In a new column at Speedway Media, I will be giving shoutouts of the week to feature memorable drivers, teams and events.
Here’s the first shoutout of the week and a bonus one as well.
In this week’s shoutout of the week, we’ll highlight Josh Reaume who is the owner of his own team in the Truck Series, Reaume Brothers Racing, that fields the No. 33. Reaume might be the one that got lost in the shuffle when the race was all said and done at Daytona.
While there were only nine trucks that finished the race, Reaume played his cards right and earned a career-best finish of sixth and the first ever top-10 finish of his career. During the span of Reaume career, he’s made 28 starts throughout five years.
Last year, Reaume only made 12 starts with a best finish of 18th at Gateway last summer. He missed the field last year at
Reaume came close last Friday night but was happy with his finish. Daytona is where careers are made or broken and his sixth-place finish may help get more publicity for him and his team.
The bonus shoutout of the week is DraftKings who have added the Truck Series to their fantasy lineup.
The Truck Series, in most cases, has been the most exciting series in the past few years. And, while some of the finishes are remembered, most of them are forgotten unless you attended the event yourself or an especially memorable moment happened during the race.
Using DraftKings could help bring in more fans to the Truck Series and more people to the races. The series is already off to a good start, where Kids 12 and under get in free to the Xfinity and Truck Series races. Perhaps, DraftKings will add more excitement from a series perspective.
Last year, the Truck Series literally had exciting races all year round, but the races only get talked about in that day’s event and maybe a couple of days after for press material. Take, for example, Natalie Decker whose truck caught on fire on Lap 1 when she came down pit road after running over something. The Twitter machine exploded with memes and all sorts of other happenings.
Or let’s go back two years ago at Gateway, where John Wes Townley and Spencer Gallagher got into a fight. On that weekend and for a couple of weeks, it was the most talked about topic in the world of NASCAR, as well as appearing on national sports shows. The fight is brought up every now and then, but that’s it.
The Truck Series isn’t your typical water cooler talk at work on Mondays, unless you were there for one of the races and someone asks you about it, or something major happens as I listed above, but the Truck Series does have a decent fan base and a great following.
However, DraftKings is a good place to start to bring more attention to the series, possibly bring in more fans and gain more popularity. It will take a couple of years, but perhaps one day, the Truck Series might be watercooler talk on Mondays.
