TATESVILLE, N.C. (Dec. 20, 2019) – Carson Hocevar will compete in nine races for Niece Motorsports in the NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series (NGROTS) in 2020.
“I’m really looking forward to this opportunity,” said Hocevar. “Niece Motorsports has invested a lot in their program in the last few years, and the results are really showing. I’m excited to be able to work with and learn from drivers like Ty Majeski and Ross Chastain. I’m thrilled to get in race-winning equipment and hopefully learn a lot and compete at a high level.”
Hocevar ran two NGROTS races in 2019, at Eldora Speedway and ISM Raceway. He qualified inside the top-20 and finished in the top-25 in both events.
In addition to the pair of NGROTS starts in 2019, Hocevar competed in 12 ARCA Racing Series events, earning one pole – never starting lower than 12th – along with four top-five and 10 top-10 finishes.
In 2018, Hocevar made three ARCA Racing Series starts, earning one pole and two top-five finishes.
“Carson has proven to be a very talented young racer, and we are looking forward to him continuing that with our team,” said team owner Al Niece. “We are excited to prove that last season wasn’t a fluke and are looking to run strong again in 2020.”
Niece Motorsports is coming off a strong junior season in 2019. Together Ross Chastain and Niece Motorsports earned one pole, three wins and 10 top-five finishes. In addition, Chastain captured the most stage wins and led the most laps. Chastain and the No. 45 team finished second in both the driver and owner point standings.
Hocevar began racing Quarter Midgets when he was just six years old. He won 15 United States Auto Club championships and 79 Quarter Midget National races.
Under the guidance of 2008 NGROTS champion Johnny Benson, Jr., Hocevar graduated to full-sized stock cars in 2015, and immediately made an impact by winning an Outlaw Late Model feature at Berlin Raceway in Marne, Michigan as a 12-year-old.
Later that summer, he earned his first Super Late Model victory at Berlin at the age of 13, becoming the youngest winner in both Late Model divisions with his victories that season.
In 2016, Hocevar had a breakout season, winning the Berlin track championship as a 14-year-old — the youngest in NASCAR Whelen All-American Series history — and added three other victories on the regional JEGS/CRA All-Stars Pro Late Model Tour.
The remainder of Niece Motorsports’ driver lineup is forthcoming.
About Niece Motorsports:
Niece Motorsports is owned by United States Marine Corps Veteran Al Niece. In 2020, Niece Motorsports enters its fifth season in the NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series. Niece also owns Niece Equipment, which has for over 40 years provided clients with reliable products at competitive prices. Niece Equipment’s reputation is built on service, integrity and dependability. The company provides water and fuel / lube trucks that are engineered with quality and durability in mind for the construction and mining industry. Follow the team on Facebook and Instagram @NieceMotorsports as well as Twitter @NieceMotorsport.
Ross Chastain, the breakout star of the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series season, has claimed one final honor: 2019 NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series Most Popular Driver.
Chastain didn’t even plan to even be a full-time Gander Trucks driver in 2019, but he quickly became the busiest driver in NASCAR after his 2018 plans fell through, driving as many races as he could in all three NASCAR national series.
The fans took notice as Chastain won the award for the first time, with the news coming on his 27th birthday.
In June, Niece Motorsports – which supplies the No. 45 Chevrolet for Chastain – announced Chastain would change his points declaration from the Xfinity Series to Gander Trucks, allowing the driver to compete for the series championship … and the Most Popular Driver in this series.
While Chastain fell short of lifting the big trophy, he provided a summer stretch for the ages that saw him grow into one of NASCAR’s most successful drivers on any level, and introduced a new celebration in the process – smashing a watermelon to smithereens.
Chastain won three Gander Trucks races this season (plus one for good measure in the Xfinity Series) while logging 10 top-five finishes and 19 top 10s in 23 starts. He advanced to the Championship 4, finishing second on the season to champion Matt Crafton.
Homestead-Miami Speedway saw its series finale Friday night for the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series. It is hard to believe the final race has come and gone just like that. In some ways, it feels like yesterday when the series opened up their season in Daytona with Austin Hill as the winner.
