The start of the 2013 NASCAR season brings change to Kyle Busch Motorsports: in the Camping World Truck Series, KBM will be fielding two full-time entries and a part-time ride for the boss, and in the Nationwide Series, the No. 54 goes to Joe Gibbs Racing while the KBM entry takes on the number 77.
Kyle Busch will be driving the No. 51 Toyota Care Toyota Tundra in the NextEra Energy Resouces 250 on Friday, February 22nd, hoping to give Toyota its 100th victory in the Truck Series. “It would be great to get Toyota their 100th Truck Series win Friday night as a reward for everything they’ve done for me as a driver and a team owner the last five years,” said Busch on the KBM website. “With racing in all three series at Daytona, it’s pretty cool that I’ll have the chance to collect three milestone wins for Toyota – their 100th Truck Series win on Friday night, their 75th Nationwide Series win on Saturday and their 50th Sprint Cup Series win on Sunday. I was able to get Toyota’s first Cup Series victory back in 2008 and that was pretty special. Hopefully, we can add a few milestone victories for them at Daytona to start the season and many more across all three series in the years to come.”
He won’t be the only KBM truck trying to get the historic win. Joey Coulter makes his KBM debut in the No. 18 Gunbroker.com Tundra. The 22-year-old is going into his third season in the Truck Series and brings along his crew chief from the past four seasons, Harold Holly. “It’s been a smooth transition,” said Coulter. “Everybody at both KBM and Toyota has gone out of their way to make sure that Harold and I have what we need to succeed. We tested at Gresham (Motorsports) and it went really well. Toyota has been fantastic in getting my engineer up to speed on all the technology that he has at his disposal. It is pretty amazing what they do for their teams – I’ve never seen anything like it. I’m excited to get to Daytona. All the guys have been working really hard on my GunBroker.com Tundra.”
Darrell Wallace Jr. will be making his Truck Series debut at Daytona in the No. 54 DefyDiabetes.com Tundra.
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Parker Kligerman takes over the driving duties for KBM in the Nationwide Series, driving the No. 77 Bandit Chippers Toyota Camry in the DRIVE4COPD 300 on Saturday, February 23rd. “As a young driver coming up, in any of the top three series, you’re looking for one opportunity and that is to be full-time,” said Kligerman. “I had sprinkled events in the Nationwide Series the last three years – had a lot of success, but was never able to break in full-time. I was able to run full-time in the Truck Series and I feel like that has led me to the point where – with almost winning the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series last year, finishing fifth and fighting for wins week in and week out – I felt like moving up to the Nationwide Series was the next step in my career and hopefully one day driving in the Sprint Cup Series on Sundays.”
Follow the action during Speedweeks at www.kylebuschmotorsports.com.
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