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Author: Briar Starr

Five Of The Six Truck Series Playoff Drivers Have Solid Day At Martinsville

The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series kicked-off its Round of 6 this past Saturday afternoon at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, thus setting off a four-race stretch to the Championship 4 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Five of the six drivers all placed in the top 10.

The first of the five was Matt Crafton. Crafton started second and finished second after leading 102 laps and winning the first stage. He lost the lead on the final restart to eventual race winner, Noah Gragson, who passed him on the outside after the restart. Crafton now sits third -15.

Johnny Sauter finishing third shouldn’t be a surprise in the truck series, especially at Martinsville where his team was the defending race winner. He started the race out strong by qualifying fourth. In Stage 1, he placed second. Stage 2 was basically flip-flopped as Sauter won it and Crafton finished second. Sauter would challenge for the win multiple times but settled for third. He is only three points behind in the playoff standings.

“We had a good day, just didn’t execute when we needed to,” Sauter said. “It’s unfortunate, but we had a fast ISM Connect Chevy. Joe did a good job; all the guys at GMS did a great job. We had a fast truck on that first run but that adjustment we made just wasn’t the right one I guess. Nonetheless, I still think track position is king. You get out in clean air and it’s dominant. I feel like anymore, everyone runs the same speed, so when you give up seven spots it’s pretty tough to overcome. But with that being said I’ve made plenty of mistakes myself, it happens, I can’t be mad about it. Despite it all, it was a good points day and we’re just getting started in what I believe is the part of the schedule that really plays into our strengths.”

Next up on the list is a driver who has been dominant all year long and in the Round of 8, Christopher Bell. He had somewhat of a decent showing by finishing eighth after getting spun earlier in the race on lap 123, bringing out the fourth caution. The Norman, Oklahoma driver scored another top 10 finish and is currently leading the playoff standings.

“I don’t know, our JBL Tundra was really, really strong throughout the second stage,” Bell said. ” I don’t know, other than that second stage we struggled to get going, but I’m not really sure what happened getting into (turn) three there. I thought I left Matt (Crafton) enough room, but overall it was not the day we wanted, but we were able to salvage a good finish out of it and got some stage points in the second stage. We’ll move on to Texas (Motor Speedway) and hopefully be a lot better than we were today.”

The Las Vegas winner, Ben Rhodes, scored his 12th top 10 finish of the year and is fourth in the standings, -34 points. He is certainly not out of it yet, but will most likely have to get a few more stage wins and a victory to get to Homestead. Rhodes had a solid showing of ninth after starting third, but it was earned the hard way.

“Yeah, we survived, but just barely,” Rhodes said. ” I didn’t survive in the position that I wanted to survive in. I wish we were a little bit further up. The whole race was a little bit frustrating. We had a top-five truck, I felt like. We ran up there the whole day. I feel like we made a bad call on pit strategy because we came in, and everybody else stayed out. Then that just put us in the back, and we just got knocked into the wall – bounced around like a pinball. All-in-all, our Safelite Tundra was fast, we just didn’t get back up through the field like we wanted to, and we saw that with a lot of trucks today. I feel like maybe we missed it on pit strategy, just a little bit. We probably could have had a little bit better day, but overall still an okay day for points. Just always wish it could be a little better.”

Austin Cindric rounds out the five playoff contenders having a decent showing at Martinsville. The Columbus, Ohio driver earned his 13th top 10 finish of the year by finishing 10th. He now sits fifth, -45 from first. Cindric placed seventh in Stage 1, did not finish in the top 10 in Stage 2 but came home in the top 10.

“It was a solid finish by our Fitzgerald Glider Kits Ford F-150 team and we moved up one spot in the championship standings,” Cindric said. “I’m happy with it. We have a pretty clean truck, all things considered. I think we got the most out of it today and we need to keep having races like this.”

The Camping World Truck Series heads to the mid-west this Friday night at Texas Motor Speedway for the JAGS Metals 350.

