Testing SpeedwayMedia.com

Tag: Camping World Truck Series

  • Four Takeaways From The Truck Series Race At Daytona

    Four Takeaways From The Truck Series Race At Daytona

    The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series started the 2018 season last Friday night at Daytona International Speedway. Here are four takeaways from the event itself.

    1. GMS Racing Look To Recapture Championship – GMS Racing’s Johnny Sauter started off the season with a win, followed by the No. 24 of Justin Haley. If history repeats itself, Sauter would wind up winning his second championship this year as he won the season opener a few years ago and won the championship in that year. It could happen again, but there are a lot of hungry and new drivers looking to knock off the seasoned veterans for the championship.
    2. Scott Lagasse Jr. Gets A For Effort – Lagasse Jr earned a fifth-place finish Friday night at Daytona. It was his best finish at the historic 2.5-mile superspeedway since the 2015 race where he finished third. Regardless of where he finished in the stages, he gets an A for effort while earning his second top five of his career.
    3. Kyle Busch Motorsports Has Star-Studded Lineup – The driver lineup will look different this year for Kyle Busch Motorsports than it did in past years. Noah Gragson returns for his second full-time season driving the famed No. 18. Todd and David Gilliland will split the rides until Todd turns 18 at Charlotte in May. Spencer Davis and Kyle Busch will also spit the No. 51 Truck. While at Charlotte, KBM will field four entries with Todd in the No. 4, Gragson in the No. 18, Busch in the No. 51 and Brandon Jones in the No. 46. As you can see, the KBM entries are fielded with bright stars looking to make an impact and headlines in 2018.
    4. Jordan Anderson Fields Own Entry In 2018 – It will be interesting to see how Anderson does competing in his own team this year. He will be fielding the No. 3 Toyota Tundra in 2018. He was there at the end challenging for the win despite not finishing in the top 10 in both stages. However, just like Spencer Davis, Anderson went spinning around at the start-finish line to earn the first top 10 of his career. If Anderson can keep this up, he will have a solid 2018 season.
  • NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Power Rankings – Daytona

    NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Power Rankings – Daytona

    The first race of the 2018 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series season kicked-off this past Friday night at Daytona International Speedway. Of course, there were intense moments as always when racing at superspeedways with the possibility of an upset winner. However, it was a familiar foe back on top of the scoring pylon for his first win of the season. Here’s a look at the top five power rankings leaving Daytona.

    1. Johnny Sauter – The last time Sauter left Daytona as the winner was in 2016. Later on that year, he would clinch and collect his first ever NASCAR Truck Series championship. So could that be a sign for Sauter in 2018? Only time will tell, but expect him to run up front and be in contention for stage wins and race wins. Sauter started second, led for 39 laps and finished second, and first respectively in both stages. His season is off to the right start as he carries momentum to Atlanta this weekend. However, he will have to continue his strong runs for the next 22 races if he wants to be champion again.
    2. Justin Haley – Haley scored his career-best finish in the Truck Series since Kentucky of last year (third). This also carried a 1-2 finish for GMS Racing this past weekend. GMS Racing is off to a strong start in 2018 and will be tough to challenge for the championship as the season goes on.
    3. Ben Rhodes – Rhodes also earned a career-best at track finish of fourth. His best Daytona finish prior to the race was seventh in 2016. After starting 24th, he worked his way up and avoided all the melee to earn his first top-five finish of the year and his 10th of his career.
    4. Joe Nemechek – When in Daytona, you can expect a unique top five or top 10 finish. Nemechek did just that after the carnage was all said and done as he posted third on the scoring pylon. It shouldn’t come as a surprise, however, as he came in fifth in last year’s race. This was Nemechek’s fourth top-five finish of his career. Not bad for someone who doesn’t regularly compete.
    5. Spencer Davis – Davis competed in his first ever truck series race this past weekend at Daytona driving the famed No. 51 Kyle Busch Motorsports Tundra. Stage 1 started off well for Davis as he would finish 11th. Just one spot outside the top 10 to earn playoff points. In Stage 2, he upped that position by finishing 10th. Davis was there at the end and if something had happened, he could have capitalized on it and possibly become the upset winner. However, he would end up sliding around across the finish line to earn a seventh-place finish.
  • Several Truck Series Veterans Leave Daytona Disappointed; Hopeful For Turnaround At Atlanta

    Several Truck Series Veterans Leave Daytona Disappointed; Hopeful For Turnaround At Atlanta

    The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series kicked-off its 23rd year of competition and its eighth year racing at Daytona International Speedway. Some drivers left Daytona happy, but others like Matt Crafton (still searching for his first win at Daytona) left unhappy. Others included Noah Gragson, John Hunter Nemechek, Myatt Snider, Stewart Friesen, Cody Coughlin and Brett Moffit.

