Category: Truck Series

It’s hard to imagine, but Tuesday night at Charlotte Motor Speedway was the first time since February at Las Vegas Motor Speedway that the NASCAR Gander RV and Outdoors Truck Series was last in action.

When the entry list was announced, 47 Trucks were entered, the largest-field of Trucks in quite some time. Unfortunately, seven of those got sent home after a random draw that took place a week ago. Just imagine, 47 Trucks racing on the track at the same time, it would have been wild.

When 40 Trucks took the track for the first time in three months many did not know what to expect. A big pile-up? Some taking it easy? Actually, neither of these took place. It was a similar race to the one at Las Vegas back in February, run cleanly and smoothly, without a lot of cautions.

However, this type of race was certainly different. Camping World CEO Marcus Lemonis and NASCAR Cup Series superstar Kevin Harvick had placed a $100,000 bounty on the all-time wins leader, Kyle Busch. Originally, it was $50,000 before Lemonis stepped in.

Knowing that Busch is pretty much unstoppable in the Truck Series, it was interesting to see if anyone could beat him. That’s when Cup regulars, Chase Elliott, John Hunter Nemechek and Brennan Poole, took the opportunity in hopes of beating Busch, albeit, cleanly on the track. And wouldn’t you know it? It came down coincidentally, to Chase Elliott and Kyle Busch, the two drivers that had a run-in with each other last week at the Cup race in Darlington. It’s funny how things work out.

As it turned out, Elliott would outrun Busch to the finish line by .627 seconds for the third Truck Series victory of his career. It was his first win in the series since three years ago in 2017 at Martinsville Speedway.

While Elliott fended off Busch for the victory, there were some other notables during the race. So, with that said, here are four takeaways from the North Carolina Education Lottery 200.

1. More Bounty – After Tuesday night’s race, the bounty that will be donated to a coronavirus relief charity of the driver’s choice was so successful that Marcus Lemonis stepped in once again and offered another bounty for the upcoming Atlanta Truck Series race next month. This time, anyone is eligible for the bounty and the award is $25,000 to anyone who wins the race. With the bounty being thrown out, there have been past drivers who have become interested such as former series champion Todd Bodine and former NASCAR driver, Kenny Wallace. While the bounty is most certainly fun, it also definitely brings extra attention to the Truck Series and makes it a great race to watch.

2. GMS Racing Places Four Trucks In Top Five – It was a strong-night for the GMS Racing team, who had five Trucks entered in the race, including race winner Chase Elliott. At one point or another, you would almost find at least one of those Trucks up near the front, challenging for a stage win or the lead. While Elliott’s Truck was the best among the GMS stable, there was another driver who shined; rookie Zane Smith. Smith put himself up there with leaders Busch and Elliott and other series drivers and actually led 15 laps. It was the first time ever that Smith was able to lead laps in the Truck Series. The California native also had sporadic battles with Kyle Busch near the end, as well. Ultimately, GMS Racing finished first, third, fourth, fifth, and 13th. Not a bad night for the team.

3. Clean Race For The Most Part – When you see 40 Trucks on track and add in several rookies, you sometimes think that this is going to be a caution-filled race. Well actually, it wasn’t, at least toward the very end. The first caution that came out for an actual incident was Lap 81 when a multi-truck crash broke loose that was started by Jesse Iwuji. After that incident, there were really only two more cautions for incidents. Speaking of the accident on Lap 81, Iwuji apologized for the incident which took out drivers, Stewart Friesen, Brennan Poole, and Tyler Ankrum.

4. Ty Majeski Earns Best Career Finish To Date – Overlooked in the finishing order, could very well be Niece Motorsports driver, Ty Majeski. Majeski finished eighth, which was his best finish in the Truck Series in over four starts. The Wisconsin driver finished fifth in Stage 1 before earning a top-10 finish. Now it’s only a matter of time before Majeski scores his first win in the series.

In what feels like forever, the NASCAR Gander RV and Outdoors Truck Series will return to on-track action Tuesday night at Charlotte Motor Speedway after a two-month hiatus from racing due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The last race took place on Feb.ruary 21 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. 

During that time period, NASCAR had announced they were expanding not only the Xfinity Series field, but the Truck Series field to 40 vehicles to compete in the race. Originally, the Truck Series field was limited to 32, but COVID-19 has made an impact financially, therefore NASCAR increased the field size to help with the financial health for each series. 