Now fast-forwarding 22 races later, we have a three-time champion in the series and that’s Matt Crafton who finished second in Friday night’s race to become the second three-time champ in a tie with Jack Sprague. It’s pretty remarkable since Crafton is only one away from tying Ron Hornaday’s record with championships.
Before we got there, we had to wait an additional 90 minutes due to weather in the area and track drying. There were some doubts about whether or not the race would even be run on Friday night, but somehow, someway, the championship race ran as advertised, just a couple of hours later.
With that in mind, here are Four Takeaways from the Ford Ecoboost 200.
Hill Wins in Southern Florida – Somewhat overshadowed in the championship celebration was Austin Hill sweeping the Florida races this season by winning the first race in Florida and the last race in Florida, something that is very unique and can be added to a driver’s resume. It’s what could have been though for the Georgia native had he won at Phoenix the week before and locked himself into the Championship 4 instead of Stewart Friesen or someone else. Had that happened, we could have been talking about a different champion by now. Though hindsight is 20/20 and we can only think about the future. That future is Hill will have another chance to chase for the title next season, as he returns to Hattori Racing in a bid to win his first ever NASCAR title.
Driver Lineups for 2020 – In what was already a busy weekend for NASCAR and Homestead holding Championship 4 races, Thursday was media day for those drivers which also included driver announcements for the 2020 season. Kyle Busch Motorsports announced two new full-time drivers with Raphael Lessard and Christian Eckes joining the team to compete in the No. 4 and No. 18 Tundra. It is likely the No. 51 returns with a crop of all star drivers competing throughout the season. Chandler Smith is returning to compete on a part-time schedule before he turns 18 next summer. GMS Racing also added to the list of announcements as former DGR-Crosley driver and playoff contender Tyler Ankrum joins the team full-time along with Brett Moffitt and Sheldon Creed. Also recently announced this past week was part-time Xfinity Series driver Zane Smith going full-time next season as well. It’s going to be an interesting season to watch KBM vs GMS vs ThorSport Racing in the title chase with a crop of new talent.
Todd Gilliland Has Interesting Night – While Gilliland had his last race with KBM for now, it was certainly a unique outcome for the KBM driver. When teams were cleaning the trucks and getting them ready to load up and go back to Charlotte, one of the KBM crew members found a dead fox from the grille after running over it on the track. Quite the way to end an entertaining season for Gilliland who doesn’t know his 2020 plans yet. Here’s hoping the talented star will find something for next year and have a better year than he did this year. Condolences to the fox that was gone too soon.
Parker Kligerman Returns with Top-10 Finish – Parker Kligerman doesn’t compete in many Truck Series races, but when he does, you can normally expect him to have a decent finish. The 2019 season hasn’t been the best for Henderson Motorsports with finishes of 20th at Atlanta and 13th at Bristol, but they entered the season finale and wound up with a 10th place finish. It was their first top-10 finish since Charlotte of last year. Henderson Motorsports is the ultimate underdog team in the Truck Series and can perform when the opportunity is presented to them.
The 2019 Xfinity Series season was a great season to look back on for Chase Briscoe and the No. 98 Stewart-Haas Racing team, especially after winning Rookie of the Year honors. There were a couple of rocky starts at Daytona and Atlanta, finishing 12th and 15th, respectively. However, from Las Vegas to Dover, the team finished mainly in the top five. There were some issues later such as Charlotte in May when Briscoe finished 19th, one lap down. There were a few more including Chicago in July with a 15th place result and a DNF at Daytona.
But the team got right back on track the following week at Kentucky with a top-five finish. Then at Iowa, Briscoe had a great car and secured his first win of the season, his first since the victory at the Charlotte Roval. With the win, he was able to lock the No. 98 Stewart-Haas Racing team into the Playoffs.
The team started off the Playoffs at Richmond Raceway with another top-five finish. Then two weeks in a row at the Charlotte Roval and Kansas, Briscoe qualified the No. 98 on the pole. The Playoffs were looking up for the Stewart-Haas driver, however, a wreck at Texas prior to ISM Raceway hurt their chances to advance. Briscoe finished 22nd and was in a must-win situation going into the final race in the Round of 8.