    Thorsport Racing – Two of its entries were involved in multiple incidents at the 2.5-mile superspeedway. On Lap 74, Snider was collected in a six-truck crash. He barely made it through the crash but was caught at the last second by Nemechek. After finishing seventh in Stage 1, Snider’s night was done early and he was relegated to a 24th place finish after finishing in the top 10 last year.

    “I almost got through the wreck, but John (Hunter Nemechek) ended up coming down the track and we made contact,” Snider said.  “Then, I was in the grass and dug the splitter in and tore the nose off. We had a really good truck – the guys at ThorSport brought me a really good Liberty Tax Ford F-150, and I’m really proud of the work they’ve all done, especially for how quick we had to get things turned around before the season started. It’s a great group of guys, I just hate that all of their hard work ended up getting torn up like that.”

    Matt Crafton was involved in a five-truck crash late in the race on Lap 83. With the incident, Crafton is still searching for his first Daytona win and it will have to wait another year, as he wound up finishing 19th. Despite not getting the finish he wanted, Crafton is looking forward to Atlanta next weekend.

    “Tonight just wasn’t our night,” he said.  “We had the pit road issue early, and then we had an issue with something under the hood – never could quite figure that out. Then, there at the end, we got turned and had to make multiple trips down pit road to repair the damage on the rear. Overall though, this Menards Ford F-150 was good. Even after the pit road penalty, I knew we could make our way back to the front whenever we wanted, we just had to play it smart. Unfortunately, we just didn’t get to make that move. We will regroup and head to Atlanta next week – hands down one of my favorite tracks.”

    Cody Coughlin found himself in a new team this season driving the No. 2 JEGS Chevy for GMS Racing. Things started off well as he started 10th and finished there in Stage 1 while finishing fourth in Stage 2. However, at Daytona, you have to some luck in order to be there at the end to capitalize on it. Unfortunately, Coughlin was collected in the first wreck of the night off Turn 4. At the end of the night, the scoring pylon showed the No. 2 in 17th.

    “Well, we had a good run going tonight and a really fast JEGS.com Chevrolet Silverado,” Coughlin said. “We just had terrible luck. It’s hard to overcome two flat left rear tires and having to start at the tail of the field a lot due to those issues. Hopefully, we can get this luck turned around for next weekend at Atlanta (Motor Speedway).”

    Noah Gragson who is now in his second year at Kyle Busch Motorsports also had unfortunate luck after having a strong run. Gragson posted a fifth place qualifying effort Friday afternoon giving him a good starting position. But at Daytona, it’s not where you start, it’s where you finish. The first two stages saw him finish ninth and 14th, respectively. On Lap 56, the No. 18 Safelite Tundra was involved in a multi-vehicle wreck which thus ended their night early with a 23rd place finish.

    “In Daytona, a lot of the luck is not in the drivers’ hands — it is what it is. We qualified really good — Rudy Fugle and the guys on this No. 18 team built a really fast Safelite AutoGlass/Switch Toyota Tundra during the offseason,” Gragson said.  “I’m thankful for the opportunity to be driving for this team. This is not the way we wanted to start our season, but we can go to Atlanta next week with our heads held high that we had a lot of speed and I’m confident that we’ll have speed again next weekend in our first mile-and-a-half race of the year.”

    Hunter Nemechek finished 25th after being taken out on Lap 74, Stewart Friesen (27th) on the same lap and Brett Moffit was shown 26th.

    While some teams are already ahead and look forward to Atlanta Motor Speedway next weekend, other teams are behind and will be playing catch up.

     

  • NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Preview-Daytona

    NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Preview-Daytona

    The NASCAR off-season is officially over for the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series with the first practice kicking off Thursday morning 11:35 a.m. ET on FS1.

    Currently, there are 36 Trucks entered on the preliminary entry list.