After that rule was announced, the entry list saw up to 47-Trucks entered to compete. However, a random draw took place on Sunday afternoon and seven of those trucks had to go home. While seven of those went home, there were some familiar faces back in the field including Richie Waulters, Trey Hutchens, Bryan Dauzat, Charlie Henderson of Henderson Racing, and Norm Benning. Unfortunately, Erik Jones, Richie Waulters, Trey Hutchens, Dawson Cram of Boyd Long, Tim Viens of Mike Affrano, Bryant Barnhill of Reaume Brothers Racing, Parker Kligerman of Henderson Racing and Norm Benning missed the cut after the random draw. ThorSport’s Ben Rhodes got the pole when the draw was over. 

With that in mind, here are five drivers who might just get the victory Tuesday night at Charlotte. 

1. Matt Crafton – The three-time champion and veteran Matt Crafton has the most starts out of any active drivers at Charlotte. The ThorSport driver has a total of 17 starts with two wins, including his first career win that came in 2008. Overall, Crafton has seven top fives and 13 top-10 finishes along with 108 laps led. He also qualified on the pole last year and finished fifth in the race after leading seven laps. Crafton also won Stage 1 as well. The last time he got the victory at Charlotte was four years ago in 2016.
   
2. Stewart Friesen – The Halmar International Racing driver has made three starts at Charlotte Motor Speedway with a best finish of third that came in last year’s event. He has yet to lead any laps at the 1.5-mile speedway but finished a respectable sixth place in both stages in 2019. The Canadian also qualified second in 2019 as well, which was his best qualifying effort out of the three starts. Friesen will start 10th on Tuesday night due to the random draw.
   
3. Sheldon Creed – It’s hard to go off one start at any particular racetrack, but the GMS Racing driver Sheldon Creed had a solid finishing position in his first Truck start by finishing 12th. He ran as high as fifth and spent 103 laps in the top-15. In doing so, Creed also finished eighth and seventh respectively in both stages. The GMS driver also finished runner up in last year’s ARCA event with GMS Racing.
   
4. Brennan Poole – Poole surprised everyone in his first Truck Series outing in last year’s race at Charlotte. He qualified in the 17th position but had a solid outing by managing track position and taking advantage of a late-race restart. In fact, Poole found himself in position to be an upset winner and had the potential to beat Kyle Busch in a three-lap dash to the finish. Unfortunately, he came up short, but scored a second-place finish, scoring Steven Lane’s team his best finish as a team owner.
   
5. Kyle Busch – It would be hard to imagine counting Busch out of any race that he competes in, especially in the Truck Series at Charlotte. The Las Vegas, Nevada native has an impressive record scoring eight wins in the 13 races he has competed in. That’s a 62% winning percentage, well over half. Busch even won four races in a row in a stretch from 2010-2014. While Matt Crafton scored his first-ever NASCAR win at Charlotte, Busch did the same in 2005 when driving for former owner, Billy Ballew after starting third in that race. Busch’s worst finishing effort was 11th, which came in 2007. Otherwise, it ’s been runner-up or win. Don’t be surprised if the KBM team owner can make it nine wins on Tuesday night, as he will already have two races under his belt.
   

The Truck Series started racing at Charlotte Motor Speedway in 2003 and has seen eight different winners including Ted Musgrave, Kyle Busch, Matt Crafton, Dennis Setzer, Ron Hornaday Jr, Justin Lofton, Kasey Kahne, and Johnny Sauter. Of those drivers, Busch has the most wins with eight followed by Hornaday and Crafton with two apiece, as all other drivers only have one win. 

The highest a driver has won from was the pole position also set by Busch that occurred four times, the last taking place two years ago in 2018. The lowest a driver has ever started to win the race was set by Busch as well, which was seen in 2006 where he qualified 20th. 

Chevrolet has the most wins with nine for a manufacturer and Toyota with eight. Dodge has one win while Ford surprisingly has zero wins. 

The most cautions that took place in this event were 10 cautions for 47-laps, back in 2011. The fewest was in 2016 which saw three cautions for 14 laps. The most lead changes occurred in last year’s race with 19.  

Busch also has the most stage wins with three, while Crafton, Brett Moffitt, and John Hunter Nemechek have all picked up a stage win since stages were implemented in 2017. 

To limit exposure and prevent more COVID-19 cases, there will be no practice or qualifying. The North Carolina Education Lottery 200 can be seen live on Fox Sports 1 and heard on MRN Radio at 8 p.m. ET.