Career Summary:

Travis Kvapil

  • March 01, 1976
  • 48
  • United States
  • Nascar Truck Series
  • 495
  • 10
  • 32
  • 5
  • 2.02%
  • 6.46%

Travis Kvapil is an American racing driver who made his debut in NASCAR in 2001 and his best results so far come from the Camping World Truck Series.

Local racing tracks master

Travis Wade Kvapil was born on 1st of March, 1976, in Janesville, Wisconsin. Working in his father’s garage, Travis learned a lot about cars, and as a teenager, he started to compete in many local races, becoming a kind of a legend because of his marvelous driving at short tracks. When he was 16, he debuted at the national level, driving at the nearby Rockford Speedway in NASCAR Weekly Racing Series. By the age of 18, he was the track champion and ready to progress to a higher level.

Travis Kvapil NASCAR

Travis Kvapil

NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Rookie of the Year

In 2001, Kvapil made his NASCAR Camping World Truck Series debut with Addington Racing and did really, becoming the Rookie of the Year with the fourth overall position at the end of the season. He even scored a win at Texas Motor Speedway and had an impressive number of 18 Top 10 finishes. The following year, Kvapil did well again, consistently being among the front-runners. He won the race in Memphis, had many Top 10 finishes and collected a total of 3039 points, finishing 9th overall.

The NASCAR title win in 2003 is one of the best moments in Kvapil's career

Kvapil was quickly established as an accomplished driver and he proved what he is capable of in 2003 when he won the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series title driving for Xpress Motorsports. Interestingly, he again had only one win, this time at Bristol, but missed the Top 10 finish in only three of 25 races that year. At the end, he was only nine points ahead of the runner-up Dennis Setzer.

Travis Kvapil NASCAR camping world truck champion

Travis Kvapil, 2003 NASCAR Camping World Truck champion

Sprint Cup debut

In 2004, driving for Bang! Racing, he failed to defend the title, but scored two wins at Michigan and New Hampshire. Thanks to a consistent form, Kvapil propelled in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series for the end of the year, appearing in five races for Penske-Jasper Racing. Even after unconvincing results, he earned a contract for the full-time 2005 season in #77 Dodge. In his rookie season in the series, Travis Kvapil was twice in Top 10, and that was a bit below the expectations.

Travis Kvapil, NASCAR, at Darlington, 2008

Travis Kvapil in #28 at Darlington, 2008

Return to the place of success

PPI Motorsports offered him to drive a #32 Chevy for 2006, but, this time, the results were even worse. For the 2007 campaign, Kvapil returned to the Camping World Truck Series and had a good time with Roush Fenway Racing. Travis won four races, which was his personal record, but at the end of the season, some bad performances resulted in him finishing 6th overall. He drove for the same team in the following year, but only in selected events, with the reason being that he got another chance in the Sprint Cup. Kvapil was behind the wheel of Yates Racing’s Ford #28 and during the first half of the season, he made some good results. However, his form dropped significantly later down the line.

Travis Kvapil NASCAR BK Racing

Travis Kvapil - BK Racing

Kvapil desperately tried to prove that he is capable of competing at the highest level in Sprint Cup. Unfortunately, during the next six seasons he managed to take only two Top 10 finishes, both at Talladega – in 2012 with BK Racing’s Toyota #93 and in 2014 with Circle Sport’s Chevy #33.

Hard times

After 2010, driving mainly for financially weaker teams in Camping World Truck Series, Kvapil could hardly achieve something worth mentioning. Reaching Top 20 was the best he could do with limited funding and personal problems off the track. In the autumn of 2013, he was arrested and charged with an assault on a female but was released on bail. Later, after pleading guilty, he accepted a plea deal and the case was dismissed.

For the 2016 NASCAR season, Travis Kvapil has a deal with MAKE Motorsports in Camping World Truck Series, but it is hard to believe that he can repeat the success from the start of his career.

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