    With a new year, comes new faces in new places. Here are some notables.

    Jordan Anderson will be fielding his own team in 2018 by driving the No. 3. An interesting twist for Daytona, David Gilliland will be driving the No. 4 for Kyle Busch Motorsports, Korbin Forrister in his teams owned No. 7, Myatt Snider takes over the No. 13 for Thorsport Racing, Dalton Sargeant in the 25 for GMS Racing. Ben Rhodes is now the 41, not the 27 as in previous years. To round out the unique entry list, Bo Le Mastus will be competing in the new David Gilliland Racing team driving the No. 54. Got that? Good. Now let’s take a look at who will be hot at Daytona International Speedway this Friday night.

    In the last three races, there have been three different winners ranging from Tyler Reddick, Johnny Sauter and last year’s winner, Kaz Grala. Reddick and Grala will not be competing in this year’s event as they have moved on to the NASCAR XFINITY Series.

      1. Johnny Sauter – Sauter is the highest active driver stat wise at Daytona. In the past three races, he owns one win, one top five and two top 10 finishes, with 64 laps led. However, in last year’s race, he was involved in the infamous big one at Daytona on the last lap. Unless you’re a stat nerd, then they really don’t mean anything at Daytona but you have to be there at the end to win the race. Nonetheless, never count Sauter out at plate tracks.
      2. Matt Crafton – Crafton will be back competing in his 19th year for the Truck Series. It’s hard to believe that in the last 17 races at Daytona, the No. 88 Thorsport driver does not have a win at Daytona. His best finish came eight years ago in 2010, where Crafton finished fifth. In the past three races, he has put up only two top 10 finishes and has led seven laps, with an average finishing position of 10.7. Despite going up and over on the last lap in last year’s race, he wound up 14th. In 2015 and ’16, Crafton finished eighth and 10th, respectively. Crafton and Sauter are realistically the only highly experienced drivers in the field.
      3. John Hunter Nemechek – Nemechek will be back behind the wheel of his family’s team-owned No. 8 Fleetwing Corporation Chevy. He only has two career starts at Daytona that came in 2017 and ’16. During those two race spans, Nemechek has completed 99.5 percent of the laps, scored one top five and one top 10 finish, and has an average finish of 10.5. Nemechek’s best finish came in last year’s race, where he placed fourth.
      4. Myatt Snider – New Year, New Look, New Team for the young 23-year old Myatt Snider. After competing for Kyle Busch Motorsports last year, Snider will adorn the No. 13 Liberty Tax Toyota for Thorsport Racing. It will be interesting to see how Snider does with his new team in 2018. Regarding stats, he only has one start that came last year where Snider finished 10th. He finished eighth in Stage 2.
      5. Parker Kligerman – Kligerman has become quite the restrictor plate racer as of late. In fact, the last time the Truck Series competed on a superspeedway, Kligerman was the winner at Talladega last fall. In four races, he has finishes of 15th, 11th, 29th in 2014 and third in 2016. Kligerman could very well be an upset winner once again Friday night in Daytona.

    There are three practice sessions scheduled for Thursday. First practice takes place at 11:35 a.m. ET, with the second practice slated for 2:25 p.m. ET and the final practice at 4:35 p.m. ET. All taking place on Fox Sports 1.Qualifying is Friday afternoon at 4:45 p.m. ET with the green flag scheduled for 7:52 p.m. ET on FS1.

  • Reasons Why 2018 Looks To Be A Stellar Year In NASCAR

    Reasons Why 2018 Looks To Be A Stellar Year In NASCAR

    It’s easy to be negative about everything in NASCAR. If that statement is ever doubted, just take a look at the stands on any given race day. It’s become so difficult to have a sellout race that some tracks like Atlanta and Charlotte are removing entire seating sections, and Loudon has even lost a race date.

    However, it’s not all drudge and depression; there are many things to be excited about in regards to the upcoming NASCAR season.

    Stage Racing

    The outcry when NASCAR announced that the races in the main touring divisions (Monster Energy Cup, XFINITY, Camping World Truck) would be broken into stages in 2017 was met with a mostly negative reaction. Several fans pointed out that this was another gimmick in a line of foolish, pointless, ill-defined gimmicks that NASCAR was throwing at a deeper issue.

