CHARLOTTE, N.C. \u2014 The NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series is set to make history this weekend with its inaugural race at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course, better known as the Roval. As the fourth race of the 2025 Playoffs and the opening contest of the Round of 8, the stakes couldn\u2019t be higher \u2014 and the venue couldn\u2019t be more unpredictable.<\/p>\n
New Track, New Chapter
The Charlotte Roval becomes the 57th different track to host a Truck Series event and the 10th road course in series history. It\u2019s also the second new road course added to the schedule this season, marking a continued evolution in the Truck Series\u2019 diversity of venues. This race will be just the third time a road course has appeared in the Playoffs, following Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in 2018 and 2019.<\/p>\n
The race will run 67 laps, with stage breaks at laps 20 and 40, and it kicks off a three-race stretch \u2014 Charlotte, Talladega, and Martinsville \u2014 that will determine the Championship 4. Two drivers will be eliminated after Martinsville.<\/p>\n
Heim\u2019s Historic Run
All eyes are on Corey Heim, who has dominated road courses like no other. Heim has won the last four road course races \u2014 the longest streak in Truck Series history \u2014 and holds the all-time record for road course poles (4) and wins (4). He\u2019s led 143 of 181 laps on road courses this season and is just 57 laps shy of Ron Hornaday Jr.\u2019s all-time record of 264.<\/p>\n
Heim\u2019s season has been nothing short of legendary. His win at New Hampshire was his ninth of 2025, tying Greg Biffle\u2019s single-season record from 1999. He\u2019s led 22 consecutive races \u2014 the longest streak ever \u2014 and is just 95 laps away from tying Mike Skinner\u2019s single-season record of 1,533 laps led.<\/p>\n
Alongside Layne Riggs, Heim has won the last eight races. No duo has ever won nine straight in Truck Series history. Together, they\u2019ve led 492 of the 572 laps in the Playoffs so far.<\/p>\n
Playoff Picture: Cutline Crunch
No driver has clinched a spot in the Championship 4 yet, and the standings are razor-thin. Heim sits comfortably atop the leaderboard (+69), followed by Riggs (+22), Daniel Hemric (+1), and Ty Majeski (+0). Just below the cutline are Tyler Ankrum (-0), Grant Enfinger (-3), Rajah Caruth (-5), and Kaden Honeycutt (-7). With such tight margins, every point \u2014 and every position \u2014 will matter.<\/p>\n
All eight Playoff drivers can clinch a spot in the next round with a win. Heim could also clinch via points, but only with help if a non-advancing driver wins.<\/p>\n
Manufacturer Watch
Chevrolet enters Charlotte on a nine-race winless streak, its longest since 2014\u201315. After winning six of the first 12 races this season, the bowtie brigade has struggled, with Rajah Caruth\u2019s Nashville victory in May marking their last triumph.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, ThorSport Racing is enduring its longest drought of the season, going 21 races without a win \u2014 the deepest into a season they\u2019ve ever gone winless.<\/p>\n
What to Watch<\/p>\n
Will Corey Heim extend his road course dominance and clinch a Championship 4 berth?Can Layne Riggs keep pace and challenge Heim\u2019s historic run?Will a surprise winner shake up the Playoff standings?Can Chevrolet or ThorSport snap their respective droughts?<\/p>\n
With youth surging \u2014 17 races this season have been won by drivers aged 25 or younger \u2014 and the Roval\u2019s reputation for unpredictability, the inaugural Truck Series race at Charlotte promises to be a thriller. The road to the Championship 4 begins here, and for some, it may end just as quickly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHARLOTTE, N.C. \u2014 The NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series is set to make history this weekend with its inaugural…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":187733,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,717,13751,7574,718,720,634,11525,582,721,722,82],"class_list":["post-187732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-charlotte","tag-charlotte-motor-speedway","tag-chevrolet","tag-craftsman-truck-series","tag-motor","tag-nascar","tag-park","tag-racing","tag-series","tag-speedway","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=187732"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187732\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/187733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=187732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=187732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=187732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}