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Tag: Camping World Truck Series

  • Driver Analysis: Justin Haley

    Driver Analysis: Justin Haley

    The 2017 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series season was a good one for Justin Haley who made all but two starts in the series. Prior to the ’17 season, he had only made six career starts driving the No. 32 Great Clips truck for Todd Braun in 2015 and 2016. His best finish in those years was seventh in 2015 at Phoenix. However, he upped that best career finish this year driving the No. 24 for Maury Gallagher’s GMS Racing Team.

    Haley’s 2017 season did not start until the third race of the year at Martinsville and it was a rough one for the young 18-year-old. He started 24th but wound up finishing 26th, four laps down. A week later at Kansas, Haley finished ninth after starting 12th. With the exception of Charlotte, he continued to have consistent finishes inside the top 10, scoring the best finish of his career with a third at Kentucky. Haley finished inside the top 10 from Dover all the way until Bristol, where he finished 11th.

    Haley’s moment to shine in the 2017 season came at Fort Worth, where he claimed his first ever pole position. He stayed strong in the race by finishing fifth.

    “It’s really encouraging to see how far this team has come in just the last few races.,” Haley said. “We’re showing a lot of speed late in the season and that just proves how hard these guys work day in and day out. This was such an up and down race, but we overcame the adversity, learned a lot and got a top-five finish out of it. We’ll take this momentum into Phoenix and Miami, and finish the year out strong.”

    In the final two races, he would finish 14th at Phoenix (crash) and ninth at Homestead. When the season ended, Haley wound up with three top five and twelve top 10 finishes, with 37 laps led and only two DNF’s. His average start was 11.4 with an average finish of 11.2.

    “The 24 guys and I finished off the year well,” he said. “It was a smooth night under the lights in Homestead. Mike Ford did a great job on the pit box calling the race for us. I can’t ask much more out of our rookie season together. Everyone that pitched in this year from the road crew, to the pit crew and the guys back home means the world to me.”

    You can follow Justin on Twitter @Justin_Haley_ and on Instagram @Justin.Haley

  • Driver Analysis: Cody Coughlin

    Driver Analysis: Cody Coughlin

    Cody Coughlin entered the 2017 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series for the third time of his career. This year, however, he would be driving full-time in the No. 13 Thorsport Racing truck after competing in the No. 51 truck of Kyle Busch Motorsports last year.

    He started out at Daytona by starting 17th and finishing 11th and earned 26 points after the day was over. In the coming weeks, Coughlin scored finishes of 16th and 19th at Atlanta and Martinsville, respectively. Driving the No. 13 RIDE/JEGS Toyota Tundra, he would end up averaging a 16.1 start and a 15.0 average finish.

    At the end of the season, Coughlin had collected one top five and three top 10 finishes, including nine laps led. In the closing laps at Talladega, however, he would take a wild ride after being involved in a multi-truck pileup and nearly flipping over on the frontstretch.

    Despite that crash, a week later at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Coughlin finished sixth. It was his best career finish at that time until Phoenix where he finished third after starting 13th.

    Coughlin talks about earning his best career finish after the Phoenix race.

    “After qualifying and the beginning of the race, I didn’t think we’d end up in the top five at all, so I’m really proud of the adjustments the guys made to our Toyota Tundra,” Coughlin said. “Everybody on the RIDE TV/JEGS.com Toyota worked great, and with our first top-five we are now looking forward to the finale in Homestead.”

    In the season finale at Homestead, he started 16th and finished 14th. When the season concluded, Coughlin had finished on the lead lap 12 times.

    “It wasn’t the night we wanted, but we battled all night long and finished higher than we ran,” Coughlin said. “I appreciate my guys fighting for me all night long, and all season long. I appreciate Duke and Rhonda Thorson for letting me drive their trucks this season. It has been a great experience.”

    Cody Coughlin’s Twitter handle is @Cody_Coughlin while his sponsor’s Twitter handles are @RideTV and @TeamJEGS.

  • Driver Analysis: Ryan Truex

    Driver Analysis: Ryan Truex

    The 2017 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series season was a wild one for the No. 16 driver, Ryan Truex, the brother of the 2017 Cup Series Champion. Like others, he was involved in an unfortunate Lap 1 accident at Daytona which ended his season opener very early.