An eighth-place finish wasn’t enough to push the team for the Championship 4 and they were left to battle for a top-10 position. Even though he could not win the championship, Briscoe still had an opportunity to win the race at Homestead and he certainly had the car capable of doing so. He started fifth and won the first stage. The No. 98 team remained consistent for a finishing position of fifth for Stage 2.
Briscoe never fell out of contention in spite of bringing out the caution on Lap 124. He bounced off the wall off Turn 1 and eventually had a flat tire. Even with the incident, new tires helped the team and in the end, he came home with a third place finish after leading 14 laps.
“Yeah, I think if I had to read it on a 1 to 10 scale, I would say it was like a 6 1/2,” Briscoe said. “I felt like at the beginning of the year I kind of struggled to understand what I needed in these race cars, and truthfully how to drive them and the feel I was looking for. I just struggled to find ‑‑ the biggest thing was I couldn’t feel the right rear ever. As the season went on, we kind of switched from trying to say do what Harvick ran the year before and what Cole was running and just try to build more of a setup to what I felt better about.”
“Iowa was really the first race that we decided to do that, and that was the race we won. It seemed like from then on out we were a serious contender every week. Felt like the second half of the year was a lot better than the first half of the year, but we definitely ‑‑ looking back at these playoffs, especially, I felt like we could have realistically won three or four of the races, and weird stuff happens. The Kansas deal, the Roval was one where I felt like I could have ran down Allmendinger. Dover, I think we led the most laps and didn’t catch a caution, and then tonight just getting into the wall.”
“I think the end of the year was definitely better than the first part of the year, but overall we definitely have more to improve on and I can get way better as a driver I feel like.”
While winning Rookie of The Year may help his resume, Briscoe currently has no plans for 2020 and does not know if he will be back with Stewart-Haas Racing next year.
“I know they’re still working on trying to find funding to make it happen, but as of right now I don’t have anything,” Briscoe added.
“Obviously I was wanting to win the race tonight. I feel like if I did that, it would have made everything a lot easier. But I felt like we showed speed and I feel like if we do get to go back next year, I feel like we could be serious championship contenders, and hopefully, they can and we can work together and try to figure something out. But yeah, right now they’re still working on it.”
Briscoe finishes the 2019 season with one win, 13 top fives, 26 top-10s and 197 laps led along with an average finish of 8.2.
Brett Moffitt was hoping to be the first driver to win a second consecutive Truck Series title and he was certainly capable of doing so. However, he came up short Friday night at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Despite winning at Bristol and Canada, the GMS driver was winless throughout the rest of the Playoffs. But his consistency kept him in play and he had a sizable points lead in the rest of the rounds. Moffitt knew it was going to be tough to outlast the other Championship 4 drivers, but if it was going to be anyone, he had one of the best chances with the powerhouse GMS Racing team.
Moffitt started fourth based on owner points but never could get his Truck in a winning position. The No. 24 machine struggled most of the night, finishing fourth in both stages and only being able to lead three laps. The team tried some adjustments throughout the race, even winning the race off pit road after one of the stages to put Moffitt in the lead for one restart.
However, it would be the only time we saw the Grimes, Iowa native out front. In fact, the GMS driver ran as low as 21st at one point. Then, with a late race pit stop, he had one more chance to run for the title. Moffitt fell short though and wound up finishing fifth in the running order and third in the championship.
“We were missing speed overall,” Moffitt explained to MRN Radio. “We struggled all day from the time we unloaded. The Truck got a lot better, everyone worked hard. Jerry (Baxter, Crew Chief) and all my guys made improvements, but we just missed it. It is what it is, we’ll regroup and get better, and we’ll go for it in 2020. Just can’t thank the Maury Gallagher family enough for this opportunity and everyone that helped us out all year. CMR Roofing and all the countless sponsors we had throughout the season. It’s a bummer, we’ll move on and get better as an organization.”
Moffitt finishes the year with four wins, 13 top-fives and 17 top-10 finishes, while also achieving three poles.
Moffitt’s technical teammate and last week’s winner Stewart Friesen also had an opportunity to secure the title. With qualifying rained out, the Canadian inherited the pole based on owner points. This gave Friesen the advantage to be out front at a track where track position means everything.
