NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Overview:
Event: Rackley Roofing 200, Race 13 of 23, 150 Laps – 45/50/55; 199.5 Miles
Location: Nashville Superspeedway (1.33-mile, D-shaped oval)
Date/Broadcast: June 23, 2023, at 8 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR 90
Get to Know Jack:
Jack Wood will make his sixth NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series start of 2023 for Kyle Busch Motorsports (KBM) behind the wheel of the No. 51 Rowdy Manufacturing Chevrolet in Friday’s Rackley Roofing 200 at Nashville Superspeedway. Wood has finished inside the top 10 in two of his five Truck Series starts this season, including recording a career-best ninth-place finish at Texas Motor Speedway in April.
Wood has an average finish of 23.0 across his two prior Truck Series starts at Nashville, with a best result of 11th coming in the 2021 event at the 1.33-mile oval. In 2021, Wood earned a career-best second starting position with a lap of 30.121 seconds at 158.959 mph at Nashville. He equaled his best career starting position earlier this year at Texas.
Saturday’s race will be the third and final race of the 2023 Triple Truck Challenge in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. For the races at Charlotte, World Wide Technology Raceway and Nashville Superspeedway only points earning drivers in the Truck Series were eligible to participate in those events, with each race having extra money on the line. Wood can earn a $50,000 bonus with a win on Friday night at Nashville as part of the program. If Charlotte winner Ben Rhodes or World Wide Technology winner Grant Enfinger wins Friday, they will earn a $150,000 bonus for winning two of the three events.
In addition to his part-time schedule for KBM in the Truck Series this season, Wood is running a limited schedule in the ARCA Series with Rev Racing. The California native has one top five and four top-10 finishes with an average result of 11.4 across five ARCA Menards Series starts with Rev Racing this season. Most recently for Rev Racing, he finished fourth in the ARCA Menards Series West event at Sonoma Raceway. Wood has also been running a limited schedule in the TA2 Series, where he captured the pole and brought home the victory at Sonoma in late April.
Veteran crew chief Brian Pattie is calling the shots for the No. 51 team this year in his first season at KBM after spending the last 14 seasons atop the pit box in the NASCAR Cup Series. It took the veteran signal caller just two races to get his first win at KBM, winning with owner-driver Kyle Busch at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. In the Cup Series, his drivers produced six wins, nine poles, 57 top-five and 131 top-10 finishes across 528 starts. In 2012, he guided Clint Bowyer to three victories and a runner-up finish in the Cup Series championship standings. In 2017, he guided Ricky Stenhouse Jr. to two wins and a berth in the playoffs. The Florida native has also recorded 11 wins in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, and now has two wins as a crew chief in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. Saturday will be Pattie’s first time atop the pit box for a Truck Series race at Nashville Superspeedway. In the Cup Series he earned an average finish of 11.0 in two starts with Stenhouse Jr., with a best result of sixth coming in 2021. He also finished fourth with Joe Nemechek in the Nashville NASCAR Xfinity Series race in 1999, his lone start at the track in that series.
The No. 51 team currently ranks fourth in the Craftsman Truck Series owner’s point standings. With four races remaining in the regular season, they trail the No. 11 team by 42 points. Over the first 12 races, they have recorded one win, one pole, 163 laps led, five top-five and eight top-10 finishes resulting in an average finish of 10.2. Wood will be back behind the wheel of the No. 51 in the series’ next stop at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course July 8 and then Kyle Busch returns to the Zariz Transport Silverado at Pocono Raceway July 22. The team announced last week that Matt Mills will be in the No. 51 J.F. Electric Silverado at Richmond Raceway July 29 and The Milwaukee Mile Aug. 27.
Rowdy Manufacturing will serve as the primary sponsor on Wood’s No. 51 Silverado Friday night. Rowdy Manufacturing offers precision machining of components from concept to completion across all industrial sectors including automotive, aerospace and NASCAR teams. Rowdy Manufacturing builds the chassis that KBM races as well as several other teams in the Truck Series including race-winning organizations Spire Motorsports and Henderson Motorsports. The same attention to detail that has made Rowdy Manufacturing owner Kyle Busch a two-time Cup Series champion goes into every component that comes out of his organization’s Mooresville, N.C. facility.
Jack Wood, Driver Q&A:
Nashville is a unique track. How do you approach racing there?
“From the first time I went there it was kind of a place that clicked with my driving style. In the Truck Series there is so much
on-throttle time at most the intermediate tracks that we go to, but Nashville is definitely a little different in how you drive it. It’s a place that fits what I do well and ever since the first time I raced there I feel like it’s a place that I understand. I’ve been trying to study up on the things that I’ve done right in the past as well as the things I’ve done wrong and I’m trying to go into this race more prepared than ever — hopefully it will pay off.”
With Nashville being a concrete track, how does that affect the racing?
“It affects things quite a bit with the way that the rubber goes down and how temperature sensitive it is. I think it makes it fun because the place widens out a lot more over the course of the race compared to other places that we go to and it’s a lot smoother too. I think it creates side-by-side racing, which is better, and it just creates more opportunities to work yourself up through pack. A lot of the other tracks that the Truck Series goes to, track position is important and not that track position isn’t important at Nashville, I just think if you have a fast truck it’s probably going to show a little better than say a track like Texas.”
Jack Wood Career Highlights:
- Has produced three top-10 finishes across 40 career starts in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. Posted a series-best ninth-place finish at Texas Motor Speedway in April.
- Has compiled 14 laps led, two top-five and eight top-10 finishes across 14 career ARCA Menards Series events.
- Has totaled three top-five and eight top-10 finishes across 12 career starts in the ARCA Menards West Series.
- Compiled one top-five and three top-10 finishes across 24 starts in the SRL Spears Southwest Tour from 2017 to 2021.
Jack Wood’s No. 51 Rowdy Manufacturing Chevrolet Silverado RST:
KBM-74: The No. 51 Rowdy Manufacturing team will unload KBM-74 for Friday’s race at Nashville Superspeedway. KBM owner-driver Kyle Busch led a race-high 84 laps en route to victory with this Silverado earlier this year at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Most recently Busch finished seventh with KBM-74 at Kansas Speedway. The truck has led at least one lap in all three starts it has made.
Click Here for KBM-74 Profile
KBM Notes of Interest:
- KBM drivers have collected two wins, two poles, 319 laps led, two top-five and four top-10 finishes resulting in an average finish of 12.0 across eight starts at Nashville.
- Owner-driver Kyle Busch picked up the organization’s first-ever victory at the 1.33-mile oval in 2010 and won again in 2011, both from the pole.
- KBM holds the Craftsman Truck Series records for most career wins (99) and most wins in a single season (14 in 2014). With his victory at Atlanta (Ga.) Motor Speedway last year, Corey Heim became the 18th 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 41 victories, the No. 51 is the winningest number in KBM’s Truck Series fleet.