October 31, 2017
KBM Drivers Gilliland and Burton Earn Top Five Finishes at Martinsville

Kyle Busch Motorsports teammates Todd Gilliland and Harrison Burton both had a great day in the Camping World Truck Series race at Martinsville Speedway and even had some fun racing with each other, as well.

First off, Burton qualified in 10th place, his best career starting position, for the second time. By having a strong truck contending for the win, he finished 10th in Stage 1 and sixth in Stage 2. After various pit strategies and stops, the Huntersville, North Carolina scored a career-best finish of fourth.

““I just want to say how proud I am of my whole team,” Burton said. “We unloaded on Friday with a fast truck, we qualified well and we raced even better. Martinsville has given me trouble in the past, but I think I learned a lot from my previous races here and it showed today. Everyone at KBM worked hard to bring me a fast No. 51 DEX Imaging Tundra for my final race of the season and I’m happy with my fourth-place finish.”

In just his fifth race, Gilliland had scored his second career-best finish. He fell behind in Stage 1 when he made a pit stop to allow the crew to fix his truck and finished 15th in the first stage.

Stage 2 was much better for the 17-year-old. After restarting ninth, he would quietly finish in the seventh position. When all was said and done, the scoring pylon showed Gilliland fifth right behind his teammate, Burton. It was Gilliland’s second-best career finish.

“It was a good day for our Pedigree Toyota Kyle Busch Motorsports team,” Gilliland said. “We struggled really bad in the beginning and then made some really good changes to be able to battle up there into the top five. I’m really proud of this whole KBM team – Pedigree, Toyota coming on board and helping to get us here. It’s fun racing teammates up there. I just wish we were a little further ahead but really happy to get a fifth-place finish here at Martinsville.”

October 31, 2017
Matt Crafton Finishes A Disappointing Second At Martinsville

It has been two years since the two-time NASCAR Camping World Truck Series champion Matt Crafton has landed in victory lane at Martinsville Speedway. Unfortunately, he came up one spot short Saturday in the Texas Roadhouse 200 on the final restart of the day.

Crafton qualified in the second starting position. He took the lead on Lap 40 and stayed there to win Stage 1, gaining 10 championship playoff points.

In the second stage, Crafton and Sauter battled back and forth for the top spot, but Crafton fell to second in Stage 2.

He then retook the lead on lap 122 and held it for 69 laps, until the final caution came out on lap 184. It was then on the final restart when Crafton lost the lead to eventual race winner Noah Gragson and settled for a second-place finish.

Crafton now sits +15 ahead of the cut line heading to Texas Motor Speedway, where he won twice in 2014 and 2015.

“We gave away the win on that restart there,” Crafton said. “The outside rolled on the start – the bottom rubbered up so much – and the top just had a good groove. But, once you got going, the bottom would be preferred. On a restart, you can make the outside roll, because there’s not as much rubber built up on the bottom. This is just like adding salt to the wound – we had such a good Menards Toyota Tundra today.”

October 30, 2017
Gragson Earns First Ever Career Win At Martinsville Speedway

After missing out on the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series playoffs early this year, Noah Gragson ended up in victory lane by beating Matt Crafton after a late race restart with less than ten laps to go.

Earlier in the day, Chase Briscoe and playoff contender Matt Crafton, set the front row in qualifying Saturday morning.

The stages were broken up into 50/50/100.

In the first stage, Briscoe jumped out to the lead and led early. However, on lap 20, he started to get involved with lap traffic and that allowed Crafton to close in.

The first caution came out on lap 36 for playoff contender, John Hunter Nemechek, who hit the wall in turns 1 and 2 after loosing the brakes, thus ending his day early and would wind up 30th.

The race remained clean and green after the restart, and Matt Crafton won stage 1 to earn ten championship playoff points.

Stage 2 restarted on lap 60 and went to lap 100.

Just like the ending of stage 1, stage 2 did not have much action. Johnny Sauter took the lead on lap 72 and held on from there to win stage 2.