Friesen and the No. 52 Halmar team had a good run early in Stage 1, running up front with Ross Chastain and finishing third when the stage ended. Though it seemed like his Truck began to go away and it became challenging for Friesen in the rest of the remaining laps. Stage 2 saw him finishing fifth but he had to deal with an ill-handling Truck.
As the handling became an issue, Friesen was unable to get the Truck to his liking. The team continued to struggle to fight for track position with a long green-flag run. Stage 3 went the distance and saw no cautions, which could have helped Halmar Racing find the adjustment they needed. Ultimately, Friesen finished a disappointing 11th, last out of the Championship 4 drivers.
“An uphill battle,” Friesen described to MRN Radio. “Thanks to Halmar and all these guys that worked so hard. Thanks for all the support, got a lot of friends and family here. I appreciate everyone watching at home and those who came down here to support us. We just didn’t have a chance, we struggled. We could hang a little bit on the short end, but not on the long run. It was just a swing and a miss tonight.”
Even winning two races this season was not satisfactory for Friesen at the moment following the final race.
“It’s good to win a couple of races,” he added. “It would have been a lot cooler to have had a chance at it tonight. Like I said, we could hang on the short run, but it would just back up. We’ll hopefully put something together and come back stronger for next time.”
The Canadian finishes 2019 with two wins, 12 top fives and 16 top-10 finishes along with one pole to his name.
After a 90-minute rain delay, the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series race got underway shortly after 9:30 p.m. ET. While Austin Hill didn’t qualify on the pole, he most certainly had the fastest truck of the night, winning both stages and ultimately winning the race. Hill took the lead from Matt Crafton with 22 laps to go to secure his fourth win of the season.
“This Truck was on rails all night,” Hill said to MRN Radio. “We started off just a little on the tight side. Scott (Zipadelli, Crew Chief) made some awesome adjustments there and got the Truck a little bit better. That pit stop, I kind of took it a little too easy coming down to pit road, I think that hurt us just a tad coming back out third. I had to work extra hard to get back up there and get the lead. Can’t thank Toyota enough. Chiba Toyopet Toyota Tundra was really good all night long. TRD, United Rentals can’t thank those guys enough.”
“To be able to win this race and lock down the Toyota manufacturer championship means a lot to me. So, I’m glad I could help Toyota out with that.”
Early rain showers pushed the race back for a couple of hours, before finally getting underway shortly after 9:30 p.m. ET. The starting grid was set by owner points with Stewart Friesen on the pole.
Before the race got started, the No. 15 of Anthony Alfredo had an oil leak on his Truck. With that issue, Alfredo was never able to make a lap and was credited with a last-place finish. Stages were broken up in 30/30/74 laps to make up the 134-lap race.
Stage 1: Lap 1- Lap 30
Nothing too crazy happened in the first stage to affect the race but there was some great racing action between the Championship 4 drivers. Ross Chastain led the first 28 laps of the first stage before Hill took the lead with just a few laps to go and won the stage. Championship 4 driver Chastain was second, Friesen was third, Brett Moffitt was fourth and Matt Crafton finished sixth in Stage 1.
However, while the Championship 4 drivers finished in the top-10 none of them collected any stage points.
Stage 2: Lap 35- Lap 60
Like Stage 1, the second stage almost went green the whole way. The first real incident of the night came on Lap 50. The No. 49 of Ray Ciccarelli’s Truck had fluid coming out of the back end which prompted officials to throw the yellow flag.
From that point on, the stage remained green and Hill once again picked up the stage win. Crafton was second, Chastain was third, Moffitt was fourth and Friesen finished fifth in Stage 2.
Stage 3: Lap 67- Lap 134
It was crunch time for the Championship 4 drivers as Stage 3 began with 67 laps to go. While Chastain and Friesen certainly had the best Trucks early on in the night, Crafton’s Truck started to come to life near the end.
Pit stops broke out with 38 to go. Both Chastain and Friesen pit. Crafton and Moffitt elected to come down pit road one lap later to stay on the lead cycle. Race leader Hill pitted with 35 to go. After pit stops, Crafton cycled back out into the lead five laps later. However, Hill retook the lead with 22 to go and led the rest of the way, taking the checkered flag to win.
