The NASCAR K&N Pro Series West season kicked-off at Kern County Raceway Park in California on March 15th. A former K&N Pro Series West champion returned five years removed from his last title.
Bob Bruncati and his Sunrise Ford racing team has assembled a championship-caliber lineup to challenge Bill McAnally Racing in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West.
NASCAR K&N Pro Series West driver Hailie Deegan has one specific goal. She wants to be the first woman to win a K&N Pro Series West race.
The logo for the K&N Pro Series will feature the new NASCAR mark that will be used throughout the stock car series. The five developmental series, including the K&N Pro Series, are making the change. The new NASCAR mark was introduced in 2017 and replaced the previous one used since 1976. NASCAR worked with RARE Design to develop the new symbol for the stock car racing sanctioning body.
The K&N Pro Series will introduce a radial tire produced by Goodyear in place of the bias-ply type tires the teams in the series were using. The new radial tires are similar to the ones used by teams in the Camping World Truck Series, Xfinity Series and Monster Energy Cup Series.
The drivers in the K&N Pro Series are excited about making the switch to the radial tires. But the tires are more expensive than the bias-ply tires, which increases operations costs for the teams.
Ruben Garcia, who won the NASCAR Mexico Series championship in 2017 and will be racing in the K&N Pro Series East for Rev Racing in 2018, said it has been an adjustment racing on the new Goodyear tires, but the results are encouraging.
“The tires are different,” Garcia said. “The tires we used in Mexico we can run pretty hard almost all the time. With the Goodyear tires we use in the K&N Series, you have to take a lot of care of them. That was another thing I had to pay a lot of attention to and get used to in order to run better.”
Julia Landauer, a driver in the K&N Pro Series West, said using the new tires makes sense for drivers who are working their way through the development system in NASCAR.
“I’m glad to see that they made that change,” Landauer said. “It’s a different compound. The radial tires are what they race in ARCA, Trucks, Xfinity and Cup. It seemed a little weird to have a development series -- now they’re more expensive -- but it seemed a little weird to have a development series where you don’t get to race the type of tire you race in all the series above. I think it’s good they made that change.”
The K&N Pro Series will feature longer races in 2018. Some of the events will increase by 25 laps. This will prepare drivers and crews for advancement in NASCAR.
Finally, all private testing will be eliminated at NASCAR-sanctioned events for the K&N Pro Series. Drivers and teams will have an extra day of practice at stand-alone and combined events in the K&N Pro Series.
The NASCAR K&N Pro Series East heads to Bristol Motor Speedway on April 14th. The K&N Pro Series West kicks-off at Kern County Raceway Park in California on March 15. |
| Ryan Vargas used his experience racing in California when he went to the NASCAR Drive for Diversity combine at New Smyrna Speedway in Florida. He said the track in Florida reminded him of Kern County Raceway Park in California. He went into the combine the same way he prepared for races at Kern County. It paid off with a seat on the Rev Racing team in the K&N Pro Series East.
Vargas made his NASCAR K&N Pro Series East debut at New Smyrna Speedway on February 11th and the 17-year-old driver from La Mirada, Calif. expressed his excitement before the season started. “It’s the first race and really my first time in a K&N car,” Vargas said. “That’s where the Drive for Diversity combine was at. It was at New Smyrna Speedway. I attacked it a lot like how I did with Kern County Raceway back at home. It drove a lot like that place.”
Vargas joins a team with a successful history. Kyle Larson and Bubba Wallace, both NASCAR Monster Energy Cup Series drivers, raced for Rev in the K&N Pro Series East. Daniel Suarez, who races in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, was one of the Rev Racing drivers as he worked his way up the NASCAR ladder.
Vargas said he wants to add to the Rev Racing legacy.
“I definitely want to get a win. I see a whole bunch of banners hung around the shop from Kyle Larson, Bubba Wallace, and Daniel Suarez from their past wins when they raced with Rev,” Vargas said. “Hopefully I can get a win by the end of the year and that would be a great goal. But in the end, my main goal is to get rookie of the year and run strong in every race.”
“These past few years have been very up and down for us,” Vargas said. “We’ve had a lot of great success with my family team. It’s been really hard funding wise. It’s been hard to keep up.”
“To have the opportunity of a lifetime to come here and race K&N East cars with Rev is very humbling to me. I know I am going to take every advantage of it. I am also really excited to learn as much as I can with this program, learn about the cars, working inside the garage, and getting my fitness on track.”
The majority of Vargas’ experience comes from racing late models, trucks, bandoleros and street stocks at Irwindale Speedway and The Orange Show in California and the Bullring in Las Vegas. He doesn’t have much experience in the K&N Pro Series cars. He will only have one day of testing before his first race at New Smyrna Speedway.
“I’m really excited for it, after talking with a lot of friends who have raced K&N, like my friends Noah Gragson and Will Rodgers, a lot of them have told me that they are just really heavy, but really fast,” Vargas said. “I am going to go into it with the mindset of trying to turn a street stock. Those things are very heavy and very hard to steer. I am going to go into it with a different mindset as well of trying to be as smooth as I can, while being able to get as much as I can out of the car every single race.”
Vargas also takes pride in his knowledge in the garage. He likes to work on the cars as much as he likes driving them. In his late model days racing at Irwindale Speedway and the Orange Show, he spent a considerable amount of time in the garage and the pits. He wants that to stay the same at Rev Racing.
“When I come off the track I want to be able to say what I need changed on the car,” Vargas said. “Not just come off the track and say, ‘oh it’s tight, oh it’s loose.’ I want to be able to come off the track and say we need to do this adjustment there. There’s still a lot of ground for me to make up though. I’m definitely not the one to ask a lot of questions on cars. I feel like I am at a place right now that I’ve never been. That is where I can actually diagnose a car a lot better than I ever have been able to.”
Having K&N make a commitment to the series makes a lot of difference, Vargas said. He is excited to be part of the K&N Pro Series East as a rookie.
“It means a lot to have a company like K&N to sponsor the series,” Vargas said. “It shows that the series has so much potential that a great company like them would want to jump on board. It also shows that the series itself is a very good series not just to be in, but also to watch.
“It’s definitely been all worth it. All the hard work has come to this. I am grateful for that.” |
