As the 2025 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season resumes in Sin City at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Friday (March 14), there’s one driver who has already tasted victory out west this season.
Rookie Dawson Sutton took home the season opener Super Late Model race for the Spears CARS Tour West at Kevin Harvick’s Kern Raceway back on Jan. 25, holding off teammate and mentor Kevin Harvick in doing so. Although Sutton will run full-time in the Truck Series and contend for Rookie of the Year, he’s not done with grassroots racing by any means.
In part two of his interview with Frontstretch, Sutton discusses his plans to run the full 2025 ASA Stars National Tour schedule. Additionally, he discusses which Truck Series races he looks forward to most, and expands more on his relationship with Rackley W.A.R. co-owner Willie Allen.
You can read part one of the interview here.
Anthony Damcott: You talked about Willie Allen earlier, co-owner of Rackley W.A.R. with your father. How much has he been a help making sure that you feel comfortable and that you’re ready for a full-time season? How has he worked with you and Curtis to make sure that you feel like you are as ready as you can be to take on a full season in the Truck Series?
Sutton: It’s really cool to have him as well. Like I said, Harvick’s a mentor, and Willie is also one. When I first started racing, he’s one of the reasons why I even started. He’s raced late models, he’s raced trucks, he’s done all this before, too. So it’s really cool to have him and he’s such a great person. Hopefully everything pans out really well, and I’m really excited to keep working with all these guys and hopefully go have a good next few years.
Damcott: When it was announced you were full-time Truck racing back in October, I saw quotes from your dad that said you guys basically set a three-year plan for you to prove yourself. And obviously now you’ve made it to the Truck Series full-time. For the time frame you and your dad set with that three-year mark, would you call making it to the Truck Series full-time ‘mission accomplished’? Or do you still think that there’s more to set out to achieve in year three?
Sutton: I feel like this is just a start. [Yes] it’s NASCAR, but overall my goal is to be in the Cup Series one day. And there’s a lot of other guys out there working really hard as well to be in the Cup Series, but it would be really cool to make it there one day. And to be in the Truck Series is really an honor — to race for Rackley W.A.R., I’m super blessed to have Rackley Roofing and all the guys backing me and helping me. But it’ll be a really cool year, because three years ago when I first started racing, I never thought I would be where I am now. So to be able to go in the late models and trucks and do what I did and continue working really hard at this, hopefully we can keep doing that and have fun.
Damcott: The Truck schedule kind of got a little bit of a revamp with the addition of Lime Rock Park and Michigan International Speedway coming back, going to Rockingham Speedway. What one Truck race is circled on your calendar this season that you’re looking forward to the most?
Sutton: I think there’s a lot of them. Nashville Superspeedway — the Rackley Roofing 200 — is definitely a big one. That one would be pretty awesome. [Also tracks like] Watkins Glen International and some of those ones. I don’t have a whole lot of road course experience, but to get to some of those, I think that’ll be pretty cool. Lime Rock has a ‘jump,’ and that looks pretty fun just because I’ve done it on iRacing a whole bunch. That one will be definitely crazy. [Also] going back to New Hampshire Motor Speedway. There’s a lot of them on the schedule that I’m looking forward to and there’s a lot of them hopefully that we can go win.
Damcott: The Truck Series is not the only thing that you’re going to be racing this year. You’ll be running the full ASA Stars National Tour season, am I correct in that?
Sutton: Yeah, I’m racing the full ASA Stars schedule as well. Had my first race there a few weeks ago at New Smyrna Speedway. We were running pretty good but ran out of fuel with, I think it was eight laps to go there. But I ran that last year as well, and that’s a super good series and it’s super competitive as well.
Damcott: So with that, obviously racers love to race, right? You come from the short track background. Aside from ASA, do you have an idea of if there’s somewhere like maybe in the zMAX CARS Tour or any additional races in the CARS Tour West where we might see you on an off week for the Truck Series?
Sutton: Like I said, ASA Stars, I’ll be running their whole series, so that’ll definitely consist of a good schedule [along] with the Truck Series. Hopefully I’ll also get behind the wheel of a late model stock or some road course TA2 races [in the Trans-Am Championship] or something in the near future. That would be really cool to have some stuff to fill my schedule for the rest of the year, not only with both of those, but hopefully get some road course experience and stuff like that as well.
Damcott: I know Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway is your home track. You made a lot of starts there in a late model. and that track is also a hot topic of ‘Should NASCAR return there?’ I wanted to ask you, do you think Nashville Fairgrounds is a track NASCAR should be racing at? And if so, if someone from NASCAR came to you and asked you to pitch them on Nashville Fairgrounds returning, what would be your pitch?
Sutton: You know, I don’t really have a pitch, but I really do think it should come back. It’s such an amazing track and I feel like I can drive that place with my eyes closed, just because I have so many laps there. It’s so close to home. I ran a whole season there last year and everything went really well. So hopefully NASCAR can get a deal coming out there. It would really be cool to race not only Nashville Superspeedway, but there too. But I really love the short tracks, and to be able to go back there someday and maybe race a truck or even a Cup Series [car] would be cool. Like I said, I don’t really have a pitch, but I really do think it should come back someday. I think we would put on a really crazy show.
Following the first two races of the season at Daytona International Speedway and Atlanta Motor Speedway, in which Sutton finished 25th and 17th, respectively, Sutton sits 22nd in the point standings. In the Rookie of the Year standings, he currently sits fourth.
Sutton and the rest of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series field will take to Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Friday, March 14 at 9 p.m. ET for the Ecosave 200. Television coverage can be found on FOX Sports 1, while the all-new NASCAR Racing Network will carry exclusive radio coverage for 2025 for the Craftsman Truck Series.
Anthony Damcott joined Frontstretch in March 2022. Currently, he is an editor and co-authors Fire on Fridays (Fridays); he is also the primary Truck Series reporter/writer and serves as an at-track reporter. He has also assisted with short track content and social media, among other duties he takes/has taken on for the site. In 2025, he became an official member of the National Motorsports Press Association. A proud West Virginia Wesleyan College alum from Akron, Ohio, Anthony is now a grad student. He is a theatre actor and fight coordinator in his free time.
You can keep up with Anthony by following @AnthonyDamcott on X.