After competing part time in the ARCA Menards Series the past three seasons, Andy Jankowiak is hopeful he will chase the championship in a full-time effort in 2024, he confirmed to Frontstretch. Jankowiak will pilot the No. 73 for KLAS Motorsports, a second-year team, in at least 12 races but ideally all 20.
“We did not hit every goal that we had for sponsorship so because of that we are still working toward that,” Jankowiak told Frontstretch. “We’re committed to 12 and we’re going to go to Iowa Speedway, which is the seventh race. So we’re committed to 12 races throughout the season including the first seven. I think once we get to Iowa, that’s kind of when the short track portion of the schedule starts. It is going to depend on sponsorship, it is going to depend on how things are going, where we are in points. There will be a lot of external factors that will go into the decision. Certainly if we find funding it’s a no-brainer. If we are a little short of our goals as far as dollars go, then it becomes a decision for our ownership team, Kevin Lapierre and Andy Seuss.”
Whelen Engineering will be back on board as a sponsor. The company increased its support of KLAS so it will be spaced out more over the 12 races. Florida Safety Systems will be back as well as Automotive Consultants of Ithaca and Yukon Creek Sportsmen’s Club are supporting Jankowiak throughout the whole season. V1 Fiber, Sbarro Pizza, Thermal Foams, Inc. and Planter Box Direct will all sponsor Jankowiak for a few races too.
Jankowiak has been delivering pizzas for almost 20 years. He has 24 career starts with two top fives, both in 2023, and 13 top 10s. He is eager to improve upon his career-best 2023 in 2024.
“I think if we go to the racetrack the way that we are capable of going to the track, obviously we are a step behind Venturini Motorsports and Joe Gibbs Racing, but if we could pull through with consistency and racing against some young drivers, you never know how the chips are going to fall,” he noted. “Maybe people are inexperienced a little bit and we’ll hang in there. I feel very good, if we ran the whole season, of being top three in points. Certainly for me, in my career, that would be an outstanding achievement. For KLAS in our second year to come into ARCA and compete for a top three in points position, that would be a huge achievement for all of us because we are all invested in all of it. I’m invested in it as a driver.”
Mike Dayton will again serve as his crew chief with team owners Lapierre and Seuss committed to success themselves.
Seuss has 13 ARCA starts of his own, most recently in the 2018 season opener at Daytona International Speedway. As co-owner of KLAS, Seuss primarily competed at Daytona and Talladega Superspeedway. He accumulated one top five, a runner-up finish at Talladega, and four top 10s.
“It’s great having Andy and Mike Dayton as assets with their experience,” Jankowiak added. “Dayton, my crew chief, brings a wealth of knowledge to all these different situations.”
The team already has five racecars: a superspeedway car, a short track car, two intermediate cars and a road course car. If Jankowiak indeed runs the full season, the team needs one more addition to its fleet: a dirt car. While the team performed well in its part-time effort in 2023, the increased races could put more pressure on the program, especially if racecars need to be repaired.
“The biggest challenge from what we had been doing is just when you run a partial schedule you can move at your own speed,” Jankowiak continued. “You get little breaks here and there. You build yourself into a schedule that you think is beneficial. A full-time schedule dictates you a little bit more than you dictate your schedule. The challenge is going to be when things are going super well, if we get into a jingle where we got to get a car fixed quickly, having good team chemistry and being able to get everything back together and overcoming those issues. When you run a 20-race season with five cars, we hope we have good luck every week but the reality of it is sooner or later it is going to be tough. I think working through those situations and having new deadlines is the biggest challenge of all.
“As far as the circuits I’ve tapped into all of it by now other than the dirt stuff. So that would be a little bit different. I got some dirt background. Andy and my crew chief Mike Dayton are good at getting me data to have what I need to give me the best chance on the racetrack as the driver. So I’m sure they will give me someone to talk to. We’ll know what we’re in for. Hopefully, I can adapt pretty quickly and we’ll see how it goes.”
Of Jankowiak’s top 10s, three have come at short tracks. He knows to achieve the top three in points, the team must be better at short tracks.
“We ran Toledo Speedway the past couple of years which is a true ARCA short track,” he stated. “So we got a little bit of experience there. We have a little work to do there too. We were not exactly where we thought we wanted to be for Toledo last year so there will be a little homework to do there.
“We focused more on the intermediate stuff than anything else. The few times we went short track racing, it was our first time out with the car that year. Just getting things dialed in. We had good short-run speed but we did not get where we wanted to be with long-run speed. Which it’s normal; you’re going to have bumps in the road. You don’t walk into this stuff expecting it to be easy.”
While it is not easy to reach ARCA victory lane, especially with now 10 other drivers set to run the full season, Jankowiak is hopeful his big track successes coupled with everyone’s ambition will bring the team to victory lane.
“We’re probably stronger on superspeedways than anywhere else,” he said. “We showed our potential last year with top-five runs at Charlotte Motor Speedway and Michigan International Speedway. We’re not quite there [in contention for a victory] yet. On the right day and circumstance though, we are close enough where we can win. Raw speed-wise, we have a little bit to gain there. That’s normal for a first-year team last year. Building by building, we got a couple of guys in the shop last year making this all work and now we are growing a little bit. We got a new guy down at the shop in North Carolina. Everything is starting to come together. To start the year with some good runs like we did last year, a top-10 streak at the end of the year which was a good shot in the arm because we also had some bad luck to start the year. Just proud of everything and trying to be successful getting as much out of it as we can having some fun and I am as competitive as I’ve ever been.”
Mark Kristl joined Frontstretch at the beginning of the 2019 NASCAR season. He is the site's ARCA Menards Series editor. Kristl is also an Eagle Scout and a proud University of Dayton alum.