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Travis Kvapil
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Travis Kvapil (pronounced kwah-pil) (born March 1, 1976 in Janesville, Wisconsin) is an American race car driver. He currently drives the #28 Ford Fusion for Yates Racing in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.
il began racing at the age of 16 at Rockford Speedway in 1992 by competing in the NASCAR Weekly Racing Series. Kvapil won the American Short Tracker division track championship in 1994 at Rockford. He then moved up to super late models at Madison International Speedway in 1995 and was the track Rookie of the Year.
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Encyclopedia
Travis Kvapil (pronounced kwah-pil) (born March 1, 1976 in Janesville, Wisconsin) is an American race car driver. He currently drives the #28 Ford Fusion for Yates Racing in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.
Early career
Kvapil began racing at the age of 16 at Rockford Speedway in 1992 by competing in the NASCAR Weekly Racing Series. Kvapil won the American Short Tracker division track championship in 1994 at Rockford. He then moved up to super late models at Madison International Speedway in 1995 and was the track Rookie of the Year. He also became the track's Late Model champion a year later in 1996. Soon there after, Kvapil moved up to the NASCAR RE/MAX Series Series. He finished in the tenth and fourth spots in the series' point standings in 1999 and 2000, respectively.
NASCAR career
2001 - 2004
In 2001, Kvapil made his debut in the Craftsman Truck Series driving for Addington Racing in their #60 Chevrolet, sponsored by CAT Rental Stores. In his twenty-first start, right before the season concluded, at Texas Motor Speedway, he won his first Truck Series race in the Silverado 350. Once the 2001|2001 NASCAR Season had finished, his eighteen top-10s contributed him to a fourth place in the driver standings. He was also awarded as the Craftsman Truck Series Rookie of the Year. For the next season, in 2002, Kvapil managed to match his win total, from the previous season, by winning the O'Reilly Auto Parts 200 at Memphis Motorsports Park. However, his top-10 count dipped down to fourteen, to which he was located in at the ninth spot in the final driver standings.
Due to funding issues at Addington, Kvapil switched to the #16 IWX MotorFreight sponsored, Chevrolet for Steve Coulter's Xpress Motorsports team for 2003. He once again won one race, with this time being at Bristol Motor Speedway for the O'Reilly 200 presented by Valvoline Maxlife. Kvapil, however, improved in his top-10 amount by getting one 88% of the time (Twenty-two in a total of a twenty-five race season). Because of these finishes, and largely because of the struggles of the drivers in front of him in the standings, Kvapil was in position to overtake two drivers, Brendan Gaughan and Ted Musgrave, in the driver standings, at the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway. After Gaughan crashed out of the race and Musgrave was black flagged, Kvapil became the 2003 Craftsman Truck Series champion. He also completed every lap except for one throughout the entire season, which recorded a 99.9% lap completion rate for him.
Before the next season arose, Kvapil again changed teams, this time for Alexander Meshkin in the #24 Bang! Racing Toyota, which was sponsored by Line-X-Benders and Ebay. In the thirteen race of the 2004 Craftsman Truck Series Season, he won his first race of the year during the Line-X Spray-on Truck Bedliners 200 at Michigan International Speedway. The win gave Toyota their first win in the top tiers of NASCAR. Two months later, Kvapil won once again at New Hampshire International Speedway during the Sylvania 200 presented by Lowe's. Not long after his win in New Hampshire, during qualifying for the American Racing Wheels 200 at California Speedway, he won his first Bud Pole Award in the Truck Series. After winning the championship in the previous year, Travis Kvapil dropped down to the eighth spot in the final driver standings of the season.
Personal life
Travis Kvapil is currently married and has three kids with his wife. The three reside in Mooresville, North Carolina. While building-up his racing career, he competed against Wisconsin native, and future NASCAR Winston Cup Series Champion, Matt Kenseth at Madison International Speedway. Kvapil, like Kenseth, is an avid Green Bay Packers fan. During the 2006 NASCAR Season, Travis Kvapil, along with his #32 Tide team from PPI Motorsports, appeared on an episode of Guiding Light.
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