After the pit stops, Bell and Ryan Truex came out the leaders by taking two tires only. Crafton and Noah Gragson was third and fourth with four fresh tires.

Stage 3 began on lap 111 or 89 laps to go, it was action packed with a few cautions mixed in the middle.

Bell led early in the race, but on lap 121, he was accidentally spun out after making contact with Crafton in turns 3 and 4. Crafton reported that the contact was “not intentional” on the radio.

With 64 laps to go, former playoff contender, Chase Briscoe went around in the corner after cutting a left rear tire down thus regulating him back in the pack.

Crafton was back in the lead with 57 to go until a late race caution on lap 184, for Bayley Currey who spun by making contact with Jeffrey Abbey

The winning move came with ten to go on the restart, as Gragson made the power move on the outside of Crafton and took the lead, eventual win with nine to go.

Gragson led once for ten laps and this was his first ever career NASCAR Camping World Truck Series win in his 22nd career start.

There were six cautions for 45 laps and five leaders among seven lead changes.

Playoff Standings
1. Christopher Bell +45
2. Johnny Sauter +42
3. Matt Crafton +30
4. Ben Rhodes +11
Below the cut line
5. Austin Cindric -11
6. John Hunter Nemechek -28

Next Up: The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series continue their run toward the championship at Homestead-Miami next Friday night at Texas Motor Speedway.

October 28, 2017
Getting To Know John Hunter Nemechek

John Hunter Nemechek’s road to NASCAR has been an interesting one. The Mooresville, North Carolina driver is the son of two-time NASCAR XFINITY Series champion, Joe Nemechek.

Before getting his first start in NASCAR, John became interested in racing through his dad and has been involved in the sport since then.

“The first time I went to a racetrack I was two weeks old,” Nemechek said. “I’ve grown up around the sport and I always knew I wanted to race from a young age. I just didn’t know if it was cars, motocross, I had no idea what exactly I wanted to race. I always loved being around the racetrack with the guys and hearing the cars soar by, and hearing the motors run was definitely something special. I got my first go-cart when I was three-years-old and continued to progress from there and moved there from motocross.”

“I played stick-and-ball sports as well,” he continued. “I always came back to racing and stock cars was where I came back to. The motocross thing was cool, but I enjoyed being in a closed-cockpit environment and having a lot of fun.”

Growing up, there were a lot of special memories for Nemechek and it was an early one as well.

“My first real stock car win,” he said. “Had quite a few quarter-midget wins and motocross wins. The Allison legacy win was probably my most special, just because Dad was there and normally he wasn’t able to be there when I was racing. So, it was neat to have him there for the first one (win).”

Being part of a racing family, Nemechek was around with his dad at an early age.

“It was a lot of fun,” he said. “Being able to grow up with Motor Racing Outreach, around the racetrack and the community, outside of the racecars, everyone is one big family in NASCAR. It was definitely an experience that I’m glad and blessed to have the opportunity to be able to grow up in Dad’s footsteps and see what he did each and every weekend. Now for myself to be there growing up with Chase Elliott, Ryan Blaney, the guys that are racing in the cup series now. Hopefully, we’ll be there one day racing against them.”

Earlier this season, Nemechek scored two emotional wins at Gateway and Iowa and that was a huge part of his career moving forward. Important enough, that if the team didn’t win at Gateway, they possibly might not be around today.

“Gateway was definitely a huge relief for us (NEMCO Motorsports),” he said. “We didn’t know exactly how many races we would be able to get to for the rest of the year at that time. Sponsorship wasn’t there and we didn’t have all the races sold, had we not won Gateway, Iowa would have been our last race.”

“Luckily, we were able to get to victory lane there,” he said. “It was certainly emotional from the fact that we didn’t know what the future was going to hold for us. Iowa was proof that we could win back to back and it was a relief as well, but not as big as Gateway. I think Iowa was more of a statement.”