    It was not until Martinsville where Truex would earn his first top 10 of the season. He continued his consistency in the top 10 by finishing sixth at Kansas, fourth at Charlotte, 10th at Dover, fourth at Fort Worth and seventh at Gateway. But, the following week at Iowa, Truex was out of the race on Lap 166 due to overheating and wound up finishing 20th. It did not get better a week later at Kentucky, when the Mayetta, New Jersey driver was involved in a crash that relegated him to a 23rd place finish.

    With the exception of Eldora and Bristol, Truex started to finish inside the top 10 again starting at Pocono, where he finished third. Chicago was home to the cutoff race for the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. Truex needed to get enough points in order to make himself Playoff eligible. The day started off great for him as he started on the pole. He even won Stage 1 and finished eighth in Stage 2.

    When the night was done and over with, the scoring pylon showed the 25-year-old finished fourth. Unfortunately, it was not enough for Truex as he would miss the Playoffs by a tiebreaker.

    The Playoff races were rocky for Truex. He would finish inside the top five only twice (Loudon, Homestead). At Talladega, he was collected in a crash on Lap 19 and went on to finish 28th. Martinsville saw him finishing 13th with a 19th at Phoenix after another crash. Although, at the season finale, he ended the season on a high note by starting sixth and finishing fourth.

    2017 saw Truex capture eight top fives and 13 top 10 finishes and lead 115 laps. He had an 8.9 average start and an average finish of  11.4, along with five DNF’s and two poles at Chicago and Las Vegas.

    For more on Truex’s racing career, you can follow him on Twitter @Ryan_Truex and on Instagram @Ryan_Truex.

  • Driver Analysis: Johnny Sauter

    Driver Analysis: Johnny Sauter

    The 2016 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series champion Johnny Sauter was looking to back up his reign in 2017 and go for two consecutive championships. It would have been the first time since Matt Crafton did it in 2013 and 2014.

    The season began with Sauter being involved in the last lap melee at Daytona which saw him place 16th in the season opener. He had a string of second place finishes at Martinsville, Kansas and Charlotte. Then, the No. 21 GMS Racing Chevy driver collected his first win of the season at Dover International Speedway. It was his 14th career win and his first since Martinsville of last year. With this win, Sauter claimed a playoff spot early in the 2017 season.

    “I can’t say enough about the way this season has started and the work that Joe (Shear, Jr., crew chief), the 21 team and everyone at GMS have put in,” Sauter said. “The last four races I’ve sat here and talked about how good things have been and how I felt a win was coming, but when it actually happens there is a bit of weight taken off our shoulders. I’m happy to finally get a win here, I’ve done pretty good here over the years, but this is definitely a track I’ve always wanted to win at. It’s not an easy place to do that so it feels like a big accomplishment.”

    Sauter continued to have solid finishes throughout the season until Eldora, where he started 14th and finished 23rd due to a spin and radiator problems. It was a tough outing for the 39-year-old.

    “I’m not a dirt racer in any sense of the word, so the best I could hope for was to survive and get a decent finish, but unfortunately it just wasn’t meant to be one of those races for us,” he said. “The Allegiant team did an amazing job repairing the truck after the wreck in practice and I thought, with the spin early on in the race, that we’d still be okay. The guys did a great job switching out the radiator as fast as they did, just wish I could have had a shot at a good finish there at the end. It was probably the most comfortable I’ve ever felt going into Eldora, and Joe (Shear, Jr., crew chief) and the team showed we’re making progress everywhere, so I’ve got nothing to hang my head about.”

    It was Sauter’s worst finish of the season in 2017. He and the GMS Racing team put that disappointing finish behind them by winning at Chicago, the final race of the season before the Playoffs began. Throughout the Round of 8 and 6, he had finishes of ninth at Loudon and 10th at Chicago. His only finish outside the top 10 occurred at Talladega where he placed 12th.

    After the 12th place finish at Talladega, Sauter placed third at Martinsville and won back to back at Fort Worth and Phoenix. With those wins in the Round of 6, he clinched a spot in the Championship 4 for the second time in his career. The win at Phoenix did not come easy, however, for Sauter.

