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  • Four Takeaways from NASCAR Camping World Truck Series at Gateway

    Four Takeaways from NASCAR Camping World Truck Series at Gateway

    The 10th race of the 2018 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series took place this past weekend at Gateway Motorsports Park.

    While there were a couple of surprises in the top-10, the same team that has been dominant for most of the season, wound up in victory lane, but this time with a different driver.

    Here are my final four thoughts from the Villa Lighting Delivers the Eaton 200, before the Truck Series heads to Chicagoland Friday night.

    1. Justin Haley Scores First Career Win – Haley, who has been strong all year, finally earned his first career win and locked himself into the postseason Playoffs. While he was somewhat of a surprise winner, the No. 24 team had four top fives and six top-10 finishes before his first season. They were close to winning earlier this season, but just needed to find the right opportunity to strike and that’s what happened in Saturday night’s race. It’ll be interesting to see what the No. 24 GMS Racing team does in order to compete with teammate Johnny Sauter for the rest of the year.
    2. Noah Gragson Close Once Again – Same song, second verse for the No. 18 driver, Noah Gragson. After earning his first win of the season last month at Kansas, Gragson has been close many times to earning multiple victories but has fallen short so far. He had the truck to beat Saturday night, leading 63 times, but late race cautions hurt the team’s chances at winning and they had to settle for a disappointing 10th place. It’s only a matter of time before the team breaks out and start earning multiple victories.
    3. Zane Smith, Riley Herbst, Jesse Little, Chad Finley Have Career Nights – Smith, Herbst, and Finley, all ARCA series regulars, had a solid night at Gateway. Smith and Herbst who made their Truck Series debut, did a spectacular job, finishing fifth and eighth. Finley hasn’t competed in a Truck Series race since 2015 and finished sixth. Jesse Little was able to earn his fourth top-10 finish of the year. A great night for all the young stars involved.
    4. Question Marks Still A Concern For Hattori Racing – After earning two wins this season at Atlanta and Iowa, it sure seemed like the No. 16 team would be a challenger for the Truck Series championship postseason. Unfortunately, this isn’t the case for Moffitt and Hattori Racing, at least for now. The No. 16 driver stated in Friday’s media availability that they were still unsure what their plans were past this weekend. And that still holds true. If Moffitt misses the race this weekend, he will not be able to get a waiver in order to compete postseason, because you have to compete in all the races. However, with today’s power of social media and the NASCAR fan base, they have been reaching out to companies all across the United States to sponsor the team in order to continue. While this would be great, it goes to show how unfortunate this is and how it’s tough to secure full-time sponsorship in the Truck Series.
  • Myatt Snider Enjoys Best Finish Of The Year at Gateway

    Myatt Snider Enjoys Best Finish Of The Year at Gateway

    The 2018 Truck Series season has been a challenging one so far for the No. 13 Thorsport Racing driver, Myatt Snider.

    Starting off with Daytona, he was caught up in a wreck and finished 24th. The following week at Atlanta, Snider was able to finish inside the top-10, finishing seventh. Before Iowa, his last finish inside the top-10 was at the snow-delayed Martinsville race where he finished sixth.

    Excluding Iowa, Snider has not had the season he wanted with finishes of 15th twice and a 23rd place at Texas due to another accident. However, it seems as though his season starting to turnaround little by little.

    At Iowa, the team qualified 17th and placed 10th, earning his third top-10 finish of the year. And at Gateway this past weekend, it looks as though the team continues to gain momentum, getting better finishes.

    This week at Gateway, after qualifying in the 14th position, Snider stayed in the top 15 for both stages, finishing 15th and 13th, respectively. After benefiting from some late race cautions and staying out under one caution, the No. 13 Thorsport Racing team found themselves inside the top five and challenging for the win.

    Ultimately, Snider and his No. 13 The Carolina Nut Co. Ford finished fourth, earning his first ever top-five finish of the year.

    With that finish, he sits ninth in the point standings.

