By Sarah Handy, Staff Writer
Sarah Handy spoke to NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series owner and driver, Jordan Anderson prior to the NC Education Lottery 200 from Charlotte Motor Speedway a couple of weeks ago. Here is what he had to say about the series next upcoming race at Texas Motor Speedway and his 2019 season thus far.
Texas, what are your thoughts on the track?
Anderson: Yeah, I always love going to Texas. It’s kind of one of those tracks where it’s a love/hate just because of how the results from the past have been with us especially. We’ve always run well there but somethings always happened to take that away from us.
First in mind is Texas earlier this year, we had a top-10, top-12 all night. The last pit stop of the night one of the crew guys left a left rear tire loose and pretty much ruined our night, we killed a stud. We always run really well there, it’s one of my favorite tracks, it’s got some good characteristic to it.
Your season so far, are you happy with how it’s going?
Anderson: Yeah, you know, we’ve really made a lot of strides in our equipment and obviously we’re standing here in our trailer that’s new for us this year. A lot of little things like that have been big for us, but that’s the thing that’s crazy. I’ve told people we’re very fortunate we got a sponsor that jumped on board and bought us this hauler, got our sponsors to provide us the semi that pulls our hauler.
We’re really the same team we were last year with as far as our budget goes. We’re still very small in comparison to these bigger teams. Just because we have the hauler now, we’ve still got to race accordingly and be smart with our resources.
We’re still playing that game, trying to make the most of what we’ve got, we’ve just got to be smart and hopefully with being smart we can build this year, next year and for many years to come.
What do you think is the biggest misconception the fans have of the smaller teams?
Anderson: Budget. It’s like, you know why don’t you go buy all new stickers, why don’t you go buy new tires. It’s like well, you know that’s our payroll for the guys for the next five weeks. It’s like you either pay your guys or you buy tires and you can’t do that every week. It’s just not sustainable. The purse money is a lot of what keeps it going on. For us we really rely off of partners, and sponsors that keep this thing going.
The biggest thing this year, like I said people see the bigger hauler and say, “Oh man, you must be spending so much more money?” No, we’re spending maybe less then we did last year because we didn’t have to buy trucks this year. We’re able to spend a little bit more money on making our trucks better, better equipment and some more guys.
The hauler has to be a good addition though.
Anderson: It really has been.
You’re doing both the ownership and driving side of things in the series. Has sponsorship been one of the biggest things you’ve had to deal with?
Anderson: We’ve been very, very blessed. We’ve got a lot of awesome people that keep this thing going and believe in what we’re doing and want to help us out. That’s really the thing that’s been keeping us going, all our amazing partners, the Fueled by Fans. So many things that help us get to the racetrack each and every week.
You’ve had a lot of sponsors and partners return which is a very positive thing.
Anderson: Yes, exactly.
Season Update: Anderson is in his second full-time season in the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series doing both the owner and driver duties in his No. 3 Chevrolet for Jordan Anderson Racing. In 8 starts this season, Anderson has 2 top-15’s (Kansas & Charlotte), 7 top-25 finishes and currently sits 14th in NGOTS standings.
When the series raced at Texas Motor Speedway at the end of March, Anderson left the 1.5-mile track with a 21st place result. In 9 starts at the track, he has a best finish of 15th which came in the June race in 2017.