LOUDON, N.H. — The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series arrives at New Hampshire Motor Speedway this weekend with a simple reality facing the garage: survive and advance.
Saturday’s Team EJP 175 serves as the regular-season finale, the last chance for drivers to punch their tickets into the 10-driver Chase field before the postseason begins next month.
Unlike many playoff cut races, New Hampshire offers little mystery about what it takes to win.
The statistics paint a remarkably clear picture. The average starting position of the winner over the last 10 Truck Series races at Loudon is 1.4, and every winner during that stretch started on the front row. Fourteen of the 21 Truck races held at New Hampshire have been won from the front row, while the driver leading the most laps captured 10 of the last 11 events, including each of the last seven.
That formula creates added pressure for a playoff bubble already stretched thin.
Six drivers have clinched Chase berths entering the weekend: Layne Riggs, Kaden Honeycutt, Chandler Smith, Christian Eckes, Gio Ruggiero and Ty Majeski. The remaining positions remain fiercely contested, with Grant Enfinger, Ben Rhodes, Daniel Hemric and Tyler Ankrum currently holding narrow advantages over challengers Stewart Friesen, Jake Garcia, Brenden Queen and others.
The spotlight shines brightest on Riggs, who has emerged as one of the series’ defining performers in 2026.
Riggs leads the standings with five victories and 753 points, while also topping the series in stage points. A modest 15-point day would clinch the regular-season championship and secure the valuable No. 1 playoff seed entering the Chase.
Honeycutt remains Riggs’ closest challenger after an eye-opening Richmond performance in which he led 225 laps and earned maximum points. He enters New Hampshire with the series’ best average finish among full-time drivers at 9.12 and appears poised to challenge for both the race win and the regular-season crown.
History, however, suggests another driver could become the headline.
Christopher Bell returns to Truck competition carrying one of the most impressive New Hampshire résumés in modern NASCAR. Bell won the Truck race at Loudon in 2017, has won all four of his Xfinity Series starts there and owns two Cup victories at the facility. Across NASCAR’s three national series, Bell has accumulated seven New Hampshire victories, more than any active competitor entered this weekend.
Last year’s event produced a familiar winner.
Corey Heim dominated the 2025 race, sweeping both stages and the victory while leading the way in a performance that foreshadowed his eventual championship season. Heim’s triumph reinforced a trend that has become nearly unavoidable at Loudon: the fastest truck usually wins.
For local fans, there is additional interest in New England natives Gio Ruggiero of Massachusetts and Michael Christopher Jr. of Connecticut. Ruggiero, already locked into his first Truck Series Chase appearance, arrives as one of the breakout stories of the season after climbing into the top five in points.
The stakes could not be much higher.
When the green flag drops Saturday afternoon, championship contenders will be chasing playoff points, bubble drivers will be racing for their seasons, and young stars will be trying to establish momentum heading into NASCAR’s postseason.
At New Hampshire, where qualifying and track position often determine everything, there may be little room for error and even less time to recover from one.