Friday, December 1, 2023
Brandon BrownBrown Managing Expectations Entering Portland

Brown Managing Expectations Entering Portland

By Seth Eggert, Staff Writer

A trip to a new track for the NASCAR Xfinity Series means that Brandon Brown will manage the expectations for himself and Brandonbilt Motorsports.

The Pacific Automation 147 will be the first race for the Xfinity Series at Portland International Raceway. The 1.980-mile road course is not on iRacing, or most simulation software, making preparation for the race difficult. 

The ARCA Menards Series West has visited the current configuration of the track five times since 2009. Though the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series has visited the track twice, both were on different layouts. 

“It’s hard to prepare for a track like Portland,” admitted Brown. “We’re getting ready to race on a long, really flat road course. It’ll be the most beneficial to watch the old ARCA West races to prepare for it.

“It’s tough because Portland is just such a flat racetrack, or at least it appears to be. COTA has a lot of elevation change in the track, and so does Road America. Mid-Ohio has a lot of elevation change and tight technical corners. You have to pick and choose a corner from each track to build Portland.”

Brown, xfinity, portland, nascar
#68: Brandon Brown, Brandonbilt Motorsports, Brandonbilt Foundations Chevrolet Camaro and #10: Landon Cassill, Kaulig Racing, Voyager: Crypto for All Chevrolet Camaro, Photo by NKP / NKP Photo.

Brown has two top-10 finishes in 16 starts on road courses. However, those two came on wildly different road courses, the Daytona International Speedway Road Course and the mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. With the limited road course experience, the Woodbridge, VA native is realistic with his expectations.

“We have to manage expectations because we know that if we can stay alive, stay on track, maybe we can squeeze ourselves into the top-10,” explained Brown. “Realistically a top-20, top-15 would be a good day, but a top-10 would be great.”

The driver of the No. 68 Brandonbilt Foundations Chevrolet Camaro SS enters Portland 17th in the championship points standings. The 28-year-old is 76-points behind the playoff cutline currently held by Ryan Sieg.

The Pacific Automation 147 is scheduled to start at 4:30 p.m. EST on Fox Sports 1 on Saturday June 4.

Featured Photo Credit: Photo by NKP / NKP Photo.

Seth Eggert
Seth Eggert
Growing up in Northern New Jersey, Seth grew up in a family of NASCAR fans. He was always determined to have a career in the industry. While in college, Seth bought a subscription to iRacing. As an avid iRacer, Seth took an opportunity to start a journalism career at iRacingNews covering the iRacing.com IndyCar Open Oval Series. He spent four years at iRacingNews before moving towards coverage of motorsports in the real world. In 2016, Seth joined Tribute Racing, which then became Motorsports Tribune as a Staff Writer. That same year, he graduated from Mitchell Community College with an Associate’s Degree in History. He joined the Kickin’ the Tires team as a Staff Writer and eSports Editor in late 2019. When he is not writing or covering NASCAR or iRacing, Seth works at Mitchell Community College as an Administrator in their Mooresville campus tutoring center. He is also qualified to tutor up to 38 different classes ranging from Communications to History to Math to various electives.
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