    “We got a lot of positions on that last restart,” Snider said. “It was a great job by my whole Carolina Nut Co. Ford F-150 team. We kept adjusting on it – we didn’t have the strongest truck all night, but my guys did everything they could to work on it and help it out. The fact that we worked our way up to fourth makes [this finish] even sweeter at Gateway. It was a good points day for us.”

  • Full weekend schedule for Sonoma, Gateway

    Full weekend schedule for Sonoma, Gateway

  • Four Takeaways From The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Race At Iowa

    Four Takeaways From The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Race At Iowa

    The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series visited Iowa Speedway this past weekend located in Newton, Iowa. As always, the trucks put on quite the show no matter where they race and the M&M’s 200 certainly didn’t disappoint.

    Here are four takeaways from the ninth race of the season.

    1. Trucks Put On A Stellar Show At Iowa: As almost all races in the Truck Series, the NASCAR Truck Series put on another great showing at the .875-mile racetrack. There was quite a bit of action throughout the race that had people talking. But the one that had people talking the most was Noah Gragson’s dive-bomb move coming to the checkered flag. Social Media lit up after the Las Vegas, Nevada driver tried making the move coming to the checkered but unfortunately ended up bouncing off the wall, and had to settle for a second-place finish. The 19-year-old referenced the dive-bomb, like a “video game style” move. Despite falling .333 seconds short and only taking the lead for a split second, Gragson was happy about the outcome and thanked ‘NASCAR: Inside Line video game’ for trying that pass.
    2. DGR-Crosley Brand Shines With Top Five Finish: Another race, another solid finish for the No. 54 team who is owned by former NASCAR Cup Series driver, David Gilliland. Originally, Bo Lemastus was supposed to be the driver of the truck this past weekend, before the team made the swap on Thursday afternoon. Gilliland placed ninth in the second stage and was even up front for a restart late in the going, but ultimately wound up with a fourth-place finish. This was the team’s third top-five finish of the season.
    3. Myatt Snider Quietly Earns Top-10 Finish: After a rough outing at Texas Motor Speedway last weekend, Snider placed the No. 13 Carolina Nut Company Ford in the top-10. It was his first top-10 of the year since earning a sixth at Martinsville in April. Since then, Snider has finished outside the top-10 and had somewhat struggled due to other circumstances. This was his third top-10 finish of the season for the Thorsport Racing driver. He currently sits ninth in the point standings.
    4. Matt Crafton Continues To Struggle: The 2018 season has been one to forget so far for the two-time Truck Series champion. While it’s not bad by no means, they certainly can be better and have been better in years past. So far, Crafton has only notched three top fives and four top-10 finishes. But a stat that stands out the most is no wins, two DNF’s and an average finish of 13.7. The best finish the No. 88 driver has this year is second at Dover. Crafton’s last win came at Eldora Speedway and we are four races away from the dirt race. If they don’t get a win soon, it will have been one year since he has won.
  • NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Power Rankings-Iowa

    NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Power Rankings-Iowa

    The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series continued their mid-west swing this past weekend by visiting the .875-mile track located in Newton, Iowa.

    It was the ninth race of the 22-race season and with the season getting into the hot summer months, the M&M’s 200 sure didn’t disappoint in a thriller finish with the Truck Series regulars continuing to put on a great show.

    Here’s a look at this weeks power rankings.

