{"id":15581,"date":"2018-03-23T19:54:40","date_gmt":"2018-03-24T00:54:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=15581"},"modified":"2018-03-23T19:56:56","modified_gmt":"2018-03-24T00:56:56","slug":"young-kyle-busch-motorsports-drivers-ready-to-race-each-other-hard-despite-friendships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2018\/03\/23\/young-kyle-busch-motorsports-drivers-ready-to-race-each-other-hard-despite-friendships\/","title":{"rendered":"Young Kyle Busch Motorsports drivers ready to race each other hard, despite friendships"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service<\/em><\/p>\n

MARTINSVILLE, Va. \u2013 Three of NASCAR\u2019s<\/strong> brightest young talents sat shoulder to shoulder, sharing smiles and good spirits Friday morning at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway<\/strong> \u2013 all talented teenagers today and certain stars of tomorrow.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Noah Gragson, driver of the #18 Safelite Toyota, practices for the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Alpha Energy Solutions 250 at Martinsville Speedway on March 23, 2018 in Martinsville, Virginia. (Photo by Jared C. Tilton\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

Noah Gragson, 19, the November NASCAR Camping World Truck Series<\/a> winner at this track, joined 17-year-olds Harrison Burton and Todd Gilliland to preview Saturday\u2019s Alpha Energy Solutions 250 (2 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at the historic .526-mile oval.<\/p>\n

The three Kyle Busch Motorsports drivers are good friends away from the track and intense competitors on track \u2013 a can\u2019t-miss dynamic for the sport.<\/p>\n

And expectations are high.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all joke around, mess around off the track, but when it\u2019s time to be serious and it\u2019s time to get to crunch time and put our racing hats on, I think we all are like a light switch, we flip very easily,\u2019\u2019 said Gragson, who drives the No. 18 Safelite Toyota Tundra for KMB.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn the race track I think we all want to be in a KBM (Kyle Busch Motorsports) top-three finish, 1-2-3. If we all are 1-2-3, then we\u2019re going to be battling hard. I think together, collectively, we all want the best for the organization of Kyle Busch Motorsports and we all know we have fast Toyota Tundras, so now it\u2019s just working together until we get to the front and then it\u2019s game on.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"

Cody Coughlin, driver of the #2 JEGS.com Chevrolet, and Harrison Burton, driver of the #51 DEX Imaging Toyota, practice for the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Alpha Energy Solutions 250 at Martinsville Speedway on March 23, 2018 in Martinsville, Virginia. (Photo by Jared C. Tilton\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

And it\u2019s been a good game. Real good.<\/p>\n

Gragson scored his first career national series win in Martinsville\u2019s Camping World Truck Series race last November, beating former series champs Matt Crafton and Johnny Sauter to the checkered flag. And he finished fourth in the track\u2019s spring race last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a lot of confidence in myself, but I\u2019m trying not to \u2013 I don\u2019t know how to put it, but trying not to rely on that,\u2019\u2019 Gragson said. \u201cI\u2019m trying to treat this weekend as if I\u2019ve never been here before and that I\u2019m going in here and I\u2019m trying to learn all weekend and really focus on executing and knowing what I can do because I feel like if I come into this weekend and I say \u201cOh, well I won here before. I know how to do it,\u201d that really doesn\u2019t do me any good for a young driver.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe Jimmie Johnson or guys who have won here a lot of times, maybe they can do that, but I don\u2019t feel like I can do that. Young driver just trying to learn as much as I can. I\u2019m not putting any pressure on myself. I\u2019m just trying to execute all weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a similar goal for both Burton \u2013 the son of former Monster Energy NASCAR Cup driver Jeff Burton \u2013 and Gilliland \u2013 the son of former Daytona 500 polesitter David Gilliland.  Just 17 years old, they aren\u2019t allowed to compete on the series\u2019 biggest tracks yet, so this weekend\u2019s opportunity at the famously tight Martinsville half-miler is a long-anticipated return to action for all three.<\/p>\n

