Dylan Lupton: Driver, No. 51 Safelite AutoGlass® Toyota
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Overview:
Event: In It To Win It 200, Race 17 of 22 (Race 2 in the Round of 10)
147 Laps – 45/45/57; 200.1 Miles
Location: Darlington (S.C.) Raceway at (1.33-mile egg-shaped oval)
Date/Broadcast: Sept. 5, 2021, at 1:30 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR 90
The Details on Dylan:
- Dylan Lupton will get behind the wheel of the No. 51 Tundra Sunday for the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series event at Darlington Raceway. The 27-year-old driver’s Toyota will carry primary sponsorship from Safelite AutoGlass, the nation’s largest provider of vehicle glass repair, replacement, and recalibration services.
- Darlington will be the second race in the Round of 10 in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series owner’s playoffs. The No. 51 team qualified for the owner’s portion of the playoffs by finishing the regular season ranked fifth in the point standings. After one race in the Round of 10, they sit eighth on the owner’s playoff grid with 2017 points, one spot above the cutoff line for advancing to the Round of 8.
- Lupton has recorded one top-five and four top-10 finishes across 11 career NASCAR Camping World Truck Series starts. He posted a career-best fifth-place finish in the Truck Series race at Kentucky Speedway in Sparta in 2019. Additionally, he has made four NASCAR Cup Series starts and 35 starts in the NASCAR Xfinity Series. An alumnus of the NASCAR Next initiative, Lupton has one prior start at Darlington in the Xfinity Series during the 2017 season.
- The Wilton, California native finished second in the ARCA Menards Series West event at Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway earlier this year. Across 33 career West Series starts since 2011, he has registered two wins, 14 top-five, 27 top-10 finishes and finished runner-up in the series’ championship standings in 2014.
- Mardy Lindley has guided the No. 51 team to three victories across 16 races is in his first season as a crew chief at KBM. Owner-driver Kyle Busch was victorious at Atlanta (Ga.) Motor Speedway and Kansas Speedway in Kansas City while Martin Truex Jr. won the inaugural Truck Series event at the Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway Dirt Track. Truex Jr. became the 16th different driver to win a Truck Series event for KBM and the 12th to collect their first-ever victory in NASCAR’s third division. Before arriving at KBM, Lindley guided his drivers to 32 wins and four ARCA Menards Series East championships since 2013, including back-to-back titles with Sam Mayer the last two seasons. Additionally, he earned the ARCA Menards Series Sioux Chief Showdown championship with Mayer in 2020. Behind the wheel, the second-generation driver won 11 races on the Pro Cup Series from 2000 to 2006 and was crowned the series champion in 2001.
- Lindley called the shots at his home state track for the first time in May. In Corey Heim’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series debut he finished eighth in the opening stage and second in Stage Two before getting caught up in a 17-truck pileup on a restart with 30 laps remaining and being relegated to a 23rd-place finish.
- Drew Dollar will get behind the wheel of the No. 51 Sunbelt Rentals Tundra at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway Sept. 16 for the final race in the Round of 10
Dylan Lupton, Driver Q&A:
How have you prepared for your first Truck Series race of the season?
“I’m excited to get going. I was able to jump in the TRD simulator a little bit this morning to get some laps. It has been a while since I’ve been at Darlington, so that is definitely going to help. I’ve been running my Super Late Model hear and there and I ran the Sonoma ARCA race but other than that, I’ve just been back in California working. I’ve prepared as much as I can, but it is going to be exciting getting back in a race vehicle.”
What do you feel like will be the difference between running the Xfinity Series and the Truck Series at Darlington?
“Quite a bit. It seems like these trucks you have a little bit more an air cushion when you get up next to the fence, so that will be a little bit different in (Turns) 3 and 4. Obviously you are able to carry a little bit more throttle time in these trucks when you are running by yourself. I think the biggest thing is that the track is pretty wide, but the racing groove is pretty narrow at Darlington. You know you have two lanes for the most part. Turn 2 is a place where I think that you can get yourself in quite a bit of trouble if you put yourself in a bad spot underneath somebody coming off that corner so that is something that I have to keep in mind. Other than that, it’s going to be feeling out the truck and the track that first stage and going from there.”
Have you set any goals for this race?
“I just want to go out there and put together a clean race and I think if we put together a clean race, we’ll be pretty fast. The bigger tracks are kind of my strong suit, I’ve gotten top fives, top 10s, in the Truck Series. This is the best equipment that I’ve been able to get in for sure, so I’d love to go out there and run in the top five. To do so, I just have to put together three clean stages and if we have an opportunity to run in the front and be aggressive, we will.”
Dylan Lupton Career Highlights:
- Has recorded one top-five and four top-10 finishes across 11 career NASCAR Camping World Truck Series starts. Posted a career-best fifth-place finish in the Truck Series race at Kentucky Speedway in Sparta in 2019.
- Made four NASCAR Cup Series starts in 2016 with a best result of 25th coming at Richmond (Va.) Raceway Sept. 1, 2016.
- Made 35 NASCAR Xfinity starts from 2015 to 2018 with a best result of ninth coming at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio.
- In two ARCA Menards Series starts has an average finish of 14.0 with a best result of fourth coming at Kansas Speedway in 2020.
- Across 33 career ARCA Menards West Series starts since 2011, he has registered two wins, 14 top-five, 27 top-10 finishes and finished runner-up in the series’ championship standings in 2014.
- Finished fourth at Watkins Glen International in his lone ARCA Menards Series East start (2015).
- Dylan Lupton’s No. 51 Safelite AutoGlass Tundra:
- KBM-69: The No. 51 team will unload KBM-69 for Sunday’s race at Darlington. This is the same Tundra that Corey Heim piloted in his Camping World Truck Series debut at Darlington in May and was running second late in the race before getting caught up in a 17-truck pileup. KBM owner-driver Kyle Busch’s second-place finish with KBM-69 at Las Vegas (Nev.) Motor Speedway in March was the chassis’ best result across three starts.
KBM Notes of Interest:
- KBM drivers have collected one win, 162 laps led, two top-five and four top-10 finishes resulting in an average finish of 14.3 across eight starts at Darlington. Kasey Kahne led a race-high 95 laps en route to victory in the 2011 event.
- KBM holds the Camping World Truck Series records for most career wins (88) and most wins in a single season (14 in 2014). With his victory at the Bristol Motor Speedway Dirt Track, Truex Jr. became the 16th different driver to win a Truck Series event for KBM. In addition to collecting a series-record seven Owner’s Championships, the organization has produced two championship-winning drivers: Erik Jones (2015) and Christopher Bell (2017).
- With 37 victories, the No. 51 is the winningest number in KBM’s Truck Series fleet.
