In 2010 Ryan Truex, a native of Mayetta, N.J., won his second consecutive NASCAR K&N Pro Series East title and was officially awarded the crown at Dover International Speedway, his home track.
Truex, 19, brother of NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Martin Truex Jr., began the 2011 season driving for Pastrana-Waltrip Racing, the team with which he won his K&N championships (then Michael Waltrip Racing). However after 10 races, that opportunity shifted, gearing more toward the preparation for team co-owner and action sports superstar Travis Pastrana to make his way into NASCAR.
Truex was given the green light to look for other options. In early August, Truex signed a six-race deal with Joe Gibbs Racing to drive the No. 20 Toyota. Halfway through that schedule, he seems to have found his groove.
Truex was 11th at Atlanta in his first race since June at Chicagoland. He backed that up with his career-best finish – fourth – in Richmond’s fall race. In his fall return to Chicago he was 13th. Each of those results was better than all but one of his finishes in those first 10 events (eighth at Richmond in May).
He finished 18th at Dover earlier this season and has a pre-race Driver Rating heading into this weekend of 83.1.
Timmy Hill continues to hold a slight edge in the Sunoco Rookie of the Year standings over his nearest competitor – and good friend – Blake Koch. Hill has a two-point lead over Koch with six races remaining. Koch needs a good result at Dover – where he finished a season-worst 43rd in May after an incident on the first lap – in order to put more pressure on Hill. Although he’s cut into Hill’s lead considerably over the summer months, Koch has finished better than Hill only once in the last five races.