    Instead, we were faced with some of the best, wildest racing product we never expected. The season started off with a wild Daytona Speedweeks, where the victors (CWTS – Kaz Grala, XFINITY – Ryan Reed, Monster Energy Cup – Kurt Busch) were not only unexpected but were won with racers that looked ready for the scrap heap (Maybe not Grala, as he kept a pretty clean nose throughout 2017). Other spectacular races included the Fall Martinsville event, which to sum up in a word was wild, and the Fall nailbiter at Phoenix, where Matt Kenseth scored a farewell win in his final full-time season.

    With a season of Stage Racing come and gone, we’re now left with the hope that NASCAR can find a way to transcend the excellence of 2017’s racing product and top it with another year of great racing.

    New Faces

    It’s an old topic revisited: Young Guns. Once upon a time, guys like Kurt Busch, Jimmie Johnson, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. were labeled as some of NASCAR’s youngest, most marketable drivers. But at the end of 2017, there were five Daytona 500 wins and eight championships among those three alone. Other drivers such as Kasey Kahne, Kevin Harvick, Ryan Newman, and Matt Kenseth have all been to Victory Lane at Daytona, Indy, Charlotte, Darlington, and even in the Champion’s Circle at Homestead. This means that a changing of the guard is imminent, considering that yesterday’s Young Guns are now today’s Old Guys; they are beginning to retire en masse, with Earnhardt and Kenseth joining former champions Tony Stewart and Jeff Gordon on the retired list.

    Ryan Blaney celebrates victory in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Axalta Pocono 400 at Pocono Raceway. Photo: Kirk Schroll/SpeedwayMedia.com

    Of course, there’s now William Byron, Bubba Wallace, and Ray Black Jr. to look forward to, joining the ranks of superstars like Chase Elliott, Ryan Blaney, and Kyle Larson. Alex Bowman can’t be forgotten; he’s gone from nobody to somebody in the sport as he has taken over the No. 88  This front is the future of NASCAR, and it promises to be good.

    The Playoffs

    Okay, so things may be a touch too gimmicky. But that didn’t make the 2017 Playoffs any less enjoyable. Granted, there were far too many moving pieces in the points, and as a result, we only got a basic, rudimentary sense of what was going on. Still, once the Playoffs started it was rife with drama as we watched, waited, and saw who was in and who was out. As a result, did anyone expect Kyle Larson to be eliminated after the second round? Or Kevin Harvick, who had a somewhat mellow first season with Ford Racing, to make it to Homestead?

    Granted, from the start we knew Martin Truex Jr. was going to be tough to beat, and given the Toyota Racing power his Furniture Row Racing team has, he’ll be tough to beat again in 2018. But it’ll be fun to watch the Playoff roulette wheel spin for the season’s final 10 races.

    Camaro Joins Cup Series

    This promises to be awesome. After years of Luminas, Monte Carlos, Impalas, and the SS, Chevrolet will now be fielding Camaros in the Cup Series after several years in the XFINITY Series. Whereas the XFINITY Series has been the scene for the age-old rivalry of Camaro vs. Mustang, it’ll be nice to see the transition begin in the Cup Series as the wicked-looking Camaro takes to the high-banks of Daytona.

     

  • Matt Crafton and Thorsport Move to Ford in 2018

    Matt Crafton and Thorsport Move to Ford in 2018

    CHARLOTTE, NC – In news involving the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, Matt Crafton, long seen driving the bright yellow Toyota Tundra, announced that the No. 88 truck would be a Ford F-150 in 2018. How could that affect the team this new season?

    “We’re looking forward to working with Ford and they’re what I started with in NASCAR. In my old Southwest Tour days in 1997 I started racing a Ford out west and that’s all my dad has ever owned and raced, so it’s very exciting for him because he always said whenever I first started racing another manufacturer, ‘I don’t know if I can root for you because I’ve only driven a Ford and you’ve only driven a Ford,’ so I guess now I’ve got a new fan in my dad.”

    Crafton admitted that it was quite a job to switch manufacturers, but work is underway at the shop and going well in converting more than 16 tucks.

    “We have to cut everything off from the windshield bed forward and put all the Ford noses on it and the Ford back half, so there’s a lot going on and those guys are working a lot of hours right now to get this stuff done,” Crafton said. “We have four teams going to Daytona, so two per team, and we’re doing the test tomorrow. So we have one done for that.”

