World Challenge Series regular Mike Skeen will be making his Camping World Truck Series debut this weekend in the Chevrolet Silverado 250 at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park. Skeen is off to a good start as he led the first practice with a lap of 82.795 seconds.
“I’m excited to make my NASCAR Camping World Truck Series debut with Sharp-Gallaher Racing,” Skeen said coming into the weekend. “SGR puts strong trucks on the track and I feel that with my road-course experience, we’ll be able to put the No. 6 Hawk Performance Chevrolet in contention for the win.”
The driver of the No. 6 Hawk Performance Chevrolet Silverado has experience at CTMP in the Pirelli World Challenge GT Series as he has claimed the pole position and won the last four consecutive races for the series at CTMP.
“I’m looking forward to racing at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park again,” Skeen added. “We swept the pole positions and wins here in 2011 and 2012 in our Chevrolet Corvette in the World Challenge GT Series. Fortunately NASCAR is allotting us a lot of practice time to get used to the course. I’ll be taking that time to adjust to driving the Hawk Performance Silverado. My SGR teammate Max Gresham and I had a good test session at Kershaw (Carolina Motorsports Park, Kershaw, S.C.) to get ready for this weekend’s race. It will be a team effort this weekend as I lean on him for advice on the truck, and hopefully I can help him in his first road-course race.”
Skeen currently sits sixth in the World Challenge GT Series standings after winning at Lime Rock earlier this year.
Helping Skeen with his Camping World Truck Series debut is veteran crew chief Bryan Berry, who has crew chiefed in over 200 races in the Nationwide Series and Camping World Truck Series since 2000, working with Brendan Gaughan and Jason Keller in the past.
German Quiroga was second quickest at a lap of 82.816 seconds, 0.021 seconds off of Skeen. Quiroga, a truck series regular, has past road course experience throughout his experience in the NASCAR Mexico Series.
“I think the race will be equal for everyone because it’s the first time the Truck Series will be at the track,” the driver of the No. 77 Otterbox Tundra said. “I would say that I might have a small advantage because of my experience in the Mexico Series — I’m certainly not at a disadvantage by any means. Hopefully we will use that and put our No. 77 OtterBox Toyota Tundra in contention for the win.”
Quiroga, along with his teammates Timothy Peters and John Wes Townley, also took a trip to Bondurant driving school in Phoenix, Arizona in June for a two day training session on the techniques of road course racing.
“Working with the coaches at Bondurant made me realize things that as a driver, how or why I was doing them,” Quiroga commented. “It helped me to be a better driver for sure. I’m going to use that so that I can go a little faster this weekend. The test at VIR was good for the team. It gave us an idea of what we want and how we want our Toyota Tundra to be. Hopefully we can utilize that information and be close on our setup when we unload.”
Road course ace Max Papis was third quickest, 0.109 seconds off of Skeen. The driver of the No. 14 Sports Clip Chevrolet Silverado will be driving a third truck for NTS Motorsports this year. It marks Papis’ fifth NASCAR start this year as he has made one NASCAR Sprint Cup Series start – a 15th for Stewart-Haas Racing – and three Nationwide Series starts. In those three starts, two of them were on road courses with finishes of 17th and fourth.
“I am extremely excited to race at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series,” Papis said. “As soon as I heard that NASCAR would be racing at this track, I knew I had to do whatever it took to be a part of it. Partnering with a great company like Sport Clips and getting support from KMC Wheels and Chevrolet is fantastic for me. I was able to win at this track in 1996 and have enjoyed good results there ever since. Canadian fans are extremely enthusiastic and I look forward to competing in front of the many fans and friends I have made in Canada throughout my career. Even though this track is new to NASCAR, the history of the track is tremendous. I look forward to bringing my determination and passion to win this historic race with a great team like NTS Motorsports.”
NTS Motorsports welcomes Jeff Stankiewicz to call the shots. Last year, Stankiewicz worked with as a crew chief for Parker Kligerman and Brad Keselowski at Brad Keselowski Racing.
“I am a fan of road course racing and I am excited to have the opportunity to compete with a great driver like Max Papis,” Stankiewicz said. “I have been fortunate enough to race at Watkins Glen, Mexico and Montreal, so I am thrilled to compete at another road course like Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. NTS Motorsports is a great team that has equipment capable of winning races. The Sport Clips Chevrolet will be in contention to not only run in the top-three, but will definitely be a favorite to win.”
Miguel Paludo, who has previous road course experience, was fourth quickest in his No. 32 Duroline Brakes and Components Chevrolet Silverado with Darrell Wallace Jr. rounding out the top five in his No. 54 Camping World/Good Sam Toyota Tundra.
Ryan Blaney was sixth quickest, followed by Chase Elliott, Brendan Gaughan, Ross Chastain and Chad Hackenbracht. Points leader Matt Crafton was 11th quickest.
The Camping World Truck Series has another practice this afternoon, followed by a pair of practices tomorrow before qualifying.
It almost feels funky that a No Name (Even by NASCAR Standards) takes opening practice. Also, does NASCAR taking the Trucks North mean a lot to Atlanta Motor Speedway’s Present Future?