HOMESTEAD, Fla. (November 20, 2015) – Kyle Weatherman made his NASCAR Camping World Truck Series debut at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Friday night, driving the No. 58 Ford F-150 in what was also the Truck Series debut for Lira Motorsports. The 18-year-old driver raced to a 23rd place finish in the Ford EcoBoost 200.
Despite having a fast truck, Weatherman could advance no further in the finishing order after going down two laps to the leader while serving a pit road drive-through penalty during green-flag racing, following his first pit stop of the day on lap 50 of 134.
Earlier in the day on Friday, Weatherman posted the 24th fastest time in the only practice session before the race. The session was the young driver’s first time behind the wheel of the newly-built race truck, and his first time on-track at Homestead Miami Speedway.
In qualifying, the Wentzville, MO native took his LifeXist / Massage Luxe / Bambrands.com / Jersey Mike’s Subs / Roush-Yates Engines / Supplement Superstores Ford F-150 to the top of the speed chart following his lap early in the session. At the end of qualifying, Weatherman was 21st quickest of the 36 trucks that attempted to make the race.
Following his pit rod penalty for driving through more than three pit stalls while entering his pit stall on lap 50, Weatherman was in the 27th position. He drove a clean, incident-free race for the rest of the event, but was unable to make up the laps he had lost during his drive through penalty. He took the checkered flag running in the 23rd position.
“I am so proud of the effort everyone on this Lira Motorsports team put in to make our NASCAR Camping World Truck Series debut together,” Kyle commented after the race. “I’m disappointed with the result, but I made a few mistakes that got us into the hole that we did our best to get out of. We win and lose as a team though, and we will recover and be back next year even stronger. Huge thanks to my sponsors for their support, and to everyone at Lira Motorsports for all of their hard work.”
Kyle is planning to make more NASCAR Camping World Truck Series starts in 2016, and is actively seeking full-season sponsors to help him compete for Sunoco Rookie of the Year honors and the 2016 Truck Series championship.
To find out more about Kyle, explore his website at http://kyleweatherman.com. You can also catch up with him on facebook at /KyleWeatherman and on twitter @KyleWeatherman. Learn more about Lira Motorsports at www.LiraMotorsports.com.