As much as Crafton wanted to win the race and the championship, the bigger picture was to collect his third Truck Series championship in 453 starts. The Tulare, California native is now tied with former series champion Jack Sprague.
“We didn’t win the battle, but we won the war,” Crafton excitedly said. “It was such a sweet deal to put this Ford Menards F-150 into victory lane. I know it’s Fords last time here championship weekend and nothing sweeter than to put the Ford into the championship. Ford and everybody has worked so hard here.”
Knowing Crafton could win the race at one point in the race, he quickly realized it was all about winning the championship.
“That was really hard to do,” he added. “I wanted to race the 16 (Hill) so hard. He definitely was a little faster than us there at the end. I knew what it was about and hoisting this big trophy at the end of the night, that’s what we’re here to do and that’s what we did.”
With Crafton locking up his third Truck Series championship, he becomes one of the few drivers to do so in Truck Series history.
“Oh, it’s awesome. Like I said, one step closer to the great Truck Series guy Ron Hornaday. We can battle with them again next year and maybe we can get number four.”
Quite possibly lost in the shuffle was the Owner Series Championship. Four drivers were also battling for that as well. In the end, however, it was newly announced Kyle Busch Motorsports driver Christian Eckes who helped the team secure its seventh owner’s championship in the team’s existence.
“I struggled for most of the race, honestly,” Eckes said to MRN Radio. “Got a little better out there in front. Rudy (Fugle, Crew Chief) made a great call, able to lead some laps and come home third. It’s awesome to get another championship with these guys. Just ready for 2020.”
Hill led five times for 56 laps en route to the fourth win of his career. There were three cautions for 14 laps and 12 lead changes among six different drivers.
Official Results
Austin Hill – led 56 laps, won both stages
Matt Crafton – led nine laps, 2019 Truck Series Champion
Christian Eckes – led 26 laps, won Owners Championship for KBM
Ross Chastain – led 36 laps
Brett Moffitt – led three laps
Johnny Sauter
Grant Enfinger
Todd Gilliland
Sheldon Creed
Parker Kligerman
Stewart Friesen
Ben Rhodes
Harrison Burton
Joe Nemechek – one lap down
Gus Dean – led four laps, one lap down
Tanner Gray – one lap down
Jesse Little, one lap down
Tyler Dippel – one lap down
Austin Wayne Self – one lap down
Natalie Decke1r – one lap down
Jordan Anderson – two laps down
Tyler Ankrum – 2019 Truck Series Rookie of The Year, two laps down
Tyler Hill- two laps down
Colby Howard – two laps down
Danny Bohn – two laps down
Codie Rohrbaugh – four laps down
Cory Roper – five laps down
Jennifer Jo Cobb- six laps down
Angela Ruch – seven laps down
Josh Bilicki – OUT, Electrical
Ray Ciccarelli, OUT, Oil Line
Anthony Alfredo – OUT, Engine, Did Not Start
Up Next: The 2019 Truck Series season is officially over after race No. 23. The next on-track action will be the 2020 season opener at Daytona on Friday, Feb. 14.
Coming into the Truck Series championship race, there was no doubt that nearby Fort Lauderdale native, Ross Chastain, had high hopes of winning his first NASCAR Series championship after a long and rocky road to the top.
At the beginning of the 2019 season, the Niece Motorsports driver wasn’t even running for the championship. It was more about helping the team get to a point where they could be in contention to win a championship down the line with the right driver. But they had already found the right driver.
Chastain opened up the season at Daytona with a third-place finish in a beat-up race truck. While many may consider it luck after the whole field had been involved in some sort of incident, he followed it up the next week at Atlanta with a sixth place finish. This consistency was likely going to put Niece Motorsports in a spot to win the Owner’s title this year at Homestead.
Then Kansas happened and Chastain got his first career Truck Series victory, actually, the first win in NASCAR of any kind. As you would expect, the victory was a popular one among the fans. With the victory, Chastain gained more fans and quite possibly more respect within the racing world, giving him even more motivation and fight to rise to the top.
Just a few weeks later, the team decided to run for the Truck Series championship after having early success. Then, an unfortunate circumstance occurred at Iowa. NASCAR has a new post race procedure that stipulates if a driver in any series fails the post-race technical inspection, either their win or finishing position will be stripped from them, ultimately resulting in a last-place finish.
