The CARS Tour continues to make its impact on NASCAR.
The latest CARS Tour driver, in an increasingly long list, to have a solid beginning to his NASCAR career is Gavan Boschele.
Boschele, driving an entirely different type of race car (or in this case, truck), found his footing at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park, the same type of track that has raised his stock as a prospect.
“We executed well,” Boschele said after Friday night’s (July 24) NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race.
The 18-year-old finished eighth in his Truck Series debut. For a short track, IRP’s 2026 edition had particularly low attrition, which meant that Boschele had to wheel the No. 1 TRICON Garage Toyota without many breaks in the action. Qualifying 19th also gave him some work to do in order to catch up to the front of the pack.
He was realistic about what he needed to learn, and he carried that mindset over into the race.
“[I felt] pit road was probably gonna be my biggest struggle,” Boschele said.
“I honestly felt like I did pretty good.”
When someone makes their series debut, the goals are usually similar: run all the laps, stay out of trouble and improve your feel for the car (or truck) as the race progresses.
The No. 1 team worked the entire night to improve Boschele’s truck as he got more comfortable behind the wheel. Most important of all, he enjoyed it.
“It was really fun,” Boschele said.
“I like these things. I’m excited for the three more [Truck races] I have left this year.”
Those three races will be New Hampshire Motor Speedway (Aug. 22), Kansas Speedway (Sep. 26) and Martinsville Speedway (Oct. 30). That’s a short track, a one-mile track and an intermediate, which will allow him to improve on a different part of his race craft.
He was coy about his 2027 plans, saying there is nothing he knows of yet, but that great performances go a long way towards raising a driver’s stock.
So does a great debut and hitting the ground running, which is a performance Boschele should be proud of.
“I’m always holding myself to a standard,” Boschele said.
“I always want to win, but a top 10 in my debut… it feels pretty good.”
Kevin Nix has been with Frontstretch since February 2023. Hailing from Gilbert, Arizona, his dream is to be in the NASCAR media sphere full-time. He is a video assistant, working on the back end to streamline video and audio quality of all at-track interviews. Nix also writes about news every Monday for the site.
Nix graduated with a Master's Degree in Sports Journalism from ASU's Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication in Phoenix, Arizona. He also has bachelor's degrees in Communications and Political Science. In his downtime, he likes to read, play video games and take walks in the Arizona weather - when it's not too hot.