Brandon Grosso (born March 30, 2000) is an American professional stock car racing driver. He most recently competed part-time in the ARCA Menards Series in both 2017 and 2018, driving the No. 11 and No. 52 cars for Ken Schrader Racing. Since then, he has been without a ride in that series, but he does currently compete in crate modified racing.
| Brandon Grosso | |
|---|---|
| Nationality |  American |
| Born | March 30, 2000 Montgomery Township, New Jersey |
| ARCA Menards Series career | |
| Debut season | 2017 |
| Former teams | Ken Schrader Racing |
| Starts | 17 |
| Wins | 0 |
| Poles | 0 |
| Best finish | 21st in 2018 |
| Finished last season | 21st (2018) |
| Previous series | |
| 2017 | CARS Late Model Stock Tour |
| Last updated on: January 24, 2020. | |
Raised in Montgomery Township, New Jersey, Grosso attended Montgomery High School.[1]
Racing career
edit
Grosso started racing at age 4 when his father gave him a quarter midget for his birthday, and eventually began to compete frequently in dirt modified races at New Egypt Speedway in his home state of New Jersey. Grosso's parents, Rick and Nanci, were the owners of the racetrack from 1997 to 2006, buying the track when it was dilapidated, and renovating it before selling it to other owners.[2][3]
He drove a full season in the CARS Late Model Stock Tour in 2017, driving a car owned by NASCAR on NBC pit reporter Marty Snider.
He made his first start in the ARCA Series later that year at the dirt track of DuQuoin, earning a fifth place finish driving the No. 11 car for Ken Schrader Racing in a partnership with Andy Hillenburg's Fast Track Racing team.[4]
Schrader later signed him on for a full season the following year in his primary No. 52 car, replacing 2017 champion Austin Theriault, who was released from the team due to sponsorship issues. With big shoes to fill, Grosso made his first start at the second race of the season at Nashville due to not being old enough to run the season-opener at Daytona which was before his 18th birthday on March 30.[5] However, under ARCA rules, Grosso was allowed to participate in the series' testing at the track in January as well as run one lap in practice for the race there in February before being required to withdraw, the same situation Riley Herbst was faced with in 2017.[6] Theriault was supposed to replace him for Daytona, but later in the offseason, the team signed Will Rodgers to drive for them, and he brought sponsorship.
Grosso was eventually released from Schrader's team, and he was replaced by his teammate Rodgers, who after subbing for Grosso at Daytona had been running a part-time schedule in the No. 11 KSR-Hillenburg car, but was moved over to Schrader's No. 52 to run the remainder of his schedule.
Although Grosso did not make any ARCA or stock car starts for another team for the rest of 2018 or in 2019, he was still racing. He ran in Saturday night crate modified events in his own No. 32 car at New Egypt and other tracks in the area.[7][8]
Personal life
editGrosso is from the Belle Mead section of Montgomery Township, New Jersey, and is a 2018 graduate of Montgomery High School.[6] His dad was friends with his high school principal, who allowed Grosso to have extra absences during the school year so he could go racing.[2]
Motorsports career results
editARCA Racing Series
edit(key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)
| ARCA Racing Series results | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Team | No. | Make | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | ARSC | Pts | |||||||||||||||||||
| 2017 | Schrader-Hillenburg Racing | 11 | Toyota | DAY | NSH | SLM | TAL | TOL | ELK | POC | MCH | MAD | IOW | IRP | POC | WIN | ISF | ROA | DSF 5 |
SLM | CHI | KEN | KAN | 78th | 205 | |||||||||||||||||||
| 2018 | DAY Wth |
21st | 1120 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Ken Schrader Racing | 52 | Ford | NSH 9 |
SLM 9 |
TAL 20 |
TOL 6 |
CLT 17 |
POC | MCH | MAD | GTW | CHI | IOW | ELK | POC | ISF | BLN | DSF | SLM | IRP | KAN | |||||||||||||||||||||||
* Season still in progress
1 Ineligible for series points
References
edit- ^ Radebaugh, Don. "High school dirt modified ace Grosso preps for full pull ahead with KSR" Archived 2019-07-26 at the Wayback Machine, ARCA Menards Series, February 22, 2018. Accessed January 25, 2020. "Seventeen-year-old Brandon Grosso will soon be graduating from Montgomery High School with his well-earned diploma. However, the New Jersey native won't be around for the ceremony in June because he'll be strapped into the No. 52 Ken Schrader Racing ARCA car at Gateway Motorsports Park."
- ^ a b Curley, Chuck (May 27, 2016). "Auto Racing". Republican Herald. Archived from the original on 2018-02-25. Retrieved January 24, 2020.
- ^ "High School Student Making Racing His Career". Tomorrow'sTechnician.com. Babcox Media Inc. June 1, 2016. Retrieved January 24, 2020.
- ^ "Talented 17-Year-Old Brandon GrossoTeaming with Ken Schrader Racing". Ken Schrader Racing. WebRunners Inc. September 1, 2017. Retrieved January 25, 2020.
- ^ Radebaugh, Don (January 10, 2018). "Rookie Brandon Grosso teams with KSR for full '18 season". ARCARacing.com. Retrieved January 24, 2020.
- ^ a b Radebaugh, Don (February 22, 2018). "High school dirt modified ace Grosso preps for full pull ahead with KSR". ARCARacing.com. Archived from the original on July 26, 2019. Retrieved January 24, 2020.
- ^ "Grosso Gets Job Done At New Egypt; Simmons Mr. Crate Modified 2019". New Egypt Speedway. August 4, 2019. Retrieved January 25, 2020.
- ^ Strunsky, Steve (August 31, 2019). "It's plumbers vs. bankers at N.J. speedway where average joes race for glory". NJ.com. Advance Local Media LLC. Retrieved January 25, 2020.
External links
edit- Brandon Grosso driver statistics at Racing-Reference