    “We struggled during qualifying but once they dropped the green flag we had pretty good speed in our ISM Connect Chevy,” he said. “Track position is so important here and we were just in the right place at the right time at the end of the race. A lot of red flags there at the end but it was good for me to just be able to sit there and gather my thoughts and think through how I wanted to handle those last restarts and those last two were perfect as far as I’m concerned. This is a team effort. We’ve been in position to win at least seven races this year and this is our fourth so we’re getting hot at the right time.”

    On the day of the championship race at Homestead, Sauter and GMS Racing announced that he would return next year to the No. 21 Chevy.

    “I can’t thank the Gallagher family and Mike Beam enough for the opportunity they’ve given me the last two years,” Sauter said. “To be able to compete at this level, where you know you could win any given weekend, is incredible and I’m excited to be able to continue with the No. 21 team next year.”

    With the announcement behind him, it was time for him and the GMS Racing team to focus on what they set out to do at the beginning of the year, winning the championship. But qualifying did not go as well to plan for Sauter, as he would place 11th, third out of the four playoff drivers. With not a so great qualifying position, he worked his way up just a tad and finished eighth in Stage 1. In Stage 2, Sauter had a much better finishing position of fifth. Throughout the race, however, he ran as low as 14th and as high as third. He never could challenge that much for the lead, and when the race was over, Sauer finished third, one spot short of collecting his second consecutive championship.

    “We started the race way too free, the loosest I’ve been in I don’t know how long,” Sauter said. “We made some good adjustments on the first stop, but it just eventually went away on me and was still way too free. I could never commit to the top, I’d have to drive in the corner shallow. I thought we had a little bit for the 4 toward the end but I just couldn’t touch the throttle on corner exit. We gave it everything we had, but I guess that’s what you get when it comes down to one race like this. I’m proud of everyone’s effort at GMS Racing, we did a good job, we’ve just got a lot of work to do.”

    2017 marked his 14th year competing in the Truck Series for the 2016 champion. Stat wise, it was a great one for Sauter, despite falling one position short of the championship. He had four wins (Dover, Chicago, Fort Worth and Phoenix), 13 top fives and 19 top 10 finishes, including an average start of 5.2 and an average finish of 6.3 along with 455 laps led.

    It will be interesting to see what the 2018 season will bring for Johnny Sauter as he will be competing in his 15th season and searching for his second championship.

    For more information on Johnny Sauter, follow him Twitter @JohnnySauter and for team information @GMSRacingLLC.

     

  • Driver Analysis: Ben Rhodes

    Driver Analysis: Ben Rhodes

    Ben Rhodes was able to collect a win during the 2017 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series season. However, he had to wait until the playoffs race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway to do so. Before we get too far ahead of ourselves, let’s take a look at how Rhodes’s season went.

    Ben scored his first top-five finish of the season at Atlanta by finishing fourth. Kansas almost saw the site of his first ever win, but a blown motor with less than 10 laps remaining in the race resulted in a disappointing finish of 23rd. Since that Kansas race, he was a contender for every race with top five and top 10 finishes until Kentucky, where Rhodes crashed and then, a week later at Eldora, did not finish again.

    After the unfortunate two DNF’s, he started on the pole and finished second at the Pocono race. With a few strong runs in the summer months, Rhodes just barely qualified for the playoffs by one position after the Chicagoland race. While it can be intense for others, it was not quite as intense for Rhodes throughout the race.

    “I think I stayed calm the whole time, especially with stuff going on,” Rhodes said. “Being calm and relaxed in the truck paid off. I could have taken some really aggressive moves out there to get us further ahead on the restarts because it was definitely a clean air game, but we never took those moves. I’m glad we didn’t, who knows what would have happened.”

    He was just as excited being able to compete for the championship.

    “Man, I still can’t believe it. They gave me the hat and I’m like, ‘Are you sure this is ours?” he said. “They said we were tied and we had the tiebreaker and I can’t believe it. We struggled ever since we unloaded here. This was our worst performance overall, and it couldn’t have come at a worse week, but they said we’re in and overall it worked out for us. I have to say thank you to everybody that’s involved. Now we have to re-focus and get a lot stronger for the Playoffs because a lot of these guys that are in are already there, and they belong there, and we have to get a little bit stronger because tonight was not one of our best nights.”

    Rhodes started off the playoffs strong with a seventh at Loudon and scored his first ever win at Las Vegas by holding off Christopher Bell and advancing into the next round. It was a great feeling for him when the checkered flag flew.

