By Sarah Handy, Staff Writer
The last time Dylan Lupton got behind the wheel of a NASCAR truck was in the 2016 Lucas Oil 150 at Phoenix.
Before that he had just one other start in the series at Talladega.
However, you wouldn’t know that with his performance in Friday evening’s Camping World 225 from Chicagoland Speedway.
Lupton’s NASCAR resume for Chicago was short. He had only seen one previous start at the 1.5-mile track located in Joliet, Illinois in his career.
That race was years ago in a 2015 NASCAR Xfinity Series event that resulted in a disappointing 34th place result after a crash ended his day.
Fast forward to Friday evening and one word comes to mind, impressive.
If Lupton was nervous or rusty, it certainly wasn’t obvious.
What was obvious was his consistency, clean racing and his ability to stay out of any potential trouble.
The 25-year old participated in the second and final practices and found himself scored 5th and 11th on the speed charts, respectively.
Lupton would go on to qualify his No. 5 DGR-Crosley Toyota Tundra to his best career truck start, a solid 9th place starting spot.
.@LuptonDylan pits for four tires, fuel and a track bar adjustment to help him run the top. pic.twitter.com/3F4u6ivQP4
— TRICON (@TRICONGarage) June 29, 2019
The young driver was certainly consistent in his return to the series.
Lupton went on to finish both the first and second stages and ultimately the race in the 10th position.
Not only did he earn his career best starting spot but the top-10 finish on Friday evening was also a career best.
His previous best finish in trucks was a 12th place result back in 2016 at Talladega Superspeedway.
What a night of racing! It feels great to be back at the track. Learned a ton in the @NASCAR_Trucks tonight. I can't thank @DGR_Crosley and all the crew for their hard work. Now bring on Kentucky!! pic.twitter.com/sLi2KxDKRb
— Dylan Lupton (@LuptonDylan) June 29, 2019
Lupton tweeted out a I’m back video on June 11th that quickly went viral.
That announcement being that he and DGR-Crosley had officially teamed up this season for six truck series events.
https://twitter.com/LuptonDylan/status/1138506384377548802
In a team press release a couple weeks ago, Lupton said the following.
“DGR-Crosley has proven to be a very competitive team in the series in a short amount of time, and I believe we will be contending for wins throughout my schedule.”
It had been just over a year since Lupton had seen himself racing in NASCAR.
The California native competed in 11 of 33 events on the NASCAR Xfinity Series schedule in 2018 for JGL Racing with a best finish of 17th at Texas.
Unfortunately, lack of sponsorship due to team owner James Whitener’s health problems forced the operation to close its doors.
Lupton will have five more opportunities this season to contend for wins with DGR-Crosley.
His next opportunity will come in two weeks when the series heads to Kentucky Speedway for the Alsco 300 on July 11th.