Kraus Heads West With Boost Of Confidence
• NASCAR Truck Series Visits Las Vegas Motor Speedway
ROSEVILLE, Calif. (Feb. 18, 2020) – The NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series heads west this week for the third annual Strat 200 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Derek Kraus and McAnally-Hilgemann Racing make the trip to Las Vegas with an extra boost of confidence.
They’re coming off a fourth-place finish in the season opener in Florida at Daytona International Speedway. Additionally, the 1.5-mile Las Vegas track is a speedway where Kraus has experience in truck competition. He raced there last September. It was one of four truck series starts he made last year on off weekends from competing in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West – where he won a championship.
Although a broken transmission sidelined him just past the midway point of that race, Kraus picked up valuable seat time in preparing to run the full truck series schedule this year.
Now he returns to Las Vegas with that experience, along with momentum from his top-five finish at Daytona.
Derek Kraus – Thoughts about Las Vegas
Talking about going to a track where he has previously raced in the truck series
“Going to a track that I’ve been to before helps. As a team, we can get after it right away and make more aggressive changes.”
What it means as a rookie to get a strong start to the season
“The Daytona race gives me a boost. Overall, it brings the whole team’s confidence up and makes everyone work even harder. I feel that I have a really good group of guys behind me and I’m really looking forward to Las Vegas.”
NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series Event:
Race: Strat 200 (134 Laps) (Race 2 of 23) Feb. 21, 2020
Location: Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Las Vegas, Nev. (1.5-mile oval)
Television: FS1 on Feb. 21 at 9 p.m. ET
Derek Kraus
No. 19 ENEOS / NAPA AUTO PARTS Toyota Tundra
Age: 18
Hometown: Stratford, Wisc.
Career series starts: 6
Most recent series finish: 4th – Daytona (Feb. 14, 2020)
Best career series finish: 4th – Daytona (Feb. 14, 2020)
Last finish at this track: 27th (Sept. 13, 2019)
2020 Series stats:
Races: 1 start, 1 top five, 1 top 10
Laps completed: 106/106
Series standings: 6th