Dylan Lupton has a rather curious trend of making NASCAR Camping World Truck Series starts during the second half of the season; of his fourteen career races in the series, the earliest was the 2019 Chicagoland event in late June. After not racing at all across the first four months of the 2022 season, the streak continues as he enters the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course race on Saturday, 9 July, driving the #7 Chevrolet Silverado for Spire Motorsports.
“I am very thankful for this opportunity to drive for Spire Motorsports in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series this weekend at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course,” said Lupton. “Every time they have hit the track at a Truck Series race in 2022, Spire Motorsports has been a front-runner. I’d like to continue that pace this weekend.
“I have experience at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course and with my road course background, plus with the leadership of Bono (Manion, crew chief), I think we can surprise a lot of people on Saturday afternoon.”
Much of Lupton’s national series career has been as a part-time journeyman making numerous one-off starts. In 2016 and since 2019, he has raced for six Truck teams besides Spire: Young’s Motorsports, Athenian Motorsports, now-David Gilliland Racing, Kyle Busch Motorsports, and Reaume Brothers Racing. He ran the Darlington race last year for KBM followed by starts at Las Vegas and Talladega with RBR. He has four career top tens in the Trucks and a best finish of fifth at Kentucky.
The bulk of Lupton’s starts are in the Xfinity Series, where he has thirty-nine starts including the first half of the 2018 slate before a lack of funding doomed his JGL Racing ride. His lone top ten in the series came at Mid-Ohio in 2015, when he finished ninth with Athenian.
He also has four Cup Series runs in 2016 to his name.
Owing to his already small schedule in addition to their relatively scant amount until recent years, Saturday will be the first time Lupton runs a Truck Series road course race. After his ninth in 2015, he crashed out of his second and final Xfinity start at Mid-Ohio two years later.
Spire, primarily a Cup team, expanded to include a part-time Truck programme for 2022. Technical ally Hendrick Motorsports frequently loaned its Cup drivers to the #7, though the team also brings in other talent like Austin Hill and Rajah Caruth. William Byron scored the team’s maiden win at Martinsville.
“Dylan Lupton has shown a lot of promise over his career so we’re eager to see what he can do this weekend at Mid-Ohio,” commented Spire co-owner T.J. Puchyr. “He’s a good, hard-nosed road racer and having the leadership and wealth of knowledge between Mike (Greci, team manager) and Bono will be important for Dylan. He’s done well at Mid-Ohio in the past, so we think we’ve got a strong combination heading into Saturday.”
