Las Vegan Matt Jaskol lands 4-race Xfinity Series deal

Former karting champion Matt Jaskol of Las Vegas is going NASCAR racing.

Jaskol, 36, has announced a four-race deal that will see him make his Xfinity Series debut in the No. 13 MBM Motorsports Toyota Supra on April 9 at Martinsville Speedway in Virginia.

The former Formula One Red Bull Driver Search veteran came up through the open-wheel ranks where he drove a factory kart for IndyCar veteran and former Las Vegan Paul Tracy with AJ Allmendinger as a teammate. Allmendinger, who drove in the Indianapolis 500 for Roger Penske, won the recent Xfinity Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Jaskol competed in several steppingstone series with an eye on driving at Indy, making it as far at the triple-A Indy Lights series in which he had five starts. More recently, he has served as an Indy 500 spotter for 2016 race winner Alex Rossi and Marco Andretti.

Although the Martinsville race will be Jaskol’s first start in a NASCAR touring series event, he has driven in late model events at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway Bullring and once tested with NASCAR’s Roush Racing team as part of the “Roush Racing: Driver X” reality series on the Discovery Channel.

Contact Ron Kantowski at rkantowski@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0352. Follow @ronkantowski on Twitter.