Earlier this year on throwback weekend at Darlington Raceway, a couple of the truck series drivers paid tribute with a special paint scheme on their vehicle. For John, he ran the old BellSouth colors in honor of his dad, at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park and it was really special for him to do that.

“We have a warehouse here in Mooresville, North Carolina and it has one of almost every car that dad has ever driven paint scheme wise or each team,” Nemechek said. “Every time we go in there, the most special one to him is the BellSouth colors, just because that’s when he got his first ever Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series win and it was special to be able to throw it back to that, running those colors.”

“It stands out, it’s the one that’s always stood out to me,” he said. “People know dad by that in back of the days, so it was pretty cool.”

In the beginning of the 2017 season, NASCAR implemented stage racing, which broke up the races into three segments for all three series. By doing that, it has made the racing much more exciting and tougher to win.

“It’s definitely made racing more exciting,” Nemechek said. “It makes everyone stay on their toes, making every driver push as hard as they can to gain as many points as possible each and every weekend. Throughout the whole race, we used to see drivers stay back and save their stuff (equipment) for the end of the race, however, stage racing throws a different factor into it by pushing hard and leading laps, and finishing up front for each stage to gain points.”

“I know it’s helped us a few times this year and has hurt us,” he says. “I definitely think it’s a good thing from a racing perspective and to make things more exciting.”

Sometimes there are races where drivers wish they had another chance at winning a race. For Nemechek, the one race that stands out to him is Canadian Tire Motorsports Park.

“At Canada, we had a shot to win and had a truck that could have won, but I ended up speeding on pit road,” he said. “We were going to come out the leader on a green flag pit stop and we were going to be way ahead, and I sped on pit road where it pretty much cost us the race.”

Retirement is a long way for the young 20-year-old, but for Nemechek, he would like to have every track crossed off his list before he retires.

“Each and every one of them,” he said. “That’s the goal before I retire. I wanna be able to win at every racetrack on the circuit in that (trucks) series, or in all three series. Just to be able to have wins at each racetrack shows that you’re diverse at what you can do. It also shows that you’re a great driver.”

The 2017 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series season is just about over. At this point, Nemechek has two wins, seven top fives and 10 top 10 finishes. However, he thinks he could have been a little better than that.

“At this point in the season, I would give myself a B+ or A-,” he said. “I’ve had some mistakes this year, I learned some stuff the hard way but every time you’re in a racecar turning laps, you’re always learning something. I definitely think I’ve learned things the hard way, but I won’t make the same mistake twice because it only takes once.”

“I don’t think I’ve been an A+ driver this year because of the mistakes but hopefully through these playoffs, we’re going to be an A+ team/driver making it to the Final Four at Homestead run for the championship.”

With the Round of 6 beginning this weekend at Martinsville, Nemechek is excited as it is statistically one of his better racetracks, with three top fives and three top 10 finishes and a best finish of second coming in 2015 and ’16.

“I am really looking forward to Martinsville,” Nemechek said. “Martinsville has been a great place to myself and our team. I finished second and third there in the last three out of four times, or four out of five times. It’s been a great place for us, I’ve always run well and have had fast trucks there. I’m confident in this weekend and in our team as I’m ready to get this Round of 6 kicked off.

You can follow John Hunter Nemechek on twitter @JHNemechek and Nemco Motorsports @NEMCOMotorsports.

October 26, 2017
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Preview-Martinsville
The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series gets back on the road this week as they head to Martinsville Speedway on Saturday afternoon for the running of the Texas Roadhouse 200. This will begin a four-week stretch leading up to the championship race at Homestead-Miami Friday night November 17.

