the Xfinity Series. And in his lone NASCAR Camping World Truck Series start on a road course – the 2017 race at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park in Bowmanville, Ontario – Briscoe finished seventh in a Ford F-150.   ● Briscoe is 18th in the driver standings following last weekend’s 34th-place finish at Nashville (Tenn.) Superspeedway. He currently holds a spot in the 16-driver playoff field by virtue of his March 13 win at Phoenix Raceway.

Chase Briscoe, Driver of the No. 14 HighPoint.com Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:

You had an off weekend to reset before jumping back in for a 10-week run for the playoffs, but you had a tough outing in Nashville last weekend. What is the focus the next nine weeks? “I’m just kind of stressed out with the situation in the playoffs, truthfully, and we have nine weeks until the playoffs start. We just need to really focus on making the playoffs. Just because we have a win, it doesn’t mean we’re guaranteed at all with how many winners we’ve had right now. So I think we just need to try to take these next nine races and use them as a practice for the playoffs and try to execute. I’ve done a terrible job as far as executing on days we have good car. There have been multiple races we could’ve won that we threw away. You get three races in each round of the playoffs and if you have one bad race, you’re kind of done for the playoffs. I just need to do a better job as a racecar driver of understanding that and trying to capitalize. Come playoff time, you’re not going to be able to shoot yourself in the foot and continue on like nothing happened.”   How do you stay grounded and focused on what’s ahead? “Johnny (Klausmeier, crew chief) and my team, I feel like, do a really good job of that. I feel like, internally, I kind of do try to do the same. I just don’t have a ton of experience in the playoff format. You know that I’ve only done it three years now and that was on the Trucks and Xfinity levels. So at the Cup level, obviously, it’s way more intense, way more cutthroat. So I don’t know, I feel like I’ve not done a great job in the past in the lower series of doing the playoff run. So I just need to do a better job, at the end of the day. And I feel like if we if I do a good job, my team puts a car under me and people who make me capable of running up front and trying to win races. It’s just a matter of putting it all together and limiting mistakes.”   Road America is a track where you have to be very careful. If you get off track, it can really cost you. How much does that affect how you approach the race? “There are so many opportunities to make a mistake. It’s a 14-turn course, so it’s hard to mentally stay in the game there just because there are so many opportunities to make a mistake and each turn is so different. You have some really fast ones, some heavy braking zones, some tight corners, and the tires wear out so much there that you really are changing what you’re doing each lap and each corner. It’s a very challenging track, but that’s why I like going there. It does wear you out. It gets like a slick, worn-out dirt track, as weird as that sounds, but that’s why I like it. I just like the feat of trying to wrestle a 4-mile road course. It’s huge. It takes over two minutes to run the racetrack, so I just enjoy the challenge of racing there and trying to get these cars to do what you want each lap, with every turn. It’s a lot of fun and, when it pays off, it’s incredibly rewarding.”

Martin Truex jr is 12/1 to win at Road America

Martin Truex Jr. / No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota Camry TRD Preview

Kwik Trip 250 at Road America

 

No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota Camry TRD News and Notes

• TRUEX AT ROAD AMERICA: Martin Truex Jr. started ninth and finished ninth in last season’s NASCAR Cup Series debut race at Road America. A strategy call late in stage two brought Truex to pit road and would have cycled him to the lead to begin the final segment. However, he was penalized for speeding on pit road and had to rally from the back of the field during the final stage.
• NASHVILLE RECAP: Truex led a season-high 82 laps and won both stages of last weekend’s race at Nashville Superspeedway. He found himself running fourth prior to a caution in the final 10 laps. The No. 19 team chose to pit for fresh tires while 10 cars opted not to pit. On the restart with four laps to go, Truex lost his momentum avoiding an accident and finished the night in the 22nd position.
• STAGE WINNER MTJ: After winning both stages of last Sunday’s race in Nashville, Truex now leads all drivers with five stage wins this season.
• COMING BACK: Last Friday, Truex announced that he will return to drive Joe Gibbs Racing’s No. 19 Toyota Camry TRD in 2023. Since joining JGR in 2019, Truex has collected 12 victories and two Championship 4 appearances (2019 and 2021).
• BASS PRO SHOPS: A longtime supporter of Truex and NASCAR, Bass Pro Shops will be featured as the primary sponsor of the No. 19 Camry this weekend at Road America. Bass Pro Shops is North America’s premier outdoor and conservation company. Founded in 1972 when avid young angler Johnny Morris began selling tackle out of his father’s liquor store in Springfield, Missouri. Today the company provides customers with unmatched offerings spanning premier destination retail, outdoor equipment manufacturing, world-class resort destinations and more.
• RED, WHITE, AND BLUE: Truex’s No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota Camry TRD will feature a red, white, and blue design for this weekend’s race to honor the United States military and Bass Pro Shops’ relationship with the United Service Organizations (USO).
• JGR AT ROAD AMERICA: Joe Gibbs Racing posted three top-five finishes and a ninth-place result in the inaugural Road America race last season. Christopher Bell led the team in second followed by Kyle Busch in third, Denny Hamlin fifth and Truex in ninth. The organization also has a pair of NASCAR Xfinity Series wins (2019 and 2021) at the 4.048-mile road course.
• TUNE IN: Coverage of this weekend’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Road America begins Sunday, July 3, at 3 p.m. ET on USA, MRN Radio, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

 

Martin Truex Jr., Driver of the No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota Camry TRD

What do you expect going back to Road America?

“It’s a great track. It’s obviously a very long track, so you get a lot of different types of corners and some elevation changes. We’re definitely looking at this weekend as being very important. We weren’t where we need to be at Sonoma and our guys have been working really hard since then to figure out why and hopefully come to Road America this weekend with a better shot at running up front like we know we’re capable of.”

 

Truex NASCAR Cup Series Stats at Road America

Starts	Wins	Top 5	Top 10	Poles	Laps Led	Avg. Start	Avg. Finish
1	0	0	1	0	1	9.0	9.0

 

Truex 2022 NASCAR Cup Series Season Stats

Starts	Wins	Top 5	Top 10	Poles	Laps Led	Avg. Start	Avg. Finish
17	0	2	7	0	254	15.0	14.4

 

Truex NASCAR Cup Series Career Stats

Starts	Wins	Top 5	Top 10	Poles	Laps Led	Avg. Start	Avg. Finish
602	31	131	255	19	10,975	13.8	15.2

 

About Bass Pro Shops®

Bass Pro Shops is North America’s premier outdoor and conservation company. Founded in 1972 when avid young angler Johnny Morris began selling tackle out of his father’s liquor store in Springfield, Missouri, today the company provides customers with unmatched offerings spanning premier destination retail, outdoor equipment manufacturing, world-class resort destinations and more. In 2017 Bass Pro Shops acquired Cabela’s to create a “best-of-the-best” experience with superior products, dynamic locations and outstanding customer service. Bass Pro Shops also operates White River Marine Group, offering an unsurpassed collection of industry-leading boat brands, and Big Cedar Lodge, America’s Premier Wilderness Resort. Under the visionary conservation leadership of Johnny Morris, Bass Pro Shops is a national leader in protecting habitat and introducing families to the outdoors and has been named by Forbes as “one of America’s Best Employers.”