Travis Kvapil gave Toyota its first NASCAR victory at Michigan in July. Credit: Autostock

Kvapil still riding high after Michigan win

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- You can believe that if Travis Kvapil ends up in Nashville Superspeedway's Victory Lane this weekend for the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Toyota Tundra 200, he won't be celebrating with any peanuts -- or anything with any kind of nut.

Travis Kvapil

No, this isn't a new NASCAR mandate for Victory Lane, but one wonders if it might be soon.

Kvapil doesn't mind some peanuts every now and then, especially in the off-season.

But at the track? No way, man, are you nuts?

To Kvapil, peanuts at a track are as much bad luck as the No. 13, a green car, a black cat and a broken mirror put together. He avoids them like Jeff Gordon avoids Powerade.

Kvapil blamed (or credited?) a guy named Jimmy Pierson for the peanut superstition. Pierson used to race in Wisconsin and Illinois when Kvapil was younger, and Travis and his father helped Pierson.

"I don't know where he came up with it," Kvapil said. "It was always his superstition not to have peanuts around the racetrack, especially race day. I guess I kind of carried on that tradition."

When Kvapil started driving, Pierson lent a hand. But it wasn't filled with peanuts.

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"I don't know if there's any truth to it or not," Kvapil said with a snicker. "My family and friends, we joke around with it quite a bit."

Kvapil recalls a long tow to Colorado for a NASCAR Re/Max Challenge Series race, when brother Brian munched on a Snickers bar -- packed with peanuts, of course -- as the guys neared the Colorado border.

But when Pierson learned of Brian's snack, there was hell to pay.

"You need to go to the bathroom and get rid of that Snickers bar," Pierson told Brian when the group stopped at a gas station.

He wasn't kidding. Well, maybe he was.

Once Travis moved up the ranks into the Craftsman Truck Series, he more or less had forgotten about the tradition. But it all came hauntingly back at Texas Motor Speedway earlier this year.

Seems the track had given gift baskets to all the drivers, but when Kvapil was wading through the trinkets, he found a bag of peanuts.

Kvapil freaked.

"Oh, no, we're screwed," Kvapil said. "You can't have peanuts in the trailer on race day."

Jennifer Jaudon, Kvapil's public relations representative, was summoned to take the bag out of the hauler and into the trash. The peanuts, not Jaudon.

"About 20 laps into the race, I ended up crashing out," Kvapil said.

But it wasn't just that particular bag. Kvapil's wife, Jennifer, had bought a bag of peanuts on the day of the race. Didn't matter that Jennifer was at home and nowhere near the track.

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"We never really buy peanuts," Kvapil said. "She was in the store that afternoon and bought a bag of peanuts. They were sitting on the counter during the race. She didn't even open them up, but they were in the house.

"The deck was stacked against me that day."

Travis saw them on the counter when he got home.

"What are these?" Kvapil said. "When did you get these? We crashed last night."

"Oh," Jennifer said. "I bought them yesterday. I wasn't going to tell you until you got here."

Maybe there is something to this superstition.

"A lot of it's just coincidence," Kvapil said. "We have fun with it."

But since Texas, there have been no peanuts around the No. 24 Toyota. Is it a coincidence he won at Michigan and almost pulled off another victory last week at Indianapolis?

Maybe. But what can't be denied is the boost of confidence the victory at Michigan have given Kvapil and his Bang Racing team. That was Toyota's and Bang's first victory, and the team still has its collective smile.

"It put a bunch of confidence in our team," Kvapil said. "It really got us pumped up for the second half of the season."

Kvapil sits sixth in the Craftsman Truck Series points standings, 189 behind leader Bobby Hamilton.

"We're definitely going for wins right now," Kvapil said. "That's the best way you can make up points. But at the same time, we know we've still got a shot at this championship, so we've got to go at them wins smart."

That means Kvapil won't be taking any crazy chances on the track.

And no peanuts, either. There weren't any at Michigan, that's for sure.

"I don't think so," Kvapil said. "None that I'm aware of, anyway. Maybe that's the key is if I don't know nothing about it, maybe we're all right."