{"id":897319,"date":"2026-09-16T01:44:15","date_gmt":"2026-09-16T01:44:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/897319\/"},"modified":"2026-09-16T01:44:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T01:44:15","slug":"nascar-truck-series-drivers-brace-for-playoff-chaos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/897319\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR Truck Series Drivers Brace for Playoff Chaos"},"content":{"rendered":"

Unlike NASCAR\u2019S Cup and O\u2019Reilly 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.<\/p>\n

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 \u201cexpect the unexpected.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSpecifically looking at the Cup Series, the outcomes of some of these races are ones that I would have not put money on,\u201d Ankrum said. \u201cI would have lost money if I\u2019d placed some bets, and I really feel like the Truck Series will be more of the same. I\u2019m a little stressed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Seventh-seeded Grant Enfinger said that in watching the Cup and O\u2019Reilly races there had been \u201cmore chaos than I expected.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AUTO:Icon Sportswire\/\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Grant Enfinger says there is more chaos than he expected in the Cup Chase races so far.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re truck racing, so I know we\u2019re going to have that chaos, too,\u201d Enfinger said.<\/p>\n

In the Cup and O\u2019Reilly series first two Chase races, nothing has gone as expected.<\/p>\n

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\u2019t have a problem in that event.<\/p>\n

In the O\u2019Reilly Series, Justin Allgaier was unstoppable during the regular season, racking up six victories and a 229-point lead. However, the Chase\u2019s first two races haven\u2019t gone as expected for Allgaier, and he now trails Sheldon Creed in the standings by three points.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\"NASCARJames Gilbert\/\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Denny Hamlin (left) leads Kyle Larson by a slim 9 points.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing passive and running just top five the whole time isn\u2019t going to win you a championship,\u201d Riggs said. \u201cStatistically, out of seven races, something is going to go wrong in one of those races, either speeding on pit road, you\u2019re going to have a flat tire, you\u2019re going to get in a wreck.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like the O\u2019Reilly 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\u2019Reilly has 12 drivers and nine races. The Cup Series has 16 drivers and 10 races in its Chase format.<\/p>\n

The Truck teams also are smaller than their national touring series counterparts, and that\u2019s 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\u2019t working after hours from seven to midnight.<\/p>\n

\"NASCARMeg Oliphant\/\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Layne Riggs: \u201cWe don\u2019t have the personnel and the manpower to race every single weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf 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\u2019s lives better,\u201d said Honeycutt, who raced a Pro Late Model during the Truck Series off time. \u201cThe guys have done a great job getting ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n

Riggs, who spent his off time in the Bahamas, says the breaks are good for the smaller teams.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t have the personnel and the manpower to race every single weekend,\u201d Riggs said. \u201cOur road crew guys are the same ones that are assembling the trucks, that are building the trucks. We\u2019ve got the next three trucks pretty much ready to go to the race track. It\u2019s been nice to kind of sit back, have a break, get all our ducks in a row, get all our bullets lined up.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Truck Series Chase kicks off Thursday at 8 p.m. at Bristol Motor Speedway. <\/p>\n

\"Lettermark\"<\/p>\n

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<\/a>, 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\u2019s sports feature category.\u00a0 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\u2019s editor for 10 years. In 2024 she was inducted into the NMPA Hall of Fame.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Unlike NASCAR\u2019S Cup and O\u2019Reilly Auto Parts series that started their Chase a week after ending their regular…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":897320,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,782,310589,784,237154,1642,634,310588,273948,82,183339],"class_list":["post-897319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-content-type-news","tag-contentid-a695b277-7081-4fee-8d03-4213d9cc713f","tag-displaytype-standard-article","tag-issyndicated-false","tag-locale-us","tag-nascar","tag-shorttitle-nascar-truck-series-racers-brace-for-playoff-chaos","tag-sponsored-false","tag-sports","tag-subsection-nascar"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/897319","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=897319"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/897319\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/897320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=897319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=897319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=897319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}