Like his friends, Gilliland has seized upon every NASCAR opportunity. He has three top-seven finishes in six truck races, including a third-place showing at New Hampshire last summer and a fifth-place effort in the fall Martinsville race. He turns 18 years old in May \u2013 the threshold age NASCAR has set for full-time competition \u2013 on all types of tracks \u2013 in its national series.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been hard (not racing),\u2019\u2019 said Gilliland, who will steer the No. 4 Mobil 1 Toyota this weekend.  \u201cJust spending a lot of time at the shop and a lot of time at the simulator just trying to make up for lost time, kind of like I\u2019m not missing anything at all.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what we\u2019re hoping for. I wish I could keep racing, but soon enough we\u2019ll be racing every week.\u201d<\/p>\n

Burton doesn\u2019t turn 18 until October, so he will still be getting a significant amount of his experience this season in the ARCA Series until his birthday. But what time he has had behind the wheel in the Truck Series has certainly been productive \u2013 his learning curve obvious and impressive.<\/p>\n

His last Camping World Truck Series race was here at Martinsville in November and Burton scored a career-best fourth-place finish. So he has specific and legitimate reason to be optimistic.<\/p>\n

\u201cI kind of get the last four races of the year at KBM, so I\u2019m still kind of on a part-time schedule, jumping around and in the races that I can be,\u2019\u2019 said Burton, who will drive the No. 51 DEX Imaging Tundra. \u201cThere\u2019s other guys in the mile-and-a-halves (races). It\u2019s a balance. In between, I want to move up, but I got to learn too. I got time and I\u2019m taking that time and learning as much as I can.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll make my first 1.5-mile starts in ARCA cars and stuff like that this year and I\u2019ll also be running \u2013 I\u2019ll run Texas and Homestead at the end of the year. Those will be fun in the Truck Series and hopefully we can go out and run good. It\u2019s a different ball game. Like I said, short tracks, mile-and-a-halves, all that\u2019s so different. It\u2019s a big learning curve, but I\u2019m ready for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

And this weekend\u2019s \u201clessons\u201d will come in a setting of good friends, who will also be the fiercest of competitors. Only one driver will hoist the trophy, but all three of these young talents are positioning themselves as winners.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that\u2019s been something that\u2019s very special, just growing up with everyone you know,\u2019\u2019 Gilliland said. \u201cUs three have raced against each other for a long time. We\u2019re all very competitive and we\u2019ve raced \u2013 me and Harrison have raced hard.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re just out here doing our best and I think it helps having teammates that you get along with. You can communicate information a little bit better, a little bit easier. I think everything is just going to flow together this season and I think we\u2019re going to have some fast trucks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Media Center Interviews: <\/h3>\n

Kyle Benjamin, Timothy Peters and Ben Rhodes \u2013 <\/p>\nhttp:\/\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/MS_NCWTS_Benjamin_Peters_Rhodes_032318.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

 <\/p>\n

Harrison Burton, Todd Gilliland and Noah Gragson \u2013<\/p>\nhttp:\/\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/MS_NCWTS_Burton_Gilliland_Gragson_032318.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service MARTINSVILLE, Va. \u2013 Three of NASCAR\u2019s brightest young talents sat shoulder to shoulder, sharing smiles and good spirits Friday morning at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway \u2013 all talented teenagers today and certain stars of tomorrow. Noah Gragson, 19, the November NASCAR Camping World Truck Series winner at this track, joined 17-year-olds […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15571,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11],"tags":[407,16,160,268],"class_list":["post-15581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-martinsville-speedway","tag-nascar","tag-nascar-camping-world-truck-series","tag-ncwts"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/MS_NCWTS_Gragson_0302318.jpg?fit=3655%2C2433&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-43j","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15581"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15581\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15586,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15581\/revisions\/15586"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}