Twenty years after Travis Kvapil won the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series championship, his son Carson will make his series début. Spire Motorsports announced Tuesday that he will drive the #7 Chevrolet Silverado RST at Bristol Motor Speedway on 14 September.
The younger Kvapil races for JR Motorsports in the CARS Late Model Stock Tour, where he leads the standings and is the only driver with multiple wins at five. He won the championship in 2022, a year after claiming the CARS Super Late Model Tour title.
“Bono (Manion), (Mike) Greci, and all the guys are awesome to work with and I can’t wait to work with them at the track,” said Kvapil. “Fortunately, I am getting some simulator time in with Bono and Andrew (Overstreet) to get ready for the race. Huge thanks to Jeff (Dickerson), T.J. (Puchyr), Mr. (Rick) Hendrick and everyone who helped me get to this point. I’m ready to hit the track for my first start in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series.”
Other successes include winning the Racetrack Revival at the newly reopened North Wilkesboro Speedway in 2022, and even on dirt at the 2021 Carolina Micro Showdown.
Spire’s #7 truck races part-time with most of its drivers doing one-offs including Marco Andretti, Alex Bowman, Jonathan Davenport, Austin Hill, Derek Kraus, Corey LaJoie, and Kyle Larson; Larson won at North Wilkesboro in May. Layne Riggs, a CARS colleague of Kvapil and a fellow second-generation driver, has also piloted it.
“We’re looking forward to getting to know Carson and having him drive the Hendrickcars.com Chevy Silverado at Bristol,” commented crew chief Kevin “Bono” Manion. “We’ve been having a lot of fun and a fair amount of success with our truck programme this season. Winning at North Wilkesboro with Kyle Larson was definitely a highlight, but it has really been fun seeing what some of these younger guys can do. Layne Riggs and Derek Kraus did a really good job for us and we’re looking for the same type of thing out of Carson. It’s exciting to give these guys a shot in our truck.”