    1. Brett Moffitt – Moffitt earned another huge victory this past weekend in the corn state of Iowa. It a hometown victory for the Grimes, Iowa native. While winning in your hometown is sweet, the No. 16 Hattori Racing team continues to search for sponsorship for the rest of the season. Nothing would be sweeter to see the team who has worked hard this season secure a full-time sponsorship for the rest of the 2018 season to compete for the Truck Series championship. After starting 16th, he worked his way up to eighth in the first stage. Moffitt continued to work his way up in the second stage by finishing third. After a late race caution and strategy being played, he took the lead on lap 125 and held on for the final 76 laps to collect the third win of his career and the second of 2018.
      • Previous Week Ranking: Not ranked
    2. Johnny Sauter – Sauter slips back one spot in this week’s rankings by finishing fifth. He still remains win-less at Iowa Speedway after 12 starts. While it wasn’t a bad night by any means, he was able to battle for the lead multiple times but never quite got the hang of the No. 21 GMS Racing Chevy and he never led a lap. However, he finished fifth and eighth in both stages, respectively. Sauter still remains a powerhouse in the series and the one to beat every week. He leads the series standings over Noah Gragson by 71 points.
      • Previous Week Ranking: 1st
    3. Noah Gragson – Gragson will be the talk of the week after his thrilling move late in the M&M’s 200. After fighting hard all night and finishing sixth, and fourth respectively in both stages, he found himself contending and challenging for the win with five laps to go. Gragson continued to rally and get to the back bumper of eventual race winner Brett Moffitt. In fact, he made a dive bomb move or a “video game style” as Gragson referenced going into Turns 3 and 4 on the final lap. Gragson almost made it stick, but ended up bouncing off the wall yards before the finish line and ended up .333 seconds short for his second win of the career. An A for effort in the continuously growing popularity of the 19-year-old.
      • Previous Week Ranking: Not Ranked
    4. Jesse Little – For everything that went on last night and this season, it’s hard to overlook a team who continues to impress people quietly. This season Little had only competed in three races prior to Iowa. In two of those races, he earned two top-10 finishes at Atlanta and Dover by finishing eighth and ninth. He upped that finish and earned the best finish of his career so far by finishing in the sixth position, earning his third top-10 of the year in the limited schedule that he has been running. But as seen in the series, under the right circumstances and situations, Little could provide to be an upset winner whenever the trucks race. And whenever the race team gets that victory, it will be a huge win for the small underfunded No. 97 team.
      • Previous Week Ranking: Not Ranked
    5. Harrison Burton – Burton rounds out the power rankings this week after a strong showing at Iowa. The 17-year-old proved his talents once more this past weekend. He topped the practice charts in the final practice and continued that momentum by earning his first ever Truck Series pole. Burton led early in Stage 1 by leading the first 30 laps and that would be the only 30 laps he led for the rest of the night. In the first stage, Burton wounded up finishing third. However, problems with the ECU unit mounted after the first stage and resulted in putting him deep in the field for the second stage. That didn’t stop him, however, as he worked his way up to finish sixth in the second stage. Just like his teammate, Gragson, Burton found himself competing for the win late in the going. Ultimately after some issues early on, he found himself third at the scoring pylon earning his career-best Truck Series finish. Burton continues to shine early in his career.
      • Previous Week Ranking: Not Ranked

    Fell Out

    1. Matt Crafton – An accident on lap 135 saw Crafton’s left front tire blow out and resulted in him finishing in the 26th position. The No. 88 Menards team continues to struggle to find that first win of the season.
    2. Grant Enfinger – Enfinger was involved in the first wreck and had a bit of damage, thus relegating him to an 11th place finish.
    3. Justin Haley – Haley wasn’t quite as sporty this week as he finished 16th, four laps down.
    4. Stewart Friesen- Friesen was also involved in the same incident as Crafton, but managed a ninth-place finish.
  • Christian Eckes Rebounds From Early Wreck In Series Debut at Iowa

    Christian Eckes Rebounds From Early Wreck In Series Debut at Iowa

    Up and coming NASCAR star, Christian Eckes made his NASCAR Camping World Truck Series debut Saturday night driving the No. 46 Kyle Busch Motorsports Mobil 1 Toyota Tundra at Iowa Speedway.

    On Lap 32, the second caution of the night was brought out due to an incident on the backstretch involving Austin Hill, Grant Enfinger, and Christian Eckes. The Mobil 1 driver had slight damage from the wreckage, but that didn’t stop the talented breakout star from making his way forward.

    In the last thirty laps in Stage 1, he managed to fight his way to the 10th position after the early incident. Some pit strategy was played by the 46 team and others. Eckes was on older tires than the rest of the field but salvaged a 14th place finishing position in the second stage.

