Matt Tifft Hoping Youth Will be Served Again North of the Border

Matt Tifft will make his first career NASCAR Camping World Truck Series road-course start behind the wheel of the No. 51 Rally for Kids With Cancer Tundra for Kyle Busch Motorsports (KBM) in Sunday’s 64-lap event atCanadian Tire Motorsport Park in Bowmanville, Ontario. Tifft’s Tundra will be promoting a great cause this weekend, carrying the logo of Rally for Kids With Cancer, which is a unique car rally held each year in Toronto that has raised over $14 million for children’s cancer research and care at SickKids, a hospital for sick children affiliated with the University of Toronto.

 
While it will be Tifft’s first road-course start in the Truck Series, he is no stranger to making right and left-hand turns. The Ohio native grew up racing road-course go karts and as he continues to progress through the motorsports ranks has competed in a combined eight road-course events between the ARCA Racing Series and the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East and West divisions. His career-best road-course finish came in the ARCA Racing Series at New Jersey Motorsports Park in Millville last June, where he qualified third, led two laps and brought home a third-place finish.
 
The 19-year-old driver has logged a pair of road-course starts in 2015, qualifying 10th and finishing 15th in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West event at Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway in June, and qualifying second and finishing 14th at New Jersey Motorsports Park in the ARCA Racing Series in May. Tifft proved to be the driver to beat early in the race at New Jersey, leading 19 of the first 27 laps before being relegated to a 14th-place finish after experiencing a fuel pump issue while making a pit stop and losing several laps.
 
Sunday’s race north of the border will be Tifft’s eighth Truck Series start in 2015, six having come with KBM. The promising youngster has collected three top-10 finishes, including eighth-place results in his KBM debut behind the wheel of the No. 51 Tundra at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway in May, and his last appearance for the team driving the No. 54 Tundra at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway earlier this month. Including this weekend’s event at the 10-turn road course, he has five starts remaining this year, three with the No. 51 team (Talladega Superspeedway and Las Vegas Motor Speedway) and a pair with the No. 54 team (Chicagoland Speedway and Phoenix International Raceway).
 
Youth has prevailed over experience in two years of Truck Series action at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, with 17-year-old Chase Elliott winning the inaugural event in 2013, and 20-year-old Ryan Blaney earning the victory last year. Tifft is hoping that youth will once again be served Sunday north of the border and he can celebrate his first career NASCAR victory at the same time as bringing a smile to the faces of the SickKids.

KBM PR