Unfortunately, it happened to Chastain at Iowa where he had the best truck out of anyone, leading 141 out of the 200 laps. In post race inspection, however, his truck was found to be too low. Due to the infraction, the Niece Motorsports team was credited with a last-place finish.
Knowing they did nothing wrong, the team tried to appeal the issue in order to get the win back. Despite their efforts, Chastain and Niece lost the appeal and had to focus their attention on the next race at Gateway. At Gateway, the Florida native once again proved the doubters wrong and earned another popular victory which put him in the running for the championship.
Chastain continued to find success by finishing in the top-10 and winning at Pocono.
Then the Playoffs began at Bristol and Chastain knew he had to have a strong Truck in order to beat the other contenders and fight for the championship. Despite crashing out of the race at Talladega, the Niece driver finished second at Martinsville and ninth at ISM Raceway. The ninth-place finish locked him into the Championship 4 race at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Qualifying was washed out at Homestead due to rain showers and Chastain started third based on owner points. The team ran solid all night, leading the first 28 laps before being passed by Austin Hill late in the stage. Chastain had to settle for a second place position in Stage 1. In Stage 2, he was strong once again and finished third.
The last round of green flag pit stops began with 38 laps to go. Chastain was the first down pit road to make adjustments to his Truck. But, the Florida native continued to struggle late in the going and ultimately needed a late race caution in order to help his chances.
By night’s end, Chastain did not catch the break he needed and finished fourth in the race and second in the Truck Series championship. It was not enough to secure his first NASCAR title though the effort did not go unseen by his No. 45 Niece Motorsports team.
“Just too lose,” Chastain said to MRN Radio. “It’s crazy. I am not disappointed in second by any means. From where we were a year ago, to when we made the switch and everything we’ve been through, I’m living my dream out here. It sucks right now, but it’ll be okay. The sun will come up tomorrow and we’ll be just fine.”
“So proud of the Niece Motorsports Car Shield and everybody that helps on this deal, Al Niece (Team Owner). We gave it all we had, there’s nothing left, I can tell you that. Thank you to everyone that came out tonight. We did not go unnoticed tonight, they knew we were here and we’ll be back.”
Despite falling short, Chastain never gave up no matter what challenge came his way.
“Just don’t quit,” he added. “This sport, it’s all of our dreams. Everyone is out here working in this industry. Even the people that came out to watch the race tonight, it’s what we worked for to do this. To come up one spot short in the championship is not the end of the world. The sun will come up tomorrow and I’ll still have my faith, family and everyone around me. I’ll just keep going.”
With the focus now switched to the NASCAR Xfinity Series competition full-time for Kaulig Racing, Chastain ends his 2019 efforts with three wins, 10 top-fives, 19 top-10s along with 591 laps led and an average finishing position of 8.6.
Kyle Busch Motorsports announced its driver lineup for the 2020 NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series season late Thursday afternoon.
Canadian superstar, Raphael Lessard will replace Todd Gilliland in the No. 4 Toyota Tundra, competing full-time in the Truck Series next season. The Quebec native has just three race starts this year for KBM earning a best finish of 11th at Dover this past spring. Lessard is excited to contend for Rookie of The Year in 2020.
“I’ve been working really hard the last few years to put myself in position to drive full-time for Kyle Busch Motorsports in the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series so this opportunity is a dream come true,” Lessard said. “I can’t thank Kyle and everyone at KBM, Toyota and TRD enough for having the confidence to put me in their truck and it wouldn’t be possible without the support of my parents and everyone that has invested in getting me to this point. Being able to drive for such a great organization in one of NASCAR’s top three series is going to be awesome and I’m going to work hard on and off the race track to learn as much as I can to get better every race.”
Team owner Kyle Busch commented about Lessard’s move to full-time.
“We’ve watched Raphael grow as both a driver and a person since joining our Super Late Model program in 2018 and we’re looking forward to being a part of his continued progression as he graduates to a full-time role in the Gander Outdoors Truck Series next year,” owner Kyle Busch said. “Similar to Erik Jones and Christopher Bell before him, Raphael joined our Super Late Model program and immediately won some big races. Then, when given a part-time Truck Series schedule, they all proved capable of running up front and earned the right to compete full time. Erik and Christopher went on to win races and a championship in trucks, now Raphael has the opportunity to continue to follow their blueprint.”
