Jeb Burton will drive the No. 13 Estes Toyota Tundra in Friday’s 15th annual NASCAR Camping World Truck Series’ Lucas Oil 200 at Dover International Speedway potentially with a lot in his mind.
But there’s one bigger reason ThorSport Racing’s youngest driver will have his head totally in the game.
“Dover’s fast and it demands your attention,” Burton said. “It’s a racetrack that really puts a premium on having everything in the right place and tuned the right way.”
Getting through the weekend intact will be critical for Burton, who wouldn’t be blamed for looking ahead a week to the June 6 Friday night race at Texas Motor Speedway, where he won a year ago.
But for Burton, whose ThorSport Racing team is short on rolling stock after Burton’s Tundras were wrecked at both Martinsville and Charlotte — two of the last three races — getting through Dover with an intact Toyota is critical.
“Jeriod (Prince, crew chief) and my guys have been getting better every week we’ve been together,” said Burton, who has only driven in four Truck Series races for ThorSport. “I can’t wait to get through Dover, because that’s the race before Texas — but we can contend at Dover, too.”
Burton has an even bigger reason to anticipate his weekend at the “Monster Mile.” Dover will be his debut race with sponsorship — a full season’s worth — from Estes Express Lines, and a sizable group of Estes guests will be on hand along with more than a dozen members of the 436th and 512th Air Wings at Dover Air Force Base, who are “attached” as guests of ThorSport this weekend.
With only 35 trucks on the property, NASCAR amended Friday’s schedule by cancelling Keystone Light Pole Qualifying and setting the starting lineup per the rulebook, which put Burton in the 12th position.
Burton, who arrived in Dover in a tie for seventh in the championship, posted the 18th-best lap in a 13-minute practice Thursday that was cut short by rain, on his only run.
Qualifying was replaced by a final one-hour practice session that will be televised on FOX Sports 1 beginning at 12:30 p.m. ET.
Friday’s 200-lap, 200-mile main event will be telecast live on FOX Sports 1 at 5:30 p.m. ET, preceded by The Setup pre-race show at 5. The live broadcast on MRN and Sirius XM NASCAR Radio begins with pre-race coverage at 5.
Live timing & scoring for the weekend’s events will be at www.nascar.com.
ABOUT ESTES EXRESS LINES:
Headquartered in Richmond, Virginia, Estes is a leading, full-service freight transportation provider offering a complete range of shipping solutions including LTL, time critical, volume & truckload, global and custom solutions. Founded in 1931 by W.W. Estes and still owned by the Estes family, today’s Estes is the largest, privately-held LTL carrier in the nation. With more than 210 terminals across the country and a global service footprint, Estes has grown into one of the most respected total-solutions providers in the industry.
ABOUT THORSPORT RACING:
ThorSport Racing, based in a state-of-the-art 100,000-square-foot facility in Sandusky, Ohio, is the longest-tenured NASCAR Camping World Truck Series team. ThorSport, which has run in the Truck Series since 1996, in 2014 will run the No. 88 Menards Toyota Tundra driven by 2013 drivers’ champion Matt Crafton, the No. 98 Nextant Aerospace/Smokey Mountain Herbal Snuff/Carolina Nut Co./Curb Records Toyota Tundra driven by Johnny Sauter and the No. 13 Carolina Nut Co. Toyota Tundra driven by Jeb Burton in the Truck Series and the No. 13 Toyota Camry in the ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards.