Column By: SHANE CARLSON / RPW – NEWTON, IA – Jesse Little scored a career-best sixth-place finish at Iowa Speedway on Saturday night in the No. 97 JJL Motorsports Ford F-150.
“It was a good day for us. We didn’t qualify as well as we wanted to but we made some good adjustments during the race and got some good track position. The pit crew was phenomenal and I got lucky and we were just able to capitalize. We’re happy for one to go our way.”
The Sherills Ford, North Carolina native is running a part-time schedule with JJL Motorsports in 2018, a family-owned operation with limited funding.
In the season’s first nine races, Little has made four starts and he’s making the most of his opportunities, as he has scored three top-10s, including his best finish of sixth in Iowa over the weekend.
Little made his NASCAR Camping World Truck Series in 2015 and since has competed in a handful of races each year. Prior to his finish at Iowa, his previous career-best finish was earlier this season by way of an eighth-place finish at Atlanta.
As any driver will say, there’s always going to be room for improvement, and Little is already thinking about where he and his team need to improve.
“We need to get better. We need to work on our speed at these fast intermediate tracks but we’ll be alright.”
If Little and the No. 97 team continue to improve, expect the good results to continue.
“I’m happy for us to be competitively sixth, that’s a good day for us.”
Over the offseason, the team switched manufacturers from Toyota to Ford, acquiring equipment from Brad Keselowski Racing.
As for their 2018 plans, JJL Racing has eight to 10 races in the Truck Series on their schedule, as well as some ARCA races. The number of Truck Series races could potentially increase as well.
Little has accumulated two wins, 18 top-fives and 28 top-10s in NASCAR K&N Pro Series competition and four top-10s in 17 starts in NASCAR Camping World Truck Series competition.
