Jefferson Pitts Racing Swinging Big In Sonoma

The road-course champs are back.

Whenever the K&N Pro Series heads to a road course, you have to mention Jefferson Pitts Racing. Their track record, especially recently, is near perfect while turning right and left.

In the last two seasons, JPR won five road course events across both the K&N East and K&N West series. It began in 2017, when 2014 Monster Energy Cup Series champion Kevin Harvick outlasted Will Rodgers to win in Sonoma.

Rodgers took those lessons learned in a runner-up finish to win at Watkins Glen and New Jersey that same year, as well as winning at Sonoma last season and defending his win in New Jersey. The JPR streak came to an end at Watkins Glen, as Brett Moffitt bested Rodgers in the closing stages.

This weekend in California, team owners Jeff Jefferson and Jerry Pitts are bringing some heavy hitters to try and continue their road course prowess.

National series drivers Noah Gragson, Austin Dillon and Ryan Preece will be piloting JPR Chevrolets, as well as Jim Inglebright, a K&N West veteran with over 70 career starts.

“They just contacted us throughout the winter and spring, each one of them,” Jefferson told NASCAR.com. “We had enough cars to make it all work. Everything‘s coming together, we can‘t wait to go.”

A mainstay in the series for the past few seasons, JPR has been coming and going in 2019. After competing in Las Vegas and Irwindale with Joey Tanner and Tucson with Dustin Ash, they weren’t at Colorado.

“Can‘t find drivers,” Jefferson said. “To make our deal work, we‘re trying to do this and make a living. We probably have to have more (money) than most people to make it and there doesn‘t seem to be the funded drivers and kids out there this year that are racing in the K&N Series.”

But Sonoma may go a long way in hopes of returning to the track with regularity. Inglebright won three straight Southwest Tour races at Sonoma Raceway from 2000-2003, has raced the last six seasons at Sonoma in the K&N Pro Series and has five top 10s and two top fives at the track.

Racing-Reference: Jim Inglebright Career Statistics

“I‘ve known Jim for a long time,” Jefferson said. “He‘s been around that place for quite some time, his whole life basically. I think he‘s going to do really well, looking forward to seeing how it goes.”

Gragson, who ran with JPR for essentially his entire 44-race K&N career, is making his return to the West coast series, attempting to replicate the plethora of success he and the organization shared.

Racing-Reference: Noah Gragson Career Statistics

“Noah is a good kid,” Jefferson said. “We wouldn‘t be where we‘re at now without him. They just wanted to come home and race at Sonoma, we said ‘you betcha.’ “

Preece and Dillon, who will also be in the Cup race this weekend, wanted to get all the track time possible with the new layout including the carousel, continuing the trend of Cup drivers competing in the K&N race at Sonoma.

Jefferson hopes they’ll be at more races this season, citing the combination race at Iowa, Watkins Glen and Evergreen as targets.

But right now, the focus is 100 percent on Sonoma. They have the equipment to win, they have the drivers to win and they know how to win.

“Honestly, I think we have a legitimate chance to finish in the top five with all of them and win,” Jefferson said. “Obviously stuff happens and sometimes that gets hard to do, but that‘s why we‘re going.”

The Procore 200 will go green at approximately 1:30 p.m. PDT on Saturday, June 22 from Sonoma Raceway. FansChoice.TV will have live coverage of the event.