There are currently 34 trucks listed on the preliminary entry list.
1. Christopher Bell – Bell is looking to start the Round of 6 hot by checking off Martinsville on tracks he hasn’t won yet. In three races, he has two top fives and two top 10 finishes, 96 laps led and an 8.7 average finish. Bell also carries momentum after securing his first ever NASCAR XFINITY Series win this past weekend at Kansas Speedway.
2. Johnny Sauter – Sauter is the previous race winner of the Texas Roadhouse event. In the past five races, he has averaged three top fives and four top 10 finishes and has led 112 laps. Sauter has another win back in the 2011 race event. It would not be a surprise if he starts the Round of 6 off with a win.
3. Matt Crafton – Crafton had an okay first round, but if he wants to advance to the Championship 4, he’ll have to win and Martinsville may be his best shot. He won the 2015 fall race after starting 13th and leading 63 laps. Other than that, stat wise, Crafton has had two top fives and four top 10 finishes in the past five races, ranking him first among active drivers at Martinsville.
4. Noah Gragson – Gragson could be a surprise this weekend, but not a surprise for Kyle Busch Motorsports since they run strong here. From 2012-2014, KBM picked up three consecutive wins with drivers Denny Hamlin in 2012, Darrell Wallace Jr. in 2013 and 2014. Gragson has one start that came this year and finished fourth.
5. John Hunter Nemechek – In the previous five races, Nemechek has three top fives and three top 10 finishes, with an average finish of 8.4. He didn’t have a great first round in the Playoffs, but, Nemechek might grab his first win this weekend at Martinsville and secure a spot in the Championship 4.
There will be two practices Friday afternoon beginning at 1 p.m ET with the final practice at 3 p.m. ET. Qualifying is slated for Saturday morning at 10 a.m. ET and race coverage will start at 1 p.m. ET. The green flag is scheduled to wave at 1:16 p.m. ET with coverage on FS1 and MRN Radio.
October 24, 2017
Getting To Know Myatt Snider

Myatt Snider, part-time driver of the No. 51 Louisiana Hot Sauce Toyota Tundra has been around racing his entire life. Prior to becoming a NASCAR Camping World Truck Series driver, Snider’s road to this point is an interesting one.

“It was only natural that I had interest in racing from an early age,” Snider said. “When I was 10-years-old, a buddy of mine I went to school with was driving Bandolero racing and I thought, I could do that as well. Ten years later after going through Bandolero, Legends cars, Late Models, ARCA Racing Series and now the Truck Series.”

And at that time, while driving those cars, his first win came early on in Snider’s racing career.

“First win was at Atlanta (Motor Speedway),” Snider said. “We were doing some of the winter heat races out there and managed to get a win with a car falling apart. It was a crazy experience.”

In Snider’s first start, he didn’t know what to think when it came to racing.

“You really don’t know what to expect,” Sinder said. “You’re going around in circles for the fun of it and then you start getting more, and more serious about it, when you get older and then you start moving up into Late Models, ARCA and Truck Series where you start competing at a higher level.”

Myatt’s dad, Marty Snider, who is a sports commentator for NBC Sports has always been a huge fan of his racing career and supporting him through every step of the way.

“It’s good to have someone like him in my life,” Snider said. “He knows so much about the industry after being it in for 20-plus years, it’s difficult to pick out a favorite memory of my dad.”

In December of 2016, it was announced that Myatt Snider would drive part-time in the No. 51 for Kyle Busch Motorsports. Snider says that it would be hard to imagine getting that call when he was younger.

“If you would’ve told 10 or 12-year-old me that I would have driven for KBM, he would jump out of his socks,” he said. “It was unprecedented getting that call, Kyle’s team is obviously one of the most competitive teams in the business and it’s been a treat racing for them.”

Snider’s second, but first start with KBM, came at Daytona earlier this year. He placed his first ever top 10 finish by finishing 10th, not bad for his first ever superspeedway start. He remember’s the race like it was yesterday.

“It was pretty wild honestly,” Snider said. “Daytona is its own animal and it’s different from Talladega because Daytona is a lot narrower. The racing gets really close together real quick and the track is a crazy place.”

“We had a good truck but was set back early, however, we raced hard and earned a great finish.”

