With a narrow lead in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West season standings, Noah Gragson likely needs a good showing at Monroe’s Evergreen Speedway to hold his place at the top.
That said, his strategy heading into Saturday night’s NAPA Auto Parts 150, the ninth of 13 K&N Series races on this year’s schedule, is to forget about being the season frontrunner.
“We haven’t really been focusing on points too much this season,” explained the 17-year-old Gragson, speaking by telephone from his Las Vegas home. “We’re focusing more on just learning … The ultimate goal is to finish every lap and to make every lap count, and then at the end (of the season) the points will just speak for themselves.”
Of course, if the strategy works out as planned in the five remaining races, “then hopefully a couple of more wins will come,” he said.
With one victory and seven top-10 finishes in eight starts this season — a late flat tire in a May 30 race at Shasta (Calif.) Speedway kept him from an eighth top-10 finish — Gragson will be one of several young up-and-coming drivers at Evergreen Speedway this weekend.
“There’s probably 15 people that could show up on any weekend and win,” said Gragson, a series rookie who has a 315-313 lead over Chris Eggleston of Erie, Colo., in the season point standings. “There’s a lot of good cars and good drivers out there, and it’s been fun racing against these guys and going to new tracks.”
This is the 30th year for a NASCAR touring series to race at Evergreen Speedway and the 15th year for the K&N Series (previously there was the Winston West Series and the Winston Grand National Series). The annual K&N Series visit to Monroe is “our second largest event of the year after the Summer Showdown (for super late models),” said speedway president Doug Hobbs.
Like Gragson, many K&N Series drivers are hoping to climb the NASCAR ladder and someday reach the Sprint Cup Series. It is, Hobbs explained, “a natural transition to move from the K&N Series up to the (Camping World) Truck Series, then to the Xfinity Series (known last year as the Nationwide Series) and then up to the (Sprint) Cup level.
NASCAR calls the K&N Series “the stars of tomorrow,” Hobbs went on. “Pretty much everybody who is trying to get to the next rung of NASCAR and is from west of the Mississippi is in this series. This is a stepping stone in their careers.”
Though most of the drivers in this year’s field come from around the western United States, a handful are from the Pacific Northwest. One likely contender is 17-year-old Nicole Behar from Otis Orchards outside of Spokane. Behar is 10th in season points (268) and has six top-10 finishes in eight starts, including a second place at Irwindale (Calif.) Speedway on April 11 that was the highest K&N Series race finish in history for a female driver.
The field will be chasing a purse of $140,000, with the winner collecting $6,000.
One thing is certain, there will be no repeat champion this year. The 2014 winner, Greg Pursley, retired after last season, a year in which he was also the series champ.
Saturday’s ticket sales begin at 3 p.m., with a driver autograph session at 5 p.m. and opening ceremonies at 6 p.m. The race is scheduled to start at 6:10 p.m.
Following the K&N Series race will be the Toyota 100 for super late models.
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