Austin, TX. – Lawless Alan was awarded the “Sonoco Rookie of the Race” for driving his AUTOParkit, Niece Motorsports, Chevrolet Silverado from the back of the field into contention. Alan was on a mission as he drove from the back three times at the recent NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Circuit of the Americas (COTA).
Starting from the back in 34th (due to post qualifying repair work on his brake ducts) Alan had cleared almost half the field by the end of the first stage. Stage two found Alan receiving contact from another truck in turn one that sent him to the back of the pack again where he started the day.
Once again Alan made short work of passing 15 trucks, putting him in prime position to begin the third and final stage — but during the final pit stop the team was penalized again, this time for an uncontrolled tire which sent Lawless to the rear for the third time.
Undeterred, Alan once again began picking off trucks one by one, steadily moving up the leader board. Lawless had driven up to eighth and was passing for seventh as the leaders headed to the white flag but a caution was thrown before they could get to the line, so the race went into overtime. On the restart Kyle Busch, Alex Bowman and Stewart Friesen got together in turn one and Alan was shuffled back a couple spots avoiding the chaos. When it was all done Alan came across the line in 11th, just shy of a Top 10. Ultimately his finish and repeated drive through the field earned him NASCAR’s Sonoco Rookie of the Race award. His position was the best finish to date for Alan in his first full year of competition in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series.
“I’ve had a tough start to the season,” Alan said. “I’m very happy to finally not be involved in someone else’s mess and to leave with a good finish. It’s a long season and today really showed how competitive we are and what we can do. We were knocking on the door of a top 10 today despite starting at the back three times. That says a lot about my team and my AUTOParkit, Niece Motorsports, Chevrolet Silverado. It was tough coming through the field over and over, but my truck was good from the start, and it was a lot of fun making all those passes.”
Action picks up for Alan in April as the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series heads to Martinsville and Bristol. The following two weekends Alan will be racing in The Trans Am presented by Pirelli series at Weathertech Raceway Laguna Seca in Monterey, Calif., and then at Sonoma Raceway in the heart of California wine country. At both events, Alan will behind the wheel of his AUTOPartkit, Silver Hare Racing, Mustang as he returns to the series where he won Rookie of the Year in 2019.
Alan said, “I am really excited for Martinsville and the Bristol dirt race with AUTOParkit and Niece Motorsports. We had a good run at COTA so I’m looking to continue the momentum. I’m going into these races with more confidence and more aggression, so i think they will be good weekends for us. The only prep for Bristol that we get is I-Racing and testing a dirt modified, so we’ll be going in blind and just doing it.
“I have four straight weekends of racing including returning to TA2 in back-to-back Northern California races at Laguna Seca and Sonoma. I’ve had good runs in the past, but we never got the finish we wanted. TA2 is a tough field, but Silver Hare does a great job and I’m looking forward to it. Laguna is a gas in a TA2 car, and it will be good to run Sonoma ahead of the truck race. The TA2 cars are a lot of fun to drive, and the fields are huge. Racing at Sonoma will give us a leg up on the truck field when we’re there in June. It will be good to be back home in California the next couple of weeks and racing at tracks that I know very well.”
You can catch all of the NASCAR Camping world Truck Series live on Fox Sports 1. The Trans Am presented by Pirelli will is live streamed on Trans Am‘s YouTube channel as well as broadcast on the CBS Sports Network. For additional information and event details for the Trans Am series visit www.gotransam.com.
