When it comes to racing, Tayler Malsam has always been ahead of the curve.
Four races into the 2009 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series season, the 20-year-old Mill Creek resident is No. 15 and the top rookie in the series standings.
“He’s ahead of schedule for as little experience as he has,” said Doug Wolcott, Malsam’s crew chief on the Randy Moss Motorsports No. 81 truck. “He has a boatload of talent.”
In the competition to earn series rookie of the year honors, for which NASCAR uses a different point structure, Malsam and James Buescher are tied for second, just four points behind leader J.R. Fitzpatrick.
Racing on tracks that he has had little (Daytona, Martinsville) to no (California, Atlanta) experience on, Malsam has finished all four truck series races this season — no DNFs is a goal — recording one top-10 and two top-15s.
“I think we’re above par or where we should be,” Malsam said. “The Randy Moss Motorsports team has done an awesome job … I’m happy with where we’re at now but I know there’s room for tons of improvement.”
While many of today’s NASCAR drivers began racing quarter-midgets as early as 5, Malsam didn’t get behind the wheel of a go-kart until he was in high school. From there he quickly moved up to sprint cars, and last year as a rookie he finished ninth overall in the national ARCA Re/MAX stock-car series.
A handful of NASCAR truck starts in 2008 led to a contract to drive in the series for Bill Davis Racing this year, but when BDR was sold and the new owners decided to put racing operations on hold, Malsam moved over to RMM.
“I look for good things to come out of him,” team co-owner and NFL star Randy Moss said of Malsam. “But this is not a one-race thing, it’s the whole season.”
Ahead of expectations or not, in a poll of national racing media, Malsam was not picked to win the series rookie of the year. Instead, Malsam was predicted to finish fifth of the eight drivers competing for the honor.
Malsam said that snub by the media was “big time” motivation, adding that he wants to “prove to them that we aren’t just some people out of Washington with money to go racing. We’re here to take the title and keep moving up.”
Both crew chief and driver expect a good result in Saturday’s race at Kansas Speedway, a track Malsam has some experience with. Last year in an ARCA race,
Malsam was running sixth before getting hit by another driver and finishing 14th.
“Kansas will be a big (race) because I’ve been there,” Malsam said. “We were fast there, so it’s one of the tracks I think we should be good at. Doug’s never had a bad race there, so I think it will be a good mixture between both of us.”
Formerly a truck series crew chief at Bill Davis Racing, Wolcott has extensive experience working with rookie drivers, including guiding Scott Speed to a victory at Dover in May 2008. The New Jersey native was tapped by RMM to help Malsam transition to NASCAR.
“I can ask him a question about anything, and he knows the answer,” Malsam said of Wolcott. “He’s helped me in the shop (understanding set-ups), and on the track he helps me with how the truck handles and making adjustments. He’s been a huge help in that area.”
Malsam has also benefited from having 1995 truck series champion Mike Skinner as a teammate. In addition to helping him on the track, Skinner has given Malsam advice on how to deal with the media and sponsors.
Having raced in the ARCA series on many of the tracks coming up on truck series, including Talladega, Michigan, Nashville and Chicagoland, Malsam has high hopes for a strong finish to his rookie season.
“I want to finish top-10 in Kansas,” he said. “Then work on top-10s and top-fives, be the highest rookie every race, keep working on getting up in the points and being consistent.”
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