Kraus Charges to Eighth-Place Finish at Charlotte
Derek Kraus charged to a strong, eighth-place finish in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series North Carolina Education Lottery 200 at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Friday night. The 19-year-old driver of the McAnally-Hilgemann Racing No. 19 NAPA Power Premium Plus / NAPA AutoCare Toyota Tundra had a great points night, picking up stage points with solid finishes in the first two stages along with the points from his overall top-ten finish.
Kraus started 15th on the grid and quickly began working his way forward, advancing to seventh by the completion of Stage 1. His charge toward the front continued in the next segment, with Kraus scoring a fourth-place finish at the end of Stage 2. After a pit stop for tires and fuel, he was on the move again after restarting from 13th. Kraus steadily worked his way forward to come away with his second top-ten finish of the season.
“It was a really good night with my NAPA Power Premium Plus Toyota Tundra,” Kraus said. “We executed everything right. We were able to get a lot of stage points and then we were able to run in the top ten most of the race. It’s really tough to pass. Once that yellow came out, we were like 12th. We stalled out, but that final restart helped us out a lot and we were able to get a few more positions, so overall it was a really good night.”
On Thursday, Kraus visited multiple NAPA AUTO PARTS stores and NAPA AutoCare shops with the Dickson Group. The visits were part of a sales promotion with NAPA Power Premium Plus.
Great support at the event came via NAPA Charlotte District Manager Robert Goldenstein and the Dickson NAPA Group. Work with Ralph Dickson involved sponsor activation that included a VIP garage group and a guest crew member. Employees from A&B Automotive in Matthews were the guest crew members on the pit box for the race.
Start / Finish: 15 / 8
Points Earned: 40
Points Standing / Total: 17th / 177 pts.
Next Race: June 12, SpeedyCash.com 220, Texas Motor Speedway
How to Watch or Listen: 1:00 pm ET on FS1
Derek Kraus: @derek9kraus
NAPA Racing: @NAPARacing
Bill McAnally Racing: @BMR_NASCAR
Bill McAnally Racing View All
Bill McAnally Racing (BMR) holds the ARCA Menards Series West record with 11 championships and eclipsed the 100-win mark in 2022. The team has piled on six titles in the last eight seasons with four different drivers since 2015. Second-year driver Tanner Reif takes control of the No. 16 NAPA Auto Care Chevrolet for the 12-race campaign in 2023 and looks to improve on his runner-up finish in the 2022 drivers’ standings to build on BMR’s west coast legacy.