The 2018 ARCA Menards Series Champion, Christian Eckes, will also join Kyle Busch Motorsports full-time. Eckes will take over the No. 18 Safelite AutoGlass Toyota Tundra, as Harrison Burton jumps to the Xfinity Series to compete with the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing team.
“Returning to KBM to compete full-time for a NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series championship with the support of Safelite AutoGlass and Toyota is an opportunity that I’ve worked my whole life for and I’m ready to take advantage of it,” Eckes said. “Being around the Truck Series the last few seasons, I’ve been able to see firsthand how much effort Safelite puts into their racing program and I’m excited to represent them not only on the track but in the communities that we race in.”
Busch also commented on Eckes’ move to driving full-time in the Truck Series.
“Christian has won races and a championship in the ARCA Series and we feel like he’s capable of doing the same driving for us full-time in the Truck Series next year,” owner Kyle Busch said. “He’s shown speed while running a part-time schedule for us the past couple of seasons — he’s won poles, led laps and been in a position to win a few races. We feel like it’s just a matter of time before he puts everything together and starts winning at this level.”
In his short career, the Middletown, New York native has made 11 starts in the past two years for KBM. Eckes has four poles with a best finish of third this past fall at Las Vegas. The new KBM driver also achieved two top fives and three top-10 finishes. Eckes previously competed full-time with Venturini Motorsports this season and won the ARCA Menards Series Championship at Kansas last month in October.
NASCAR
heads to Homestead-Miami Speedway this weekend for the season finale as all
three series race to determine their 2019 champion.
Stewart
Friesen, Ross Chastain, Brett Moffitt and Matt Crafton will vie for the NASCAR Gander
Outdoors Truck Series championship Friday night. The Xfinity Series title will
be decided Saturday afternoon between Justin Allgaier, Christopher Bell, Tyler
Reddick and Cole Custer.
Denny
Hamlin, Kevin Harvick, Martin Truex Jr. and Kyle Busch will close out the
season Sunday as they race for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series
championship.
All
times are Eastern.
Friday, November 15
9:05 a.m. – 9:55 a.m.:
Truck Series First Practice – No TV
10:35 a.m. – 11:25 a.m.:
Truck Series Final Practice – No TV
2:35 p.m. – 3:25 p.m.:
Xfinity Series First Practice – NBCSN/NBC Sports
App
3:35 p.m. – 4:25 p.m.:
Cup Series First Practice -CANCELED
4:35 p.m.: Truck
Series Qualifying – Impound (Single Vehicle/One Lap All Positions) – FS1 – CANCELED – Lineup set by rulebook
5:35 p.m. – 6:25 p.m.:
Xfinity Series Final Practice -CANCELED
6:30 p.m. – 7:20 p.m.:
Cup Series Final Practice – CANCELED
9:35 p.m.: Truck Series Ford EcoBoost 200 (Stages 30/60/134 Laps = 201 Miles ) – FS1/MRN/SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
Saturday,
November 16
12:35 p.m.: Xfinity Series Qualifying – Impound (Single Vehicle / One Lap All Positions) – NBCSN/MRN/SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
2:05 p.m.: Cup Series Final Practice (In place of qualifying, the lineup
will be set by rule book) NBCSN/MRN/TSN
3:30
p.m.: Xfinity Series Ford EcoBoost 300 (Stages
45/90/200 Laps = 300 Miles) – NBCSN/MRN/TSN/SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
Sunday,
November 17
3:00 p.m.: Cup Series Ford EcoBoost 400 (Stages 80/160/267 Laps =
400.5 Miles) – NBC/MRN/TSN/SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
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After waiting all season, it’s now time for the Championship 4 race in the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series. For the fourth time since 2016, the Truck Series will compete at Homestead-Miami Speedway to decide another champion, the 25th of the series. While the Championship 4 could be debated, it has the best drivers who have been solidly consistent all year round. Having some of the best racers competing for the title should create an exciting race.