    Crafton said that though Ford will have wind tunnel and aerodynamic help, the late change in manufacturers won’t allow the team to take advantage of any of those services. The change caught him totally by surprise.

    “I had no idea, to be honest. It was definitely something that caught me off guard when they told me what we were doing,” Crafton said. “I was like, ‘Wow, OK.’ I’m very excited about it without a doubt just for the fact of that’s what I started in. That’s what I started my NASCAR career in and that’s what my dad has done and raced all his life.”

    Crafton’s hobby is racing dirt modifieds, and though he didn’t run the Chili Bowl this season (not enough seats available), he plans to do a little of that prior to the big race at the superspeedway. Add to that, Crafton, a former series champion at Thorsport, expressed a common viewpoint on the health of the truck series.

    “I think what we need to do is go to some different places and not just have us racing all the same race tracks,” Crafton said. “It’s great to race with the Cup Series, but, at the same time, we need to go to different places. We need more road courses. If you look in the Cup Series, what races did they sell out? The road courses. Our biggest turnout of the year was a road course. We need another road course, I feel. Maybe another dirt track. Take us to some short tracks and not just all the mile-and-a-halves. There are so many great short tracks that we used to race at. I know NASCAR is in a tough box with those people not having enough capacity in the stands to be able to – you have all the sanctioning fees and the tracks to be able to sell enough seats to be able to pay for those races and a lot of mile-and-a-halves do, so I would definitely like to see us go back to quite a few of these.”

  • Driver Analysis: Austin Cindric

    Driver Analysis: Austin Cindric

    It seemed as though the 2017 season was a wild start for many drivers including Austin Cindric, driver of the No. 19 Ford F-150. On the first lap of the season, he, along with others, was collected in a Lap 1 crash that took out most of the field. A 27th-place finish at Daytona was not the way the Columbus, Ohio driver was hoping to start out.

    His first top 10 of the season came at Kansas where he finished 10th. At Dover, he earned his first ever top five, finishing fifth. The following week at Fort Worth, Cindric was involved in a crash on Lap 28 taking him out early, with the scoring pylon showing him 25th that night. When the summer months came around, his finishes began to improve, as he scored his career-best finish of fourth at Kentucky.

    “We had an awesome LTi Printing Ford F-150 all night and it was cool to have those guys here at the track,” Cindric said. “Getting to race around Kyle Busch and learn from him was a huge plus for me. For the first time this year, we finished where I feel like we deserved to, and I’m really proud of the effort.  Doug [Randolph, crew chief] did an awesome job making sure we were stable enough for the race, and the pit crew was fantastic. We need races like this for the rest of the season. I learned a lot and I’m really proud of that.”

    He continued to finish inside the top 10 in the following races throughout the summer months, including having a controversial first ever career win at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. On the last lap of the race, Cindric gave his friend Kaz Grala a bump, spinning Grala out as Cindric went on to win and collect a spot in the 2017 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Playoffs. For Cindric, however, it felt like a must-win situation.

    “It was an incredible weekend for this Draw-Tite team,” he said. “We unloaded and were fast right away and I’ve got to thank Doug [Randolph, crew chief] and all the guys at BKR for that. I’m not sure there was one highlight I saw all week where there wasn’t somebody getting into the back of somebody else to win the race, but I hate that it came down to that. I’ve known Kaz for a long time and I think he, or anyone else, would have done the exact same thing with that much on the line.

    “The way NASCAR’s point system is now, you have to win and you’re in the playoffs. I feel like this team deserves the win and I feel like it’s going to uplift everyone in the shop. This truck was brand new and purpose built for this race, and I had to carry out my job and win the race. My experience road racing was what was able to get me from 16th to ninth on a restart and ninth to fourth on the next restart. I feel like, without that experience, I wouldn’t have won today.”

    When the Playoffs began at Loudon, Cindric finished inside the top 10 for two races and finished inside the top five in four races, including a second at Fort Worth. With those consistent finishes, he clinched a spot in the Championship 4, competing for his first championship.