Before entering the truck series, Snider competed in the ARCA Racing Series to gain some experience on tracks where NASCAR competes.

“You run the ARCA series to get a feel for something like racing on a mile and a half, or running the radial tire, you race a heavier car to get that experience,” he said. “It’s pretty unique, especially when you go the mile and a half’s because you notice the air and everything that comes while racing. ARCA is a great way to prepare.”

Louisiana Hot Sauce has been Snider’s sponsor for the majority of his career. He enjoys having their support and had a little fun while doing a commercial shoot for them.

“Brad Olsen (Senior Director of Marketing for Southeastern Mills) has always been very supportive of me,” Snider said. “He came on during the ARCA Series and I won my first race out with them, which was really a dream. I really can’t narrow down a favorite food to put the sauce on because it does go on just about everything I can think of.”

“The wildest thing I can think of is for a commercial, I had to put it on a donut and it actually wasn’t that bad,” Snider said. “I tried it out with some of the guys at KBM and it was delicious.”

There are four races remaining in the 2017 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series season. For Snider, it’s been a solid one as he has one top five and three top 10 finishes with five laps led and a best finish of third at Talladega. Although, he really can’t give himself a grade yet until the season is over.

“When I got in the trucks earlier this year, I was inexperienced with the trucks and didn’t get the finishes, I would have liked too,” he said. “I progressed through the latter half of the year, however, I don’t think I can give myself a grade as of right now but after Texas and Homestead, I’ll be able too. So far, I’ve been given great trucks.”

If you didn’t notice, whenever people tweet or reply to Myatt, their phones are always auto-correcting it to Matt or another name. However, it doesn’t both him because he likes to have fun with it.

“I’ve been a big fan of self-aware jokes,” Snider said. “It’s funny when people call me Matt on twitter, I like to play around with them by saying, I want to meet Matt Snider too. Always fun when you can mess around with people like that. I was named Myatt my whole life and gotten used to the misspelling of my name.”

You can follow Myatt on twitter, @MyattSnider, and the Louisiana Hot Sauce Racing account, @LHSRacing.

October 24, 2017
Matt Crafton Has Wild Day At Talladega

After the craziness was all settled and over, the finish pylon showed ThorSport Racing’s Matt Crafton ninth at Talladega, but the top 10 finish didn’t come easy for the two-time champion.

In the first two stages, Crafton finished inside the top 10 and earned championship playoff points with a sixth in Stage 1 and a fifth in Stage 2. However, on lap 55, the No. 88 Menards Tundra driver was involved in a five-truck accident in Turn 3. This caused some significant damage to the truck, forcing the No. 88 team to fix it and get it back out there for points.

In the remaining laps, Crafton was in the top 10 until another accident took place after the field took the white flag. It was the same number of trucks involved in the first incident, and again, Crafton was unfortunately involved in the melee.

Despite the challenges that came Crafton’s way on Saturday, the 41-year-old earned his 13th top-10 of the year and advanced to the next round of the playoffs that begins at Martinsville Speedway.

“We were strong all day – ran inside the top 10, top five, most of the afternoon,” Crafton said. “Unfortunately, we were just at the wrong place, at the wrong time today and got caught up in someone else’s mess. After the damage, we just tried to make the best of our day. We were lucky enough to bring home a top-10 finish, and make it into the Round of 6. I’m looking forward to the tracks in this Round.”

The Truck Series is off this weekend but returns Saturday, Oct. 28 at Martinsville Speedway for the Texas Roadhouse 200 at 1 p.m. ET on FS1.

