Just over a year ago, Brandon Wilkinson was competing full-time in super late model races across the Southeast. Now, although his role isn\u2019t yet officially recorded, he served as a Cup Series spotter for the first time, partnering with driver Ryan Preece and crew chief Derrick Finley during Wednesday night\u2019s Cook Out Crash event.<\/p>\n
While the Cook Out Crash is a preseason exhibition and doesn\u2019t count toward official standings, it still features Cup Series teams and drivers, making Wilkinson\u2019s involvement significant. \u201cThis is a Cup win,\u201d Wilkinson told Motorsport.com Wednesday night. \u201cWinning at a short track like this is special because Ryan and I both grew up racing on tracks like these.\u201d<\/p>\n
Preece connected with Wilkinson through Mike Herman Jr., a longtime spotter and mutual friend who currently works with Chris Buescher at RFK Racing. Wilkinson had previously worked with Ty Madejski, another spotter who has collaborated with Herman, and most recently with Gio Ruggiero, a competitor in the Truck Series. Preece immediately recognized Wilkinson\u2019s balanced, calm demeanor on the radio and brought him onto the No. 60 team when RFK Racing expanded last year.<\/p>\n
Their strong communication was crucial during the race, especially amid various challenges like selection rules, wet track conditions, and competitors pressing hard from behind. \u201cWe made a proactive, calculated choice regarding the selection and, although I was a bit nervous about taking the lead late, once the track dried, we got moving and just kept pushing,\u201d Wilkinson said. \u201cWe faced some setbacks early on, including a crash on the first restart, but we kept battling back.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite earning his first Cup Series win, Wilkinson stayed composed, sharing, \u201cIt\u2019s a dream come true, but my next goal is to qualify for the Daytona 500 and build on this momentum. Winning together on a short track like this means a lot to us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fan Take:<\/strong> Brandon Wilkinson\u2019s transition from late model racer to Cup Series spotter highlights how fresh talent behind the scenes can quickly impact the sport at its highest levels. This story is a reminder of the many paths into NASCAR\u2019s elite and signals exciting potential for new contributors shaping the future of racing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Just over a year ago, Brandon Wilkinson was competing full-time in super late model races across the Southeast. Now, although his role isn\u2019t yet officially recorded, he served as a Cup Series spotter for the first time, partnering with driver Ryan Preece and crew chief Derrick Finley during Wednesday night\u2019s Cook Out Crash event. While […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":41461,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[853],"tags":[114],"class_list":{"0":"post-41460","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nascar","8":"tag-nascar"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41460"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41460\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}