Keeping the Championship 4 in mind, here’s a special preview of the final race of the season highlighting the four playoff drivers.
Brett Moffitt – Moffitt only has one start which came in the Championship 4 race last year. He started fifth, won Stage 2 and won the race to capture his first-ever Truck Series championship. During the Ford 200, the GMS driver only ran as low as 11th and led 59 laps. Moffitt’s stats show he has been decent at best on 1.5-mile tracks this season. Aside from a 19th place finish at Texas and Charlotte, Moffitt has seen consistent finishes. At Atlanta, he finished fourth, second at Las Vegas, eighth at Kansas, 11th at Texas in June, winning at Chicago and seventh at Vegas in the fall. The Iowa native may very well be headed to his second Truck Series championship.
Ross Chastain – Chastain has five starts at the 1.5-mile speedway in Southern Florida, with a best finish of eighth in 2013 driving for Brad Keselowski in the Truck Series. For four years, the Niece Motorsports driver was absent from racing in the Trucks before returning last year, finishing 16th for Niece. And what a difference a year makes. At this time last year, Chastain wasn’t even running for Truck points and was focused on his Xfinity program for JD Motorsports. While his Truck stats may not be much to count on, the Florida native has five starts in the Xfinity Series with a best finish of 16th in last year’s race. What a win it would be if Chastain wheels in the No. 45 Chevy Friday night into victory lane.
Matt Crafton – Crafton is the most experienced driver of them all competing for the championship this weekend. He’s entered in every race he’s started since 2001 at Homestead with a win back in 2015 after starting on the pole and leading 93 laps. Since winning the title in 2015, Crafton has competed in the Playoffs two out of three times. However, in those times, the California native finished seventh in 2016 and sixth (last of the Champ 4 contenders in 2017). During those races, he’s only been able to lead 10 laps. Counting 18 starts, Crafton has three top fives and 10 top-10 finishes with 145 laps led and zero DNFs, along with an average finish of 10.8.
Stewart Friesen – Friesen, who also will be competing in his first-ever Championship 4 race at Homestead has three starts dating back to his first track start in 2016. The Canadian’s best finish was fourth in last year’s race after finishing seventh and sixth in both stages, respectively. Overall, the Halmar driver has his technical teammate Brett Moffitt to lean on and an average finish of 13.3.
During the last four years of the Championship 4 race, the champion has finished third in 2016, second in 2017 and first in last year’s race by Moffitt.
Homestead has seen 23 races since its first year back in 1996 and has a long list of winners. Dave Rezendes was the first winner in ‘96, followed by Kenny Irwin Jr., Rick Crawford, Mike Wallace, Andy Houston, Ted Musgrave, Ron Hornaday, Bobby Hamilton, Kasey Kahne, Todd Bodine, Mark Martin, Johnny Benson Jr., Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch, Johnny Sauter, Cale Gale, Bubba Wallace, Matt Crafton, William Byron, Chase Briscoe and Brett Moffitt.
The highest a race winner has ever come from was the pole, four times – Hamilton in 2003, Crafton in 2015, Byron in 2016 and Briscoe in 2017.
On the manufacturer side of things, Toyota has nine wins, Ford and Chevy have five each while Dodge only scored one.
Six times the race was extended to overtime in 1999, 2007-2009, 2012 and the last time an overtime finish occurred was in 2013.
Kyle Busch Motorsports has the most wins in regards to teams. KBM has four (2010, 2013, 2014 and 2016), defunct team Ultra Motorsports (1999, 2001 and 2004), Germain Racing with two (2005 and 2008), while ThorSport also has two (2011, 2015). ‘ To up the ante, Gander Outdoors has offered an additional $100,000 to this year’s champion.
It will be a one day show for the Truck Series on Friday. First practice is at 9:05 a.m. ET and final practice is scheduled for 10:35 a.m. ET with no live TV coverage. Qualifying can be seen later in the afternoon at 4:35 p.m. ET live on Fox Sports 1.
The Ford Ecoboost 200 gets underway shortly after 8 p.m. ET live on Fox Sports 1 and MRN Radio. Stages are 40/40/54 laps to make up the 134-lap race.
