NEWTON, Iowa – Excited to return to the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) scene, JJL Motorsports heads to Iowa Speedway this weekend confident about contending for a win in Saturday night’s M&M’s 200 presented by Casey’s General Store.
Jesse Little will make his fourth start of the season and eyes his third top-10 of the year at Iowa. In the team’s previous race at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway, Little’s truck jumped out of gear with two laps to go dropping him from inside the top-10 to 16th when the checkered flag waved.
“I can’t say enough about Matt (Noyce, crew chief) and this JJL Motorsports team,” said Little. “We had a good truck at Charlotte.
Qualifying was rained out, so we started 24th – but we went to the front and just had a mishap there at the end when the truck jumped out of gear.
Throughout his racing career, Iowa Speedway has been good to the NASCAR Next alumnus. He has nine career NASCAR K&N Pro Series East (NKNPSE) starts at the 0.875-mile oval, which includes a pole and a race win in 2015.
Overall, Little has produced three top-five and six top-10 runs since 2012.
He also scored his first career top-10 run in a truck last June, finishing ninth.
“Iowa is just a cool place,” added Little. “It’s a track where you need to have speed and finesse. Drivers in racing will say that they have tracks that fit their driving style and I think it’s fair to say that Iowa is one of those places for me.
“Iowa is the start of two back-to-back races for our JJL Motorsports team as we’ll be competing at Gateway next weekend too. We’d like to use the same truck in both races, so we’ll be cautiously aggressive on Saturday night. We know that we have the right ingredients to contend for the win, we just need to connect the dots and see what happens.”
In addition to Ford Performance and PFC, JJL Motorsports has added Rustic Rub as an associate marketing partner for the ninth race of the season. Already announced to join the team as the primary partner at Gateway, CEO Jim Grindstaff decided he wanted to be a part of the doubleheader.
Founded in 2016 by U.S. Air Force veteran and restaurant entrepreneur Grindstaff, Rustic Rub Co. started as a BBQ rub company initially releasing All Purpose and Three Kings rubs, however, the company’s success has evolved into a brand and lifestyle since releasing their own version of a Bloody Mary mix.
“I can’t thank Jim and everyone at Rustic Rub Co. for their support these next two weeks,” added Little. “It really means a lot to us as a team. He’s successfully built his company from the ground up, just like we’ve done and together we’re hoping to produce some big results over the next two weekends.”
To spotlight their incredible success this season, FOX Sports 1 recently visited the team’s shop where analyst Jeff Hammond who served as crew chief for Little’s father, Chad Little during his Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series campaign from 1998-2000 talked to Jesse Little, Chad Little and Noyce about their growth and outlook. The behind-the-scenes feature will run prior to the Gateway (Ill.) Motorsports Park race on June 23.
“The feature was pretty cool,” added Jesse Little. “I appreciate everyone working so hard to make it happen and for Jeff and my dad bringing back a lot of cool memories. I think everyone will be intrigued with our story and I can’t wait to see the final product.”
The M&M’s 200 presented by Casey’s General Store (200 laps | 175 miles) is the ninth of 23 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series races on the 2018 schedule. Practice begins on Sat., June 16 from 8:35 a.m. – 9:25 a.m. A final practice session is set for 10:05 a.m. – 10:55 p.m. Qualifying is set for later in the day beginning at 3:30 p.m. The 32-truck field will take the green flag shortly after 6:00 p.m. with live coverage on FOX Sports 1, the Motor Racing Network (Radio) and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Satellite Radio, Channel 90). All times are local (Central).
For more on the Rustic Rub Co. and their products, please visit rusticrubs.com.
For additional information on JJL Motorsports, please visit JJLRacing.com.
JJL Motorsports tweets too. Follow them @JJL_Motorsports.