    “It means the world to me to put Brad Keselowski Racing in the Championship 4,” Cindric said. “It’s a huge opportunity for me and for everyone on this team, especially since this is the last race for BKR. I’ve got thank everyone for putting their heart and soul into this program. It’s also really special to have Draw-Tite and REESE Brands on our Ford F-150 this weekend. Horizon Global has been a longtime partner with BKR and it’s incredibly special to have them along for the ride this weekend. I’ve never raced at Homestead, so I’m getting as much information and talking to as many people as I can. We are the underdog, and I love that. It’s going to be critical for me to get up to speed and understand the balance of the race truck.”

    When it was finally time for the Championship 4 weekend at Homestead, the former No. 19 driver qualified third for the Ford 200. In Stages 1 and 2, Cindric finished sixth in both. He ran as high as second and as low as 11th and ran about fourth throughout the race. Cindric was never able to lead a lap in the final event of the season. As 2017 came a close, he finished fifth, third among the Championship 4 standings. Despite finishing fifth in the race, Cindric wanted a little more.

    “We had better short-run speed in our Draw-Tite Ford F-150 than anybody else,” he said. “If we would have had one more restart there, it would have been a lot of fun. We wish we could have brought home a championship on Ford Championship Weekend. I drove my heart out to try and get by the No. 4 of Bell. I had to start trying some things. I tried the top there and was able to get around Crafton on the last lap with a slide job for third in the championship. I’m really pumped about that. I love these guys. I’m so excited for the future. I hope we get to work with some of these guys moving forward and I know that I’m blessed to be where I am.”

    With Brad Keselowski Racing not fielding an entry for quite some time in the Truck Series, the 2018 season will see Cindric competing in the NASCAR XFINITY Series by sharing a ride with Chase Briscoe in the No. 60 Roush Fenway Racing Ford.

    In 2017, he collected one win, eight top fives and 16 top 10 finishes, along with an average start of 9.1 and an average finish of 10.2 with 106 laps led.

    For more news on Austin Cindric, follow him on Twitter @AustinCindric and on Instagram @AustinCindric.

     

     

  • Driver Analysis: Chase Briscoe

    Driver Analysis: Chase Briscoe

    Chase Briscoe was coming off his winning ways in the ARCA Racing Series by winning the championship in 2016. He was looking to add to that winning tradition in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series during the 2017 season.

    The year started off decently for the Mitchell, Indiana driver with a third-place finish at Daytona. He had a couple of setbacks at Atlanta (25th) and Martinsville (11th). However, Briscoe started to pick up consistency after winning the pole at Dover. He lost by mere inches at Fort Worth but finished inside in the top 10 for the most part with exceptions at Kentucky and Bristol. His highest finish of the season was second place, three times, at Fort Worth, Gateway and Chicago.

    Despite having great consistency throughout the summer months, it was announced by Brad Keselowski (owner of Brad Keselowski Racing) that the BKR Team would shut down at the end of the season, leaving Briscoe and his teammate Austin Cindric without rides at that point for the 2018 season. That announcement did not affect Briscoe’s strong runs, however, as he would clinch a spot in the Playoffs and compete for the 2017 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series championship.

    When the Playoffs started, Loudon saw him finishing 11th followed by a third at Las Vegas. Unfortunately, Briscoe collected finishes of 22nd and 19th at Talladega and Martinsville, respectively. Due to those finishes, he ultimately ended his chance for a championship title.

    Briscoe spoke about the Martinsville race, saying, “We were fast early in the race, but then started to get tight in the middle and we lost forward drive during the second stage. We lost track position on our second pit stop and that put us back with guys who were getting a little impatient and taking it three wide. That’s how we got on the losing end of a chain reaction and got some heavy left-side damage. There wasn’t a whole lot we could do once we were a lap down without a well-timed caution. We’ve still got three races we can win before the end of the season, and we all feel really good about Texas next week. Hopefully, we can finish out this season on a high note.”

    It’s what could have been though for the former No. 29 Ford F-150 driver. Briscoe had strong runs at Fort Worth (fourth) and Phoenix (fourth), then took the checkered flag at Homestead, winning his first ever Truck Series race. Had he not been eliminated from the Playoffs, we would be talking about a different champion for the 2017 season.