    “There was uncontrollable screaming on the radio,” Rhodes said. “I don’t even know. This is the biggest high of my life. This is crazy. I just never thought it would come after so many things went wrong, and now it did and we’re here.”

    Unfortunately, he could not keep that momentum going as Rhodes had finishes of 23rd at Talladega, 18th at Fort Worth and a crash at Phoenix, ultimately ending his championship hopes.

    The season finale was not any better, as Rhodes finished 19th after starting second. He had one win, six top fives and twelve top 10 finishes along with an average start of 7.8 and an average finish of 12.4 among 203 laps led, along with five DNF’s.

    You can keep up to date with Ben Rhodes by following him on Twitter @BenRhodes and on Instagram @BenRhodes.

  • Driver Analysis: Kaz Grala

    Driver Analysis: Kaz Grala

    The 2017 season started off with a bang for the No. 33 GMS Racing driver Kaz Grala. The season opener saw him starting on the pole and winning the race after a last-lap crash on the backstretch. Since that Daytona finish, however, he was inconsistent with his finishes. Atlanta and Martinsville saw him finishing 15th, while Grala would finish eighth at Kansas scoring his second top 10 finish of the season. A week later at Charlotte, he was involved in a crash on lap 70 which relegated him to a 30th place finish.

    In the coming weeks at Dover, Fort Worth and Gateway, Grala finished second, 10th and 13th, respectively. The next time he finished inside the top-15 was at Michigan placing 12th. He had four DNF’s at Iowa, Kentucky, Eldora and Pocono. Bristol saw Grala finish 28th due to engine problems. Needless to say, the summer month stretch was a long one for the 19-year-old.

    With the Daytona win, he was already locked into the playoffs. Starting with Canada, Grala finished third and continued the consistent finishes in the top 10 until the elimination race at Talladega. It was a busy one for the GMS Racing driver as his team ended up changing an engine before the race. The race did not get that much better for Grala as on Lap 18, he was collected in a wreck which saw him being eliminated from the playoffs.

    “My No. 33 team, everyone at GMS Racing and at Hendrick Engines worked really hard to change that motor to get us out in time for the race,” Grala said. “From what I could tell, it still felt like we were the fastest Chevy out there. Starting in the back, I made a lot of good moves to be in a position to get stage points at the end of the first stage. I’m not quite sure what happened but everyone checked up. I slowed down and thought I was going to miss it, but the truck behind me didn’t get slowed down fast enough and turned us up into the wall ending our day. That put an end to our championship hopes, unfortunately, which is really a shame because I think this No. 33 team had really come alive in the later part of this season and I think we would have been a contender. We did our part in what we could control and I’m just super proud of my guys.”

    Since that unfortunate situation at Talladega, he had finishes of seventh, sixth, fifth and 13th at Martinsville, Fort Worth, Phoenix and Homestead, respectively.

    “The No.33 team fought hard tonight,” he said. “The track was much more loose than originally anticipated and it was just hard to ever get comfortable with the lack of grip on the track. My STEALTH Chevy was fast at the end of a long run, but at that point, track position was hard to get back. I can’t thank my guys enough for all their work, not only tonight but the entire season.”

    Grala ended the season with one win, five top fives and eleven top 10 finishes, with an average start of 10.2 and an average finish of 14.0, with seven DNF’s and 33 laps led. For 2018, he will be the driver of the No. 24 Ford of JGL Racing.

    Grala can be found on social media on his Twitter page @KazGrala and Instagram @KazGrala.

  • Driver Analysis: Matt Crafton

    Driver Analysis: Matt Crafton

    The 2017 year saw two-time NASCAR Camping World Truck Series champion Matt Crafton make his 18th career season start dating back to the 2000 season. The long-running sponsor Menards returned to sponsor him once again in the series with the different brands such as Shasta, Goof Off, Fisher Nuts, Ideal Door, Hormel Gatherings, Jack Links, Great Links, Rip IT and FVP just to name a few.

    It was a wild one, to say the least for the No. 88 Menards Toyota Tundra driver. Daytona started off with a bang where on the final lap, Crafton went flipping in the air while doing a 360 and eventually landing back on four wheels. Thankfully, he, along with others, was not hurt during the big crash. A wild way to start your 2017 season off for sure.