    With some track position and strategy that continued to play out, he fought his way up as high as fifth in the final stage. At the end of the night, he brought home the KBM machine in the eighth position for his first ever top-10 finish in the series. Not bad for the 17-year-old rookie who made his national series debut.

    “It started out a little rough,” Eckes said.  “Not sure what happened on the backstretch there but we got in a wreck and had to fight back all day. Everybody on this 46 Mobil 1 team did a great job today getting me where I needed to be. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the finish that I really wanted at the end, but a top-10 finish in my debut is definitely a positive.”

  • Brett Moffitt Wins In A Thriller At Iowa

    Brett Moffitt Wins In A Thriller At Iowa

    Hometown hero Brett Moffitt was able to collect win number two of the 2018 season after a last lap thriller Saturday night at Iowa Speedway.

    “We had to fight all day,” Moffitt said after the race. “Qualified where we didn’t want to and first stop, we had a lug nut get caught between the wheel and the hub. And so we went all the way back there. The guys worked hard. They executed at the end and to have this Destiny Homes Toyota in victory lane is unreal. You know, it was certainly faster at the end and I was just fortunate enough to hold them off.”

    Harrison Burton and Matt Crafton set the front row early on in the day after qualifying for the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series M&M’s 200. Sixty laps in Stages 1 and 2 and 80 laps in the final stage made up the 200 lap running of the event.

    Burton started off Stage 1 strong leading most of the way. The very first caution slowed the race on Lap 24, where Todd Gilliland scrapped the wall in Turn 2. After the restart on Lap 30, another caution came out when Grant Enfinger, Christian Eckes, Austin Hill and Ben Rhodes were involved in a melee on the backstretch slowing the pace once more.

    As the stage was winding down, there was a five-way battle for the lead which included Crafton, John Hunter Nemechek, Stewart Friesen, Burton, and Johnny Sauter. However, Nemechek was able to take the lead and held on to win the first stage.

    Stage 2 began on Lap 68 and went to Lap 120. Kansas race winner, Noah Gragson, took the lead on the restart and held on for a short while as there was once again multiple battles for the lead. The fourth caution came out just past the halfway mark for Gilliland, who once again bounced off the wall ultimately ending his day.

    “A mistake by me,” Gilliland said. “We were really free and just got into (Turn) 1 a little too deep and I was running up, and got a little too free and wrecked. We blew a right front. Something was messed up. I don’t know, I’m not sure if I just hit something, caught a part or what, but just hate it. That was my fault, should have been running top five right now and I guess there’s nothing else you can do, except learn from it.”

    This was the only incident in Stage 2 and Friesen ran away with the stage win.

    The final stage went back to green with 71 laps to go and Atlanta race winner, Brett Moffitt took the lead. One caution slowed the final stage, as Matt Crafton’s left front tire went down and was unable to turn going into the Turn 1, taking out several others. Crafton and Nemechek’s night was done as they suffered the most damage from the wreck.

    A restart came with 56 laps to go and Moffitt was able to take off like a rocket ship leading almost of the stage. With less than 30 to go, Gragson was starting to reel in the race leader.

    As the race came to an end with less than five laps to go, a three-way battle for the win heated up with Moffitt, Gragson, and Burton. On the last lap, Gragson tried making a dive bomb move on Moffitt and took the lead for a split second but ended up bouncing off the wall coming to the line, allowing Moffitt to collect his second win of the season in a last-lap thriller.

    There were six cautions for 44 laps and eight leaders among eight lead changes. Moffitt led once for 76 laps for the third win of his career.

    The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series continues their mid-west swing by visiting Gateway Motorsports Park next Saturday night.

     

    [pdf-embedder url=”http://www.speedwaymedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Iowa-NCWTS-Unofficial-Race-Results-6-16-18.pdf” title=”Iowa NCWTS Unofficial Race Results 6-16-18″]

  • Matt Crafton’s Blown Tire Causes Mulit-Car Wreck in Stage 3 at Iowa

    Matt Crafton’s Blown Tire Causes Mulit-Car Wreck in Stage 3 at Iowa

    On Lap 135, Matt Crafton’s left front tire cut down going into Turn 1 causing a multi-vehicle incident during Stage 3 of the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series M&M’s 200 at Iowa Speedway. Drivers involved in the accident included Stewart Friesen, Ben Rhodes, previous race winner John Hunter Nemechek, and Dalton Sargeant.

