When the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series travels to Austin, Texas for this weekend’s Toyota Tundra 225, the series’ inaugural event at Circuit of The Americas, 21-year-old Lawless Alan will look to use his extensive road racing background and experience on the 3.4-mile course in order to score a solid result in his second-ever start.
Alan will once again return to the organization that he made his series debut with at Daytona’s Road Course in February, piloting the No. 34 AUTOParkit Toyota Tundra for Reaume Brothers Racing on Saturday, May 21.
Josh Reaume, Team Owner of Reaume Brothers Racing, has been impressed with Alan, saying: “Honestly, I’m blown away at the knowledge and experience Lawless has. He’s a great talent and I’m so proud to be a small part of what will truly be a highly success career in motorsports. It gives us a lot of confidence and an edge to have a driver with racing experience at COTA.”
While Reaume Brothers Racing – and most of the other organizations in the series — have never visited Circuit of The Americas, Alan has a plethora of experience through his days of competing in The Trans Am Series presented by Pirelli. Specifically designed for Formula 1, the COTA facility is one of the world’s finest road courses.
“COTA is amazing to drive,” Alan said. “It is very steep uphill into turn one and very wide on the entry. It’s a good place to pass on starts but it can also collect a lot of cars as it gets real narrow on the exit. You need to be in the perfect position to get through clean on the starts and restarts. After one, there is a series of esses where you can make up a lot of time, you take a ton of curb and when you get this section right its hugely rewarding.”
According to the California-native, Circuit of The Americas was designed for passing. “Turn one, the turn 11 hairpin, as well as turns 12, 19 and 20 are all good passing areas.”
“One of the trickiest parts is the 17, 18 combination that is really one big sweeper. If you can get a good run through the stadium section you can make up a lot of places in the 17-18 sweeper. Your car has to have a strong front end to get through this part of the track, but for sure it’s a section that can make or break your lap and your race. COTA is really challenging and a place that the driver can make a big difference. I’m really looking forward to it – it’s going to be a lot of fun!”
At Daytona’s Road Course in February, Alan finished 36th-place after tacking the track without any prior experience in a truck. This weekend, Alan will have the opportunity to get additional experience in a 50-minute practice session. However, with practice comes qualifying, meaning that Alan and the No. 34 team will have to post a lap time fast enough to clock inside the top-31, therefore ensuring their place in the 36-truck field.
NASCAR’s inaugural trip to COTA is a huge weekend both on and off the track for Alan’s long-time sponsor AUTOParkit. “We are so thrilled to be back at the track with Lawless,” AUTOParkit Marketing Director Steve Sharp said. “It’s so important for our brand to get the exposure. It’s NASCAR’s first-ever race at COTA and an open event for spectators so there will tens of thousands of fans there! We’ll also have almost 30 developers, builders, and business partners, including Siemens representatives as guests to help cheer Lawless on. We are all looking forward to being back trackside rooting for Lawless, hosting customers and promoting our products.”
AUTOParkit Vice President of Sales Shawn Adams said, “We had an overwhelmingly positive response to our invitation to join us at COTA. Coming out of COVID, we have a lot of momentum, with more than 16 projects in development across the U.S. Besides our AUTOParkit system, we’ve just launched two new products, AUTOChargit and PARK Sentry. These products can be installed in any new or existing curb, lot or parking structures and are truly groundbreaking solutions in parking management and vehicle charging.”
“It really is an exciting time for myself and my sponsor,” Alan said. “It’s fantastic that the COVID situation looks to be about contained and having fans and corporate guest back at the track is so exciting for all of us. I could not be more excited to be back on track and to work with AUTOParkit again. Their parking solutions are really the best available worldwide and their new solutions AUTOChargit and PARK Sentry are game changers when it comes to vehicle charging and parking management systems.”
Alan will serve as a teammate to another tenured road racer in Cameron Lawrence, who will make his NASCAR Camping World Truck Series debut in the No. 33 for Reaume Brothers Racing.