    In the coming weeks, his finishes continued to be up and down, with a second at Atlanta and ninth at Martinsville, while finishing 16th and one lap down at Kansas due to a flat right rear tire with less than 10 laps to go. It wasn’t the prettiest race for Crafton as his team’s plan did not go well.

    “We struggled with free-in, free everywhere tonight. Junior (Carl Joiner, crew chief) made some big swings, but we just never got it right,” Crafton said. “Track position was everything and the tire was so hard, it was just impossible to feel anything when it stepped out from us. I thought we were going to be able to salvage a decent finish there at the end, but we had a right rear flat, and our night was just over after that.”

    After a couple of rough patches, he was back inside the top 10 at Charlotte with a sixth-place finish. Iowa was the ninth race of the season and the Menards driver still had not won yet to clinch a spot in the playoffs. Unfortunately, Crafton was involved in a crash on lap 184 which relegated him to a 19th place finish.

    Then it was Eldora, the biggest race of the season if you ask others, including Crafton. This race has been marked on his calendar and check list to win at since its inaugural running in 2013. After the qualifying heat races, he started second and won Stage 1. He fell back a bit in Stage 2 and wound up ninth. Crafton eventually worked his way back up to the lead after taking it away from Stewart Friesen on Lap 134 of 150. From there, he held on in the final 17 laps to score his first win of the season and clinched a spot in the playoffs. It was a great victory for Crafton and the No. 88 Thorsport Racing team. Needless to say, it was the highlight of his 2017 season up to that point.

    “Our first dirt win,” he said. “A lot of fun. In the second part of the race we downright just stunk. It was my fault. We over-tightened it. On the first run we were pretty good, I just thought we were a little bit too free. We tightened it up, and then we just went back to exactly where we started the race. Rico (Abreu) drove by me up top, and I’m like ‘Crafton, you got to put this thing on the fence down there’. I knew I was getting beat on the bottom, and then I found something in the middle over here in 1 and 2. Finally at the end, I’m like ‘well, we ought to tear the right side off this thing and take it to victory lane.”

    Crafton continued to carry that momentum in the weeks leading up to the playoffs at Loudon. Despite an unfortunate 25th place finish at Canada, he earned a pole at Michigan and finished sixth there. In the final race until the playoffs began, he finished 16th at Chicago, two laps down due to a spin in which he never could recover.

    “This was absolutely the most evil thing I’ve ever driven – I just spun out,” Crafton said. “Hopefully, we can get our stuff together for the Playoffs, so we can compete for another championship. We’ll be good though, we  made it here and now we just have to focus on the races ahead of us.”

    In the playoff races, Crafton had consistent finishes of sixth at Loudon, seventh at Las Vegas, ninth at Talladega, second at Martinsville, ninth at Fort Worth. The only finish outside the top 10 came at Phoenix, where he was involved in a crash on lap 129 which ended his night early and saw him finishing 21st.

    Despite that finish at Phoenix, Crafton qualified for the Championship 4 for the second consecutive year. In this case, he was searching for his third career championship in the Truck Series.

    The day started out somewhat okay for the No. 88 driver after qualifying eighth. In Stage 1, Crafton would finish seventh while in Stage 2, he finished eighth. When the checkered flag flew, it saw him finish sixth, the last final four driver to cross the line, finishing fourth in points. Even though it wasn’t the night Crafton wanted, he will be back to challenge for the title in 2018.

    “The first run we were pretty good, just got really, really free,” Crafton said. “As the night went on we just got freer, and freer. We would tighten it up, and we’d run good for about half the run, and then it would go away. All-in-all, we can’t hang our heads – we’ll get em’ next year.”

    Stat wise, the No. 88 Menards Toyota Tundra driver saw one win, five top fives and 16 top 10 finishes, along with an average start of 6.2 and an average finish of 9.3 with 321 laps led and five DNF’s.

    You can follow Matt Crafton on Twitter @Matt_Crafton and on Instagram @Matt_Crafton.

  • Driver Analysis: John Hunter Nemechek

    Driver Analysis: John Hunter Nemechek

    The 2017 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series was an interesting one, to say the least, for John Hunter Nemechek. He hadn’t scored a win since his first one at Atlanta in 2016. Come to find out, Gateway could have been his last race of the season if sponsorship did not continue. Before that, however, Nemechek had a career-best finish of fourth at Daytona. He then had a couple of rocky weeks at Atlanta, Martinsville, Charlotte, Dover and Fort Worth. Nemechek did not finish in three of those races due to a crash.