October 17, 2017
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Power Rankings-Talladega
The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series was back in action this weekend at Talladega Superspeedway and the action sure didn’t disappoint. There was drama between the playoffs spots, an upset winner and some surprise faces in the top 10.
1. Parker Kligerman – It shouldn’t be a surprise that Kligerman added another win to the Talladega column on Saturday. It was the second win of his career and the first since 2012 where he won with Red Horse Racing at the same track. After starting 14th, the Toyota Tundra driver worked his way up to 10th in the first stage. Despite not finishing at all in the top 10 in Stage 2, Kligerman stayed up there with the top teams and took the lead on Lap 94 and went on to win. It was a feel-good moment for Kligerman and the Henderson Motorsports team.
2. Christopher Bell – Bell does what he does best this past weekend at ‘Dega. The JBL Tundra driver finished third in Stage 1, but like Kligerman fell outside the top 10 due to varying pit strategies near the end of the stage. However, after all the craziness was done and settled, Bell placed second, his 13th top-five of the year.
3. Myatt Snider – Snider came home with a career-best finish and survived the chaos. The way the young 23-year-old raced, it looked liked he had raced at Talladega before Saturday. In Stages 1 and 2, Snider placed fifth and third, respectively. At the end of the day, the scoring pylon showed a strong third place. Not bad for his first race at Talladega.
4. Vinnie Miller – Miller made his first ever career NASCAR Camping World Truck Series start this past Saturday. Before making that start, he has been a standout star in the K&N Pro Series East and the ARCA Racing Series. It was shown on Saturday as Talladega is unpredictable and you don’t who finishes where until the drop of the checkered flag. This was the case for the 20-year-old. Having not raced before in the truck series, Miller came home with a seventh-place finish.
5. Clay Greenfield – Greenfield is another one of those drivers who you don’t hear too much about. He did not compete in any races last year but has competed in three races this season, with a best finish of 24th at Gateway prior to Talladega. However, Greenfield upped that finish this past weekend and, after the carnage was over, came home eighth, his best career finish to date.
October 16, 2017
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Preview-Talladega
The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series heads to Talladega Superspeedway this weekend and it’s the final race in the Round of 8. Two drivers will be eliminated in competing for the playoffs after the race is over.

Currently, there are 32 trucks entered on the preliminary entry list.

Surprisingly, there have only been 11 races dating back to the first race in 2006, when NASCAR Hall of Famer Mark Martin earned the win.

In the past five races, there were three different winners, while Timothy Peters, who will not be competing this weekend, has repeated in the past two races. The lowest a winner has come from is 24th back in 2013 set by Johnny Sauter and the highest starting spot winner was from the pole at least three times in 2006, 2007 and 2015, respectively.

Here’s a look at who we can expect to be a strong contender for the win this weekend.
1. 1. Johnny Sauter – Sauter is the best active driver statistically at Talladega. In five races, he has one win (2013), two top five and four top 10 finishes, but has one DNF in 2014. His average starting position is 14.0, while his average finishing position is 9.0. Anything can happen at Talladega, but Sauter might just pull off a win.
  2. Christopher Bell – Bell won’t have anything to worry about as he already is locked into the next round, but he’ll be fighting for some extra playoff points. In two races, he has a finish of 13th and sixth, respectively. Bell has an average finishing position of 9.5. Look for him to be up front on Saturday.
  3. Kaz Grala – No career starts for Grala at Talladega, but he has high expectations after becoming the youngest-ever winner at Daytona earlier this season. A win will certainly help him to move on to the next round as he sits below the cut line.
  4. Grant Enfinger – Enfinger just might be the spoiler in the playoffs Saturday afternoon. In last year’s race, he pulled off the win after leading for 45 laps. So if he ends up in victory lane at the end of the day, don’t find it surprising that the Alabama driver plays as the spoiler.
  5. Ben Rhodes – While his result from last year’s race may not look pretty, he is carrying momentum after his first career win at Las Vegas two weekends ago. He, along with others, will be fighting for stage points throughout the race.
There will be two practices scheduled for Friday afternoon at 12 p.m. ET and 2 p.m. ET both on FS1. Qualifying is slated for Saturday morning beginning at 10:30 a.m. ET on FS1.Race coverage begins on FS1 and MRN Radio at noon ET, with the green flag dropping at 1:22 p.m. ET.
October 10, 2017