Unlike NASCAR’S Cup and O’Reilly Auto Parts series that started their Chase a week after ending their regular season, the Craftsman Truck Series competitors have had a month off to prepare and become concerned about their post-season due to the chaos they have witnessed in the other series first two Chase races.
Tenth-seeded Tyler Ankrum said if there was one thing he learned in watching the first two Chase races in the other national touring series it was to “expect the unexpected.”
“Specifically looking at the Cup Series, the outcomes of some of these races are ones that I would have not put money on,” Ankrum said. “I would have lost money if I’d placed some bets, and I really feel like the Truck Series will be more of the same. I’m a little stressed.”
Seventh-seeded Grant Enfinger said that in watching the Cup and O’Reilly races there had been “more chaos than I expected.”
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Grant Enfinger says there is more chaos than he expected in the Cup Chase races so far.
“We’re truck racing, so I know we’re going to have that chaos, too,” Enfinger said.
In the Cup and O’Reilly series first two Chase races, nothing has gone as expected.
Denny Hamlin, who claimed four Cup victories in the regular season and possessed an 89-point lead before the points were reset for the Chase, is clinging to a slim nine-point advantage over Kyle Larson, who snapped a 51-race winless streak at World Wide Technology Raceway. Only four of the 16 Chase drivers didn’t have a problem in that event.
In the O’Reilly Series, Justin Allgaier was unstoppable during the regular season, racking up six victories and a 229-point lead. However, the Chase’s first two races haven’t gone as expected for Allgaier, and he now trails Sheldon Creed in the standings by three points.
Top seeded Truck Series competitor Layne Riggs says he believes that what has occurred with Hamlin and Allgaier shows that starting off with a 25-point lead once the standings are reset is nothing.
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Denny Hamlin (left) leads Kyle Larson by a slim 9 points.
“Being passive and running just top five the whole time isn’t going to win you a championship,” Riggs said. “Statistically, out of seven races, something is going to go wrong in one of those races, either speeding on pit road, you’re going to have a flat tire, you’re going to get in a wreck.”
Like the O’Reilly Series, this is the first year the Truck Series has had the Chase format in the post-season. However, the trucks only have 10 drivers and seven races, while O’Reilly has 12 drivers and nine races. The Cup Series has 16 drivers and 10 races in its Chase format.
The Truck teams also are smaller than their national touring series counterparts, and that’s why the competitors believe the month off benefited them. It allowed them time to build the trucks they knew they would need during the Chase. Second-seeded Kaden Honeycutt said the month of not racing benefitted the Chase preparations because his team wasn’t working after hours from seven to midnight.
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Layne Riggs: “We don’t have the personnel and the manpower to race every single weekend.”
“If we can get those guys out of the shop by then and have them go home and have a good dinner with their wives and family, you get a good head space, it makes everybody’s lives better,” said Honeycutt, who raced a Pro Late Model during the Truck Series off time. “The guys have done a great job getting ahead.”
Riggs, who spent his off time in the Bahamas, says the breaks are good for the smaller teams.
“We don’t have the personnel and the manpower to race every single weekend,” Riggs said. “Our road crew guys are the same ones that are assembling the trucks, that are building the trucks. We’ve got the next three trucks pretty much ready to go to the race track. It’s been nice to kind of sit back, have a break, get all our ducks in a row, get all our bullets lined up.”
The Truck Series Chase kicks off Thursday at 8 p.m. at Bristol Motor Speedway.
A North Carolina native, Deb Williams is an award-winning motorsports journalist who is in her fourth decade covering auto racing. In addition to covering the sport for United Press International, she has written motorsports articles for several newspapers, magazines and websites including espnW.com, USA Today, and The Charlotte Observer. Her awards include the American Motorsports Media Award of Excellence, two-time National Motorsports Press Association writer of the year, and two-time recipient of the Russ Catlin award. She also has won an award in the North Carolina Press Association’s sports feature category. During her career, Deb has been managing editor of GT Motorsports magazine and was with Winston Cup Scene and NASCAR Winston Cup Scene for 18 years, serving as the publication’s editor for 10 years. In 2024 she was inducted into the NMPA Hall of Fame.