    Although Nemechek had a finish of fourth at Daytona, he scored a top-five finish at Kansas during those slump weeks. However, an emotional moment came for him and the NEMCO Motorsports team, when it was the eighth and quite possibly, the last race of the season for Nemechek. During that race, he was having a career-best night winning Stage 1 after starting second and finishing third in Stage 2.

    A late race caution came out on lap 149 with 11 laps to go. Nemechek passed Matt Crafton for the lead on lap 155 and held on for the final six laps to win his second career victory.

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

    As luck would have it, he went on to win at Iowa the following week scoring consecutive victories.

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

    With those two wins and having consistent finishes in the summer months despite a Michigan crash, Nemechek would qualify and be playoff eligible. Unfortunately, the playoffs did not go as intended for the Mooresville, North Carolin native. He finished 20th at Loudon (-36 laps down), leaving him last in the playoff point standings. Nemechek had two brighter races ahead finishing eighth at Las Vegas and sixth at Talladega.

    Ultimately, his hunt for the championship race ended at Martinsville by crashing out on lap 37 and being eliminated from championship contention. With the 30th place finish, Nemechek wound up finishing last in the playoff points standings.

    When the checkered flag flew at Homestead, the 2017 season saw Nemechek picking up two wins, eight top fives and 11 top-10 finishes, including 108 laps led and five DNF’s.

    The young 20-year-old will not be driving in the Truck Series next year, as he will be moving up to the NASCAR XFINITY Series driving the No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevy.

    For more on Nemechek’s racing or his life adventures follow him on Twitter @JHNemechek and on Instagram @JHNemechek.

  • Driver Analysis: Jordan Anderson

    Driver Analysis: Jordan Anderson

    It is apparent that Jordan Anderson is quickly becoming a fan favorite in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. The 26-year-old is highly interactive with the fans on social media. He has even held contests on Twitter where fans can have their names on the truck lid. It’s safe to say Anderson is respected among the fans on and off the track.

    In 2017, Anderson was making his fourth season start in the Truck Series. During this season he made 20 of 23 starts, however, it wasn’t easy at first for the Forest Acres, South Carolina driver. At Atlanta Motor Speedway, Anderson was involved in a vicious crash on the frontstretch, almost overturning his truck. Thankfully, he escaped the truck crash without any injuries and was relegated to a 28th place finish at the end of the day. Troubles followed him a week later at Martinsville Speedway where once again he had problems, this time with brake issues.

    In Kansas, he was able to put the troubles behind him and finished 19th. However, he would continue to struggle in places like Kentucky, Michigan, Bristol, Chicago, Loudon and Fort Worth, where Anderson suffered more DNF’s throughout the season. His best finish in 2017 came in the second to final race of the season, where Anderson placed 13th at Phoenix International Raceway, after not finishing the Texas race a week earlier.

    The 2017 season saw him with an average start of 24.0 and an average finish of 21.2 with 74.6 percent laps completed.

    Jordan will look to improve upon these finishes in the 2018 season and continue to be a fan favorite throughout the garage. You can follow him on Twitter and on Instagram.

  • Driver Analysis: Wendell Chavous

    Driver Analysis: Wendell Chavous

    This year Wendell Chavous was racing in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series for the third time in his career. He made all but two starts in the 2017 season. While only collecting five DNF’s, he finished in the top 20 in 12 races in what was almost his first full season start. Not bad for the Hepzibah, Georgia driver, who had only made 10 starts prior to the ’17 season with his last start coming two years ago.

    His worst finish of the season was at Kansas Speedway back in May where he finished 31st, while his best finish of the season was 14th in a wild Las Vegas Motor Speedway race. Despite having an up and down season, Chavous was able to lead two laps at Las Vegas. He also stayed in the top 20 in points throughout the season averaging a 20.4 finish and completed 88.4 percent of the laps. In the final race of the year, he was able to place 23rd after starting 24th at Homestead.

    After all was said and done, Chavous placed 16th in the final point standings of the year. Chavous will look to add upon those numbers in the 2018 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series season.