Piquet, Paludo To Display Road Racing Skills At Road America
At first glance, it appears Nelson Piquet Jr. and Miguel Paludo have a lot in common. For example, both are Brazilian natives embarking on their second full season of competition in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series for Turner Motorsports.But their racing backgrounds could not be more different.
Piquet – whose father has 23 Formula One victories – was born into a racing family and spent much of his career in the open wheel ranks before making the jump to stock cars in 2010.
Paludo’s first introduction to racing came in the form of go-karts at the age of 14. He later embarked on a successful sports car career before making the journey to North America to compete in NASCAR in 2010.
The duo will compete in the NASCAR Nationwide Series Sargento 200 at Road America on Saturday for Turner Motorsports. It will be Paludo’s first NASCAR Nationwide Series start and Piquet’s third.
"I’m also really looking forward to racing on a road course," said Paludo. "It’s the first time since 2010 that I’m not racing an oval."
Piquet finished seventh in his NASCAR Nationwide debut at Watkins Glen International in 2010. "I’ve grown a lot as a driver in the two years since then," he said. "My expectation is that we can bring home a victory."
The NCWTS hasn’t competed on a road course since the 2000 season. Greg Biffle won the last of 17 road races on June 24, 2000, at Watkins Glen. Ron Hornaday Jr. and Joe Ruttman won three road races apiece to lead the category. Current NASCAR national series competitors with NCWTS road race wins include Mike Bliss, Stacy Compton, Ron Fellows and Mike Skinner.
Time, Races At A Premium For Late Starters
Late summer is when NCWTS title contenders begin counting points in earnest. Seven races are in the books, which means almost a third of the 22-race schedule has been run. Matt Crafton is one who wishes he had more races to make up for an uncharacteristically slow start – two finishes outside the top 20 – and a current championship ranking of seventh, 49 points behind leader Justin Lofton. That amounts to a whole race – difficult to make up regardless of the remaining schedule.Crafton finished second to ThorSport Racing teammate Johnny Sauter earlier this month in Texas and believes the team, which switched from Chevrolet to Toyota this year, has turned the corner.
"At the beginning of the year – I am not going to lie – it got us down a little bit because we had to change all the trucks over and we have had a lot of criticism over it," said Crafton, whose best championship finish of second came in 2009. "We are back now. We have had terrible luck this year and Johnny [Sauter] has had even worse luck than us.
"I cannot say enough about my guys. They have not given up and have been to the wind tunnel and worked so hard to get speed back in the trucks. I think we are back to where we were at the end of last year, without a doubt."
Season On The Upswing For Rookie Gale
Back-to-back top 10s can be reason to cheer, especially if you’re a rookie.That’s why Cale Gale is smiling and looking forward to the resumption of competition next week at Kentucky Speedway.
Gale, teammate to points leader Lofton at Eddie Sharp Racing, posted his career-best finish, fifth, at Dover and followed up that performance with a solid run of eighth in Texas. Twenty-ninth in the standings after a 32nd-place finish in Daytona’s opener, Gale has crept to within 11 points of the top 10.
The Mobile, Ala., native stands second to Ty Dillon in Sunoco Rookie of the Year standings.
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