IMSA star Jordan Taylor impresses during debut NASCAR Truck Series practice at Lime Rock Park

This weekend, IMSA star Jordan Taylor is making his NASCAR Truck Series debut at the wonderful Lime Rock Park. Taylor knows the track well from his sports car endeavors, but has never driven one of these trucks in the past.

Of course, Jordan Taylor has raced in the Cup Series before. He took over the No. 9 car for Chase Elliott while the NASCAR driver was injured in 2023. Taylor then made a couple of Xfinity Series starts with Kaulig Racing that season. This is his first NASCAR race since then.

Despite being new, Taylor got the hang of things quickly at Lime Rock. He was the fastest in practice.

“Yeah, I mean I knew I was going to have a good truck, you know, coming with Spire Motorsports, they’ve been up front all year,” Taylor said after practice. “So, I knew it was going to be down to me to kind of figure it out and learn it because the truck and equipment’s there. But yeah, getting up to speed was interesting, obviously, my first time in a truck. I know the track well, but the truck is obviously a different animal from what I’m used to here.

“It went well. We did a qual [qualifying] run to kind of get an idea for tomorrow, just because every little hundredth of a second I think around here is going to matter for track position, and I think it’s going to be tough to pass. So, the higher up we start the better chance we’re going to have for tomorrow. But yeah, happy with how we started, for sure.”

Wayne Taylor Racing is his usual team in IMSA. WTR is also owned by TWG Motorsports, which owns Spire Motorsports. There is an entire motorsports ecosystem now through TWG that touches IMSA, NASCAR, IndyCar, and soon, F1.

Jordan Taylor could very well win the Truck Series race. Lime Rock Park is a new track for many of these drivers. But he has tough competition in Corey Heim and maybe even another part-time driver.

Jordan Taylor, Brent Crews top practice at Lime Rock Park

Will it be the IMSA star, Jordan Taylor or the teenage phenom, Brent Crews? Crews, still not old enough to race on anything but road courses and ovals smaller than 1.25 miles in length, was second fastest in practice today at Lime Rock.

Crews is good enough to win any race. He is one of these new-school drivers that has and can drive and win in whatever you put him in. Dirt racing, stock cars, sports cars, it doesn’t matter. Crews was fastest in practice until Taylor ran his qualifying simulation. The two were separated by 0.081 seconds.

It won’t be until March 30 of next year that Crews is able to run all of the big tracks. The 17-year-old driver has been racing in Trans-Am, CARS Tour, ARCA, NASCAR, and sprint cars. Earlier this year, Crews won a Golden Driller at the Tulsa Shootout in Stock Non-Wing.

So, who will it be? Jordan Taylor, Brent Crews, or one of the Truck Series regulars like Corey Heim? Tomorrow we will find out at Lime Rock Park.