    “First off, we had a really good truck, and I can’t thank Brad and everyone at BKR enough,” Briscoe said. “For us to be shutting down and still bringing trucks that can win races and sit on poles, especially with me being out of the Playoffs, is a testament to how these BKR guys are. They continued to keep fighting for us. Our pit crew was absolutely on it tonight and allowed us to gain spots and get out in front. Once we got to the lead, I felt confident that we had the speed to hold everyone off until the end, but I thought we were going to have a caution because that seems to be how our luck has been all year long. There wasn’t one, and we were fortunate enough to go on and win. I didn’t think it would take this long, but I’m so glad we’re here. Thank you so much to Ford for believing in me this year as well. Two years ago I was sleeping on couches and now I’m a NASCAR winner.”

    When 2017 ended, he had collected one win, 10 top fives and 14 top 10 finishes, with an average start of 6.7 and an average finish of 8.5. Briscoe also led 288 laps.

    The young 23-year-old will be taking his teammate Austin Cindric along with him to Roush Fenway Racing next year, as both of them will be splitting rides in the No. 60 in the 2018 NASCAR XFINITY Series season.

    For more news on Chase Briscoe follow him on Twitter @ChaseBriscoe.

  • Driver Analysis: T.J. Bell And Regan Smith

    Driver Analysis: T.J. Bell And Regan Smith

    T.J. Bell and Regan Smith are NASCAR Camping World Truck Series regulars. This season marked Bell’s 15th year in the series, while it was Smith’s sixth year. Smith made 13th starts while Bell made 15 starts in the 2017 season.

    Smith made his first start of the year at Daytona International Speedway by qualifying 25th and finished sixth after the last lap melee, while Bell made his first start at Atlanta and finished 17th. Like most drivers who faced setbacks during the season, Smith had two DNF’s at Charlotte and Talladega, while Bell had five DNF’s at Dover, Iowa, Kentucky, Las Vegas and Phoenix.

    Despite having the DNF’s this season Smith’s sixth-place finish at Daytona was followed up by one more top 10 result at Dover where he finished seventh. Throughout the season, he averaged a 19.4 start and a 14.1 average finish.

    Bell, on the hand, had a 21.3 average start and a 19.9 average finish. Bell’s best finishes of the year came at Charlotte, Fort Worth and Pocono of 14th.

    When the season was over, Smith was scored 18th in the standings while Bell ended the year in 20th.

    Smith’s Twitter handle is @ReganSmith. You can follow T.J. Bell on Twitter at @TJBell_racing.

  • Driver Analysis: Parker Kligerman

    Driver Analysis: Parker Kligerman

    The 2017 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series driver analysis continues with Parker Kligerman.

    Kligerman, the 27-year-old out of Westport, Connecticut made seven starts in the Truck Series this season, including grabbing an upset win at Talladega. This was his seventh season racing in the Truck Series. Before the 2017 season, he had 11 starts in 2016 scoring one top five and three top 10 finishes, with a best finish of third at the famous Daytona International Speedway.

    However, 2017 got off to a rocky start for the No. 75 team of Kligerman and Henderson Motorsports. The team missed the first race of the season at Daytona by not being able to qualify for the event, which was disappointing not only for Kligerman who finished third in that race last year but for the team as well. A week later at Atlanta Motor Speedway, he qualified 19th but was relegated to a 31st place finish due to a fuel pump problem on Lap 28.

    But, the season started to turn around little by little for Kligerman and the No. 75 team. At Charlotte Motor Speedway, he placed 10th after starting ninth. Then, there was another setback at Dover where he was involved in a crash on Lap 96 and finished 21st.

    After a few rocky starts, the team started to pick up during mid-season. At Kentucky, Kligerman started 30th and finished seventh, and did the same thing at Bristol but finished one spot behind in eighth. He had a shining moment at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, where he had a shot to win the race on a late race restart after staying out but was shuffled to eighth.

    Kligerman would not race for the next three races until Talladega. The last time he won was at Talladega in 2012 when he scored his first ever career win. On this very weekend, he would wind up in victory lane again at Talladega, to capture his second career win. It was a sort of redemption for Kligerman as he missed the race last year by not qualifying for the race. It would also be his last race of the 2017 season in the Truck Series.

    At the end of the year, he averaged one top five and five top 10 finishes in seven starts. He led 11 laps and had two DNFs with an average start of 14.1 and an average finish of 12.3.

    You can follow Parker Kligerman on Twitter @Pkligerman and on Instagram @Pkligerman. For team news, you may follow Henderson Motorsports on Twitter @HendersonMotor1.