    Prior to the incident taking place, Crafton’s No. 88 Menards Ford and the No. 52 Halmar Racing machine made slight contact with each other, thus giving Crafton a left front tire rub. Laps later, the tire finally let go causing a major accident.

    “I blew a left front tire,” Crafton said. “Just got caught back with the 52 (Friesen) and blew a left front tire.”

    John Hunter Nemechek was also taken out of the race after leading the race twice for 15 laps.

    “I don’t know how Crafton ended up with a left front rub,” Nemechek said. “I had no idea. We could tell who was rubbing to the outside getting in to (turn) 1, put us four wide and I tried backing out of the situation and it just wasn’t enough. I hate it for all my guys. He (Crafton) came up and blew a left front, kept coming up and put us in the fence. So overall, disappointed. But have another shot at tomorrow. We were fast and I was driving my butt off. That was a lot of fun.”

    Crafton finished 26th and Nemechek 27th.

  • NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Preview-Iowa

    NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Preview-Iowa

    The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series heads to the midwest again this weekend, as the series regulars head to Iowa Speedway. This is the second standalone event of the season for the series.

    Currently, there are 35 trucks on the preliminary entry list this weekend for the annual M&Ms 200.

    Fifteen drivers will be making their first track debut. These include Camden Murphy, Austin Hill, Cory Roper, Todd Gilliland, Reid Wilson, Myatt Snider, Bobby Reuse, Brett Moffitt, Tanner Thorson, Dalton Sargeant, Justin Fontaine, Christian Eckes, Stewart Friesen, Bo LeMastus and Bayley Currey.

    Note: Christian Eckes will be making his Truck Series debut driving the No. 46 Mobil 1 Toyota Tundra for Kyle Busch Motorsports.

    Here’s a look at who might be challenging for the win this weekend at the small .875-mile track.

    1. Johnny Sauter – It should be no surprise that Sauter, once again, tops the chart this week but it’s hard to overlook someone who has done so much in a sport that’s called, ‘What Have You Done for Me Lately?’ Lately, he has earned season win number four last week at Texas Motor Speedway. It’s also hard to stop someone who has been on a roll and carrying so much momentum this season. However, Iowa will be a little challenge and a curve-ball this week for the No. 21 GMS Racing. Sauter has no wins in 11 races, but he does have seven top fives and eight top-10 finishes, along with an average start of 9.8 and an average finish of 7.4. His last five finishes have been second, 10th, 17th, 18th, and fourth, respectively. But if he does pull out the win this Saturday night, it shouldn’t be surprising due to the fact that he’s been the Kevin Harvick of the Truck Series.
    2. John Hunter Nemechek – John Hunter Nemechek returns to pilot the No. 8 Nemco Motorsports Chevy. He is high on the list this week because Nemechek is the recent race winner of the event. In last year’s race, he started fifth and led just six laps. He also finished seventh and third, respectively in both stages. Nemechek has also led 59 laps in total at the track, including obtaining a 5.5 average start and an average finish of 11.5. Other finishes include 12th, 23rd (DNF), and 10th in his four starts at the track. He also has one top-five finish and two top-10 finishes. Nemechek will certainly be a challenger for the win this week at Iowa.
    3. Stewart Friesen – After last week’s performance, it’s hard to not count Friesen out to contend for the win. He and his No. 52 Halmar Racing is slowly but surely, becoming more and more of a contender each week in challenging for race wins. Friesen came up .092 seconds short of his first win to Johnny Sauter. This will be his first-ever start at Iowa Speedway this weekend.
    4. Todd Gilliland – Gilliland will be making his first ever Truck Series start at Iowa, but he does have previous starts and experience at the racetrack. His starts came in the NASCAR K&N Series as well as the ARCA Racing Series. In last year’s race, Gilliland started fourth and won after dominating the whole race by leading 147 laps. He has also made one start in the ARCA Racing Series driving for Venturini Motorsports starting 11th and finishing ninth. Gilliland has already proven himself as a contender for the win and if the opportunity strikes, he could end up in victory lane this weekend. What a win that would be for the recent high school graduate.
    5. Matt Crafton – Crafton will be making his 12th career start at Iowa this weekend and is still searching for the first win of the 2018 season. At Iowa, he has made 11 career starts and posted one win which came in 2011, seven years ago. He also has five top-five finishes and along with 10 top-1os. Crafton has also led 89 laps throughout his career at this place and has an average start of 9.7 and an average finish of 6.3. However, in the recent outing, he did not finish after getting involved in a late-race crash and salvaged a 19th place finish. While it seems as though the No. 88 Menards Ford F-150 is still searching for speed this season if they play their cards right and right calls happen, Crafton will earn his first win of the season and lock himself into the Playoffs.

    Iowa Speedway has seen 11 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series ever since the series went there in 2009. Erik Jones and Timothy Peters have been the only repeat winners. Other winners include Mike Skinner, Austin Dillon, Matt Crafton, James Buescher, William Byron and defending race winner, John Hunter Nemechek. Qualifying will be important if you want to collect a race win as previous race winners have started, fifth twice, first, second, and third.

    Stages will be broken up into 60/120/200.

    The Truck Series will have a one day show with first practice beginning at 9:35 a.m. ET on Fox Sports 1 and final practice at 11:00 a.m. ET on Fox Sports 2. Qualifying is slated for Saturday afternoon at 4:30 p.m. ET on FS2.

    Race coverage begins at 7 p.m. ET on Fox Sports 1 and MRN Radio, with the green flag scheduled to drop at 7:19 p.m. ET, approximately.

  • Four Takeaways from the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Event at Texas

    Four Takeaways from the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Event at Texas

    Texas Motor Speedway was the host for the eighth race of the 2018 season for the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. While there were some notables that placed in the top 10, there were also some of the same familiar faces at the top.

    Here are this week’s four takeaways from the PPG 400.

    1. Johnny Sauter Continues To Dominate – There’s no stopping the four-time winner, Johnny Sauter, this season. He now has four wins, seven top fives and seven top 10 finishes. While he did not dominate as he did in previous races, Sauter still found a way to work his way up to the front and win at Texas for his fifth win at the track. If this was in November, he would have had already clinched his spot in the championship 4 as he did last November. However, it wouldn’t be surprising if Sauter does collect another win at Texas later in the year. He’s currently on track to becoming a three-time champion.
    2. Tyler Young Shines In The Top 10 – Young had a great, but quiet Friday night at Texas Motor Speedway. While he didn’t finish inside the top 10 at all in either stage, he rallied toward the front to finish seventh at the end of the night. This was a strong finish, almost a win, for the underdog Young Motorsports team. It was his first top 10 finish of the year and his sixth of his career. A decent showing by the No. 20 of Young Motorsports.
    3. Todd Gilliland Is The Highest Kyle Busch Motorsports Driver – Having no previous race experiences at Texas Motor Speedway, Gilliland scored a sixth-place and was the highest KBM driver in the final results. Not bad for the recent high school graduate, who will now be able to compete on a full-time schedule for the rest of the year. It will be interesting to see how he does and it wouldn’t be surprising if he collects a couple of wins before the season is all said and done. Spencer Davis finished ninth while  Noah Gragson claimed 10th and rounded out the Kyle Busch Motorsports trio.
    4. Cody Coughlin Has A Solid Top 10 Night – Coughlin continues to quietly finish inside the top 10 this season. He finished fifth in the first stage but fell outside the top 10 due to falling a lap down. With a late caution, Coughlin and his No. 2 JEGS Chevy made adjustments and he worked his way back into the top 10 late in the race. At the end of the day, he found himself in the seventh position in the final rundown for his fourth top 10 of the year.