Derek Kraus Shuffled Back After Strong Charge At Martinsville at NASCAR Gander Outdoor Truck Series Race

A late-race shuffle left Derek Kraus with an18th-place finish on Saturday in his first visit to MartinsvilleSpeedway and only his second NASCARGander Outdoor Truck Series race.

Kraus had charged up to 12th in Bill McAnally Racing’s#19 ENEOS / NAPA Toyota Tundra, but a restart with only three laps to go created some rough-and-tumble action that pushed him high on the track.

The17 year-old NASCAR Next driver from Stratford, WI had qualified 11th earlier in the day.In the race, he got a lap behind and then battled to get back on the lead lap with about 50 laps remaining. He started picking off the competition from there, working his way toward the top 10 before the caution came out with less than 10 laps to go.

“We fell behind early and had to work throughout the day to get back on the lead lap,” Kraus said. “Once we did, we were able to pass a lot of trucks with our ENEOS Tundra. We got back up, but got caught in someone else’s mess.”

Kraus acknowledged how tough it can be to race around the paperclip-shaped, half-mile Virginia track.“It’s definitely a challenging place to race,” he said.“It can get frustrating at times, but overall it was a pretty good day for our BMR team.”

Saturday’s race marked BMR’s first truck race withENEOS branding. ENEOS joined the team at the beginning of the year as a primary sponsor on the team’s Tundra–along withNAPA AUTO PARTS,NAPA Filters, and Toyota/TRD.

This is the first of four races in theNASCAR Gander Outdoor Truck Series that Kraus is entering with BMR this year.The next truck series race on his schedule will be at Dover International Speedway in Delaware on May 3.

The four truck races are on off-weekends from theNASCAR K&N Pro Series West, where Kraus is in his third full season competing for BMR–driving the#16 NAPA AUTO PARTSToyota Camry. In addition, he is running select events this year in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East–where he won the season opener at Florida’s New Smyrna Speedway as part of NASCAR’s Speed weeks.

The race, which was won by Kyle Busch, was televised live on FOX and was also carried live on MRN radio.