NASHVILLE — Lebanon-native Dawson Sutton has achieved a lot of success since climbing behind the wheel of a race car three years ago.
The jury is still out in his latest venture, the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, which he began competing in less than a year ago and is running full time this season.
But the needle is pointing up as the 19-year-old is coming off his first top-10 finish in his 13 starts, a ninth-place finish last week at Texas after qualifying 20th.
His next race is today at Kansas, the first of three stops before coming to his home track for the May 30 Rackley Roofing 200 at Nashville Superspeedway.
Sutton was at the Gibson Garage along with Cup Series driver Ross Chastain (who won the event at NSS two years ago) and Xfinity racer Nick Sanchez on Wednesday. The three unveiled the trophy guitars that will be presented to the winners of those races, which include the Tennessee Lottery 250 Xfinity Series race May 31 and the Cracker Barrel 400 Cup race June 1.
Sutton, who takes advantage of the Truck Series’ frequent open dates to continue to run short-track events at Nashville’s Fairgrounds Speedway and other tracks, said his truck career appears to be following his pattern of gaining traction with a year’s experience.
“Experience is everything,†Sutton said. “At the end of the day, a lot of these guys have raced in the series for multiple years. So it’s really hard to compete. Everybody is so close. The trucks are so close and speeds. Every little thing matters at the end of the day.
“Just like in my late models. I started two years ago in late models. It took me a year to learn. By the end of the year, I was winning races and in my second year, everything clicked. I think it will be the same way in trucks and everything is starting to click already and I’m looking forward to the end of the year.â€
After spending his first dozen truck starts staying out of trouble, building up laps and generally getting his feet wet, he appears to be ready to start pushing the envelope more.
“You have push the envelope, especially in the truck series,†Sutton said. “It’s so competitive, so aggressive. It’s definitely the most aggressive series out of the three and it’s the most aggressive series in the world, honestly. The truck series, you got to be on every lap. Every lap is qualifying. We’re